Young Rotorua tennis player creates unique table and chair out of tennis balls

Jessica Martin, 14, with the table and chair she created out of repurposed old tennis balls. Photo / Supplied

How many tennis balls does it take to make an awesome and unique chair? Apparently 1012, as Rotorua’s Jessica Martin, 14, found out.

The Rotorua Lakes High School student spent hours creating a chair and table made out of old tennis balls. Her goal was to repurpose them as the options for recycling them are limited.

Jessica says she is a member of the Lynmore Tennis Club and there were lots of old tennis balls that the club needed to get rid of.

“My dad searched online how to reuse tennis balls and saw a huge tennis ball chair. He thought that was cool and said ‘Why don’t we do it with ours’. I said ‘Yeah, I’ll do that’.

“I kind of said it as a joke, but the next day he sent a photo of his car and it was full.”

Jessica Martin, 14, with the table and chair she created out of repurposed old tennis balls. Photo / Supplied

Creating the chair alone took 1012 tennis balls and a lot of hot glue, she says.

Used tennis balls were donated for the creations from Lynmore, Rotorua, Otumoetai, Papamoa and Whakatane Tennis Clubs.

Jessica was happy with how the furniture pieces turned out and thought the table and chair looked great, though was sad that the process was over.

She says she had enjoyed staying up at night and working on this project.

Jessica will be donating the unique table and chair to Lynmore Tennis Club, and hopes that they will help to raise the profile of their club. “Hopefully this will put us on the map”.

“I think this is a great way to stop tennis balls being thrown in the rubbish when it could have other purposes.

“I will be making more and hopefully the next one will be better. Also, if I make another one I will probably give it to an auction so it can help raise money for a charity.”

Jessica says if you are bored at home, finding something that can’t be recycled very well and making it into something else is a great idea.

She says she has been playing tennis for about three years. She started when she was 8, took a break and started again at age 11.

She likes getting to meet new people through the sport and enjoys both the team and individual aspects of the game.