Frontenis

Frontenis is a variation on the game of Jai Alai, but it is played in a smaller court-field than Jai Alai with a tennis racquet with an optional custom double string called "doble encordado" and a tiny frontenis ball. It can be played Singles (1 vs 1) or Pairs (2 vs 2) and the players are called Pelotaris.

The History

It was created in the year of 1916 in Mexico. Somebody had got the idea of playing Jai Alai with a tennis ball and a racquet from those years and yes... that's how the story begins. Since those days the game and equipment have evolved to a faster, better constructed ball and took the improvements of the new state-of-the-art tennis racquets. It is present in Mexico, Cuba, Spain, Argentina, in some fields of Miami and in other countries where a fan of this game have the space and the money to build a court-field adequate to play it. The world champions of this game all of them are from Mexico both men and women.

The Court-Field "LA CANCHA"

It is played on a three-walled court those are called:

"Frontis" is the front wall it have 9.85 meters tall, 9.10 meters wide. "Pared de Ayuda" Support wall it have 30 meters long, 9.85 tall. "Rebote" the Bounce wall same size as Frontis. "Cancha" The court is the floor where the ball will need to bounce, it is 9.10 wide and 30 meters long. "Contra cancha" counter-field 5 meters wide parallel to the court with an optional wall made of netting to let the audience see the game without getting hurt and to keep the ball near to the players.

The Frontenis Ball "LA BOLA RAPIDA"

The ball is hard and slightly smaller than a racquetball with an extremely active bounce and actually it is only made by 2 brands in the whole world.

By the early days all balls were specially fabricated and imported from England and U.S. then Sr. Lugardo Torres from Mexico city and Rizo brothers from Guadalajara city started to fabricate frontenis balls but the product was only in the market for a few years. By the days of World War II the imported balls were so difficult to get because of global war those fans who can get one ball it doesn`t are adequate to play, the balls were so slow or defleated because it cannot be stored for months.

Because of that by 1945 Don Francisto Beltran started to experiment with the balls using an hypodermic needle to inject gas then put a patch and vulcanize it but he had not much success. Then he researched for a rubber makers and after setting up a "laboratory" at his kitchen he started to make frontenis balls by his own and test it. After those fails and successes he associated with Dr. Jesus Ledezma his capitalist partner and founded the first ball factory called "201". After a few years of business they dissolved the society and Dr. Jesus Ledezma keep working with 201 factory. Then Don Francisco Beltran moved to Guadalajara city and there he founded "Pelotas Beltran" with a product called "Superbote Beltran" the competition of 201 frontenis balls.

That's how Don Francisco Beltran was converted in "The father of frontenis balls" because he founded the only 2 factories in the whole world that make frontenis balls. The 201, and Pelotas Beltran.

The official specifications of the ball to practice this game are: 47mm diameter, 47~50gr, 57 shore, bounce of 1.58 meters (2 meters fall with an ambient temperature ball). It could be made in white, yellow, orange and in dark colours where walls are painted white. Almost all are made in white colour because dark green painted walls are most common.

It can be played with a slower and bigger ball called in slang "Bola Gorda" it has almost the same bounce twice bigger but the game runs at slower speeds, it's ideal to learn this game before get in practice with a Bola Rapida. It has the same dimension of a tennis ball but is all made of rubber.