New Ball, Old Difficulty

After two seasons of soggy, reclaimed-rubber "victory balls," tennis players will get a new bounce this year. Balls are being made of synthetic rubber, and there will be plenty of them.

Not quite so lively as prewar balls of natural rubber, synthetics are far peppier than balls made of reclaimed rubber. Each ball contains 8/10 oz. of buna, sells for the usual 50-c-. Dunlop, Spalding, Voit and Pennsylvania (who make all U.S. tennis balls, under their own and others' names) are all in production, with pioneering Pennsylvania already popping out 16,000 a day.

Synthetics meet all specifications of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association. It calls them "a tremendous improvement," but not the equal of prewar balls. Players who have tried them add another caution: like all tennis balls before them, these have the same tendency to go out or in the net.

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