Daniil Medvedev has become the latest player to weigh into the debate on tennis balls following his China Open win over Ugo Humbert. The world No 3 said he enjoyed playing with the heavier balls even though they weren’t “good for hard court tennis”. It comes after other stars complained that the tennis balls were giving them wrist injuries, calling on the ATP to make a change.
Tennis balls have been a hot topic of conversation this year, with several players claiming that changing the balls at every tournament led to injuries. And the same claims have been echoed in the last few days, with Zizou Bergs and Stan Wawrinka taking to Instagram to claim that the balls were causing wrist injuries. Carlos Alcaraz also confirmed that players had to get used to new balls every week.
Medvedev has now explained how the heavy balls used in Beijing had an effect on his match against Humbert after getting his first career win over the Frenchman 6-4 3-6 6-1 on Monday. “Since the warm-up even before the match it was tough to control the ball,” he said after advancing to the semi-final of the China Open.
“So I was a little bit, let’s say nervous in a way. But then I went on court and he was not missing less than me so it was a little bit strange match where I would probably think second set is in a way the best we played together and then I did three double faults and I lose the set.”
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Despite breaking Medvedev to trail 1-2, Humbert was unable to win a service game in the final set. And the second seed in Beijing explained that the balls made it easy to keep breaking opponents. He continued “And then third set, I lose my serve and I win 6-1.
“That’s just because of the balls, it’s hard courts but you can basically break every game and that’s what I did. It’s not easy for the mind to understand it so again, I like to play like this but I don’t think it’s good for hard court tennis.”
It comes after Zizou Bergs revealed that he suffered a torn ligament in his left wrist that left him unable to use his backhand while playing for several weeks. In an Instagram story, the 24-year-old added: “I think it’s time to look carefully at the fact that many players are getting wrist injuries which could, possibly, be prevented by not changing every week of balls…”
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Three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka reposted his story in agreement. And world No 8 Taylor Fritz revealed that he had also faced similar physical problems for the same reason. “Have been dealing w wrist issues since beginning of USO series cause of ball changes. We went 3 different balls in 3 weeks,” he tweeted.
World No 29 Jiri Lehecka added: “In my opinion there should be at least a thought about how fast is the surface and then trying to adapt with suitable ball. Not to have a slow hard court together with balls which are dead after few games…”
Carlos Alcaraz also addressed the constant change in tennis balls during his debut in Beijing this week. “I felt it from the first training I did here in Beijing. It is something difficult, but tennis players have to get used to that,” he explained.
“We change the ball in each tournament or almost in each tournament it is a different ball. You have to get used to it and it’s a different feeling when you get to a tournament and it’s like, ‘What’s the ball going to be?’ It’s a question that I think every player asks themselves. Here in just one or two games the ball becomes really different from the new ones. It’s a different game and you have to get used to that, but I felt it from day one.”
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