Canadian Pospisil – men’s doubles champion at Wimbledon in 2014 alongside Jack Sock – has a discouraging recent injury record and says he has “no doubt” that balls have been a contributing cause over the past two years.
He said a torn UCL tendon in his elbow last year occurred after deep runs at tournaments “during a few weeks where all the players were complaining about the hardness and weight of the balls.”
“It takes its toll,” the 33-year-old told BBC Sport during the Davis Cup final in November. “Tennis is a huge business and it would be nice to be treated as a partner in this business.”
Pospisil, who was a co-founder of the Professional Tennis Players’ Association, added: “I think the health of players is extremely important and it does a disservice to the sport if a lot of the best players are injured.”
The ATP says injury levels are consistent with previous years and there has not been a “huge spike” in injuries to any particular part of the body.
“Match lengths have lengthened significantly over the last five to 10 years – more than 20 minutes per match on average – and this may be due to a number of factors,” according to Ross Hutchins, ATP tour director.
“It’s partly because the balls have created longer rallies, but it’s also because of the ropes that the players are using, the way the players are hitting the ball and the physical way in which they can recover the balls which is remarkable: all of this contributes to longer matches.
“That means if we don’t adapt the balls, or the way we approach our ball strategy, the rallies are going to continue to get longer, and the matches are going to continue to get longer, which I don’t think is what we want to end up with.
“We have not given any sort of direction, desire or mandate to attempt to hold longer rallies and we have no intention of doing so.”
American top-10 player Taylor Fritz attributed the wrist problems he experienced in the final months of last season to ball changes, saying he used three different types in three weeks.
Wawrinka was able to do better and highlighted the four balls he had to play with in four consecutive weeks, external on tour in Shanghai, Stockholm, Basel and Paris.
Russian 2021 US Open champion Medvedev said he felt “very bad pain” in his wrist after his third-round match with Sebastian Korda at last year’s Australian Open. He said hitting a particular ball was like hitting an apple the older it got.
The same Dunlop ball is used consistently throughout Australia’s January swing, and I’m told the ball was basically the same last year as it was last year. But he was nonetheless unpopular with some this time 12 months ago.
“I think these balls are not good for hard courts. They get very soft and, like I said, it’s a big shock to play them with your racket,” Medvedev said at the Qatar Open, three weeks after the Australian Open.
Ball durability is the priority and it will be interesting to see if the 2024 model appeals more to Medvedev.
WTA Tour players expressed fewer concerns, but some expressed grumbling at the US Open where – ironically, and after lobbying from players including world number one Iga Swiatek – women used the same heavy-duty balls as men for the first time.
“They are very heavy and the season is long,” Wimbledon champion Vondrousova said succinctly.
