SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH is one of the main reasons tennis is played with yellow balls.
It’s hard to imagine Wimbledon or tennis itself without the signature fluorescent balls.
But why are they “optic yellow” and what does the beloved British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian, and writer have to do with the iconic colour of tennis balls?
However, the truth is that upon the inception of lawn tennis in the late 1800s players would use either white or black balls.
That went on until the 1970s when fans started to buy colour televisions.
On a colour TV, it was harder than ever to see the lightning-fast tennis balls fly.
Sir David Attenborough worked as a controller for BBC 2 in 1967 and it was up to him to transition viewers to colour from black and white.
The legendary presenter quickly realised that it is hard to notice the ball when it travels over white lines.
The national treasure decided they needed a new colour and yellow balls would soon emerge.
“We had been asking the government over and over again and they wouldn’t allow us, until suddenly they said, ‘Yes, OK, you can have it, and what’s more you’re going to have it in nine months’ time,’ or whatever it was.”
David Attenborough
Attenborough told the Radio Times: “I was controller of BBC2 in 1967 and had the job of introducing colour.
“We had been asking the government over and over again and they wouldn’t allow us, until suddenly they said, ‘Yes, OK, you can have it, and what’s more you’re going to have it in nine months’ time,’ or whatever it was.”
The International Tennis Federation approved what is now known as the “optic yellow” ball in 1972.
But it took Wimbledon another 14 years before they finally saw the light.
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The QI trio of John Lloyd, James Harkin and Anne Miller wrote a book called “2,024 QI Facts To Stop You In Your Tracks” and mention that fun stat.
They wrote: “Yellow tennis balls, which look better on colour TV, were the idea of David Attenborough when he was Controller of BBC2. (They used to be white.)”
