Kiwi Lulu Sun playing with a tennis ball made with NZ wool during the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne. Photo / AFP
Kiwi Lulu Sun playing with a tennis ball made with NZ wool during the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne. Photo / AFP
When a tennis ball bounces across the court at a grand slam, it often carries a piece of Hawke’s Bay.
From the Australian Open, currently under way in Melbourne, to the United States Open later this year, Kiwi wool plays a pivotal role in crafting the tennis balls used bysome of the world’s best players.
For more than 50 years, New Zealand wool has been a key ingredient in several brands of tennis balls, such as Wilson and Dunlop.
The wool is cleaned and processed at Wool Works, New Zealand’s only wool scouring service provider based in Hawke’s Bay and Timaru.
Then, it travels 9937km to Thailand, where it is turned into the felt covering the tennis balls before making its way to tennis courts around the globe.
The wool is cleaned and processed at Wool Work before being exported to Thailand, where the felt for the tennis balls is manufactured.
For Ciaran Lynch, chief executive of Tex Tech Industry Sports, a global company that manufactures felt for a range of tennis ball makers, not all wool is created equal.
“Wools from South America, from Turkey, from the United Kingdom, have very different properties. They are a bit more greasy and they don’t have the same playability,” he said.
Lynch told Hawke’s Bay Today that New Zealand’s wool stands out for its cleanliness, brightness, and texture.
“Tennis players are very fussy about the ball. It is a crucial part of the game, and the wool is probably the single most integral part of the product.”
According to Lynch, New Zealand wool is particularly valued because it creates a felt covering that ensures the ball bounces predictably and withstands the rigours of intense play.
He says the natural fibres also provide the right amount of fluffiness and aerodynamics, allowing the ball to spin and travel through the air with precision.
The company uses New Zealand wool to manufacture about 500 million tennis balls a year.
“New Zealand wool is great, it’s clean, it’s environmentally friendly, and it’s used in all the major tennis tournaments,” he said.
Wool Works chief executive Rosstan Mazey, a tennis enthusiast himself, says this partnership is a “neat connection”.
A talented player in his youth, Mazey was once sponsored by Wilson, the same brand that relies on Wool Works for their tennis balls.
From Hawke's Bay to US Open: Wool Works chief executive Rosstan Mazey, a tennis fan himself, proudly showcases the official championship tennis balls made with New Zealand wool. Photo / Rafaella Melo
“There has been growth in the sport of tennis globally, in the last four years, and so increasing in the amount of tennis balls required.”
According to Mazey, the Hawke’s Bay and Timaru factories process 100 million kilograms of wool annually, representing 80% of New Zealand’s wool clip.
He expects a growing demand for NZ wool driven by the emergence of new sports, such as padel, which uses a similar type of ball.
The increase in demand is an optimistic scenario for New Zealand’s wool industry, he said.
