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Spin. Fearsome spin. It’s one of the most obvious and most important components in modern pro tennis and a key to hitting the mythical heavy ball.
RPMs on individual shots can reach 5000 or more. In the one second or so it takes for the ball to travel from one player’s racket to the other, the ball can turn over 80 times or more. That’s almost impossible to visualize.
1997!
But where did the first measurements of spin come from? The U.S. Open 1997. I was there with a team that was using one of the first high speed cameras—the so-called “Mac Cam.”
That camera filmed at…