NEW YORK — A tennis ball seems simple enough. It’s a piece of pressurized rubber covered in neon yellow felt. How different can one be from the other?
The answer – especially at the highest level of tennis – is quite a long one. The brand of the ball, the weave of the felt, the way it bounces and how it reacts after being hit repeatedly are all variables that impact how matches play out.
And at this US Open, at least one player blames them for an injury.
After beating American Peyton Stearns on Monday in the round of 16, Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova withdrew from the doubles competition due to arm pain that she attributes to the heaviness of the Wilson brand balls used this year . Vondrousova did not withdraw from singles competition and hopes to play her quarterfinal against Madison Keys on Wednesday.
“They’re very heavy and it’s a long season, so I feel like, you know, you just have to fight through it,” she said.
According to International Tennis Federation rules, there are actually small variables in the specifications allowed for tournament balls: about 1/10th of an inch in diameter and about three grams in weight. The balls are also marked as “regular duty” or “extra duty”, which describes the thickness of the felt weave.
For commercial sales and recreational use, Extra Duties are generally advertised as being suitable for hard courts because they are more durable and last longer, while Regular Duties are better for a softer clay court.
Each professional tennis tournament chooses which balls to use, usually as part of a sponsorship agreement. The Australian Open uses Dunlop balls, the French Open uses a special ball from Wilson designed for their specific red clay and Wimbledon uses a Slazenger ball.
But last year, some players on the women’s team — led by number one Iga Swiatek — began to publicly question why they were playing regular ball at the U.S. Open while the men played extra duties. Beyond the general theme of equality, Swiatek felt that regular service balls were light and difficult to control. Despite her complaints, she ended up winning the tournament.
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Tournament director Stacey Allaster said the decision on which ball to use is up to the WTA, but must be made a year in advance to give Wilson enough time to manufacture the required volume of balls for the event.
The decision was therefore made: women would play with the same balls as men.
“It’s a trial,” Allaster said. “We expect the WTA to tell us at the end of the 2023 US Open whether they wish to continue with the Wilson Extra Duty or whether they prefer to return to regular felt balls. It’s 100% the athletes’ decision. We are happy to do whatever the athletes want when it comes to the ball. The same goes for our long-time partner, Wilson, for 45 years.
This year, however, complaints about balloons are occurring among both men and women.
Vasek Pospisil, who has been heavily involved in tour politics as a former member of the ATP players’ council and co-founder of the independent players’ organization PTPA, posted on social media site X ( formerly Twitter) that “the bullets got heavier and heavier. and surprise surprise, it kills our bodies. Almost every player I’ve spoken to feels the same way. I’ve never seen so many wrist, elbow and shoulder injuries in the locker room.
The theory, as Pospisil put it, is that tours want a slower, heavier ball to promote longer runs. But the reality is that controversies and complaints about the ball have existed for years. Players have become accustomed to adapting to different types of balls as they move from tournament to tournament, but Jessica Pegula, a member of the WTA players’ council, said that ideally , there would be some consistency based on surface area.
“The balloon issue is so complex,” she said. “Like last year, we learned that sometimes they can come from different manufacturers, sometimes they are made differently. In Cincinnati, they didn’t use a typical hard court, they used a different surface, which amounted to skinning the balls to go really, really small. In Montreal, they’re all on extra duty and inflated themselves like that (gestures the size of a cantaloupe) in two minutes. There are so many elements.
“They play differently depending on the conditions, the surface of the pitch, where they’re from, what country you’re in, who’s playing with them. It’s literally everywhere.”
The heaviness of the bullets here, however, is a common theme and seems to have some validity as an issue that players are thinking about and talking about.
Caroline Wozniacki said it “sticks to your racket a little more” and would therefore favor players with more power.
“I think it’s easier for them to get through this ball,” she said.
And there appears to be evidence that power-dependent actors succeed in this area. On the men’s side, the quarterfinalists lean heavily toward explosive power, such as Andrey Rublev, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz and Carlos Alcaraz. Same thing on the women’s side with Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys – two of the biggest hitters on the WTA Tour – matching their best Grand Slam runs of the year.
But does a heavier ball contribute to soft tissue problems in the wrists, elbows and shoulders that must absorb the weight?
“Some women have problems with their arm when playing with the heavier ball in mixed doubles, so it will be interesting to see how it goes now that everyone is using it in all competitions,” said l Former champion Martina Navratilova in an interview before the tournament. with UK-based Sky Sports.
Based on what Vondrousova said on Monday, her warning might have been right. According to Pegula, discussions among players about which ball to use for women in 2024 are taking place right now.
“Obviously the health of the players is the most important,” Pegula said. “I’m joking with the board because I feel like I don’t like any of the balls, so I kind of opted out. But yeah, it’s something we’re going to have to look at.”
