Tennis Balls?

In Henry V Dauphin gives King Henry tennis balls as a gift.
King Henry responds to this gift well by making a speech comparing a tennis match to war.
I thought it was a really cool way to respond to such an offensive and sarcastic gift.

Here is a video rendition of the scene:

In class, Professor Burton hinted that the reason for the tennis balls was to chide Henry V  about his youthful "indiscretions." In the previous plays before Henry ascended the thrown the audience saw many of these youthful adventures and would be well aware of this history. In the very beginning we hear the clergymen talking about Henry's transformation.

Lord Canterbury: "The breath no sooner left his father's body, 

But that his wildness, mortified in him, 

Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment

Consideration, like an angel, came

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him, 

Leaving his body as a paradise, 

To envelop and contain celestial spirits." 

However, I began to wonder why tennis balls? Why not some item more allusive to a bar scene or the fake highway robbery? 

So I began digging and found an interesting article called, "Tennis Balls: Henry V and Testicular Masculinity, or, According to the OED, Shakespeare Doesn't Have Any Balls" by Rebecca Ann Bach. 

            In this article she suggests that the tennis balls are a way to question King Henry's masculinity. She also suggests that Shakespeare uses this as a pun--comic relief--for the audience because of the number of times "balls" is said throughout Henry's speech. 

I also looked up if Shakespeare used tennis balls in any of his other plays. 

In Much Ado about Nothing, Act III, scene ii 

            Don Pedro: "Hath any man seen him at the barber's?" 

            Claudio: "No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him, 

                           and the old ornament of his cheek hath already 

                           stuffed tennis-balls." 

             Leonato: "Indeed, he look younger than he did, by the loss of a beard." 

This is another interesting time for Shakespeare to use the image of tennis balls. Laonato infers that Claudio look younger--more like a boy than a man--because he shaved. This infers a loss of masculinity. 

I thought it was interesting that in both of these instances a reader could claim that tennis balls were used to call into question the masculinity of a character.