Medvedev Slams ATP For Using 'Not Professional' Tennis Balls, Zverev Agrees

Saturday, 05 October 2024 at 02:30

Updated at Tuesday, 12 August 2025 at 15:46

byZachary Wimer

Tennis players have had lots of grievances with the tennis balls used in previous years, and it's not getting better in recent times as those issues still persist.

There has been lots of chatter in previous years about the tennis balls in use, with many tennis players not particularly thrilled with them. It's a tricky issue because, generally, players have somewhat specific preferences on everything. That could be court speed, ball profile, anything really.

Finding a solution for such an issue is a bit tricky because you'll never be able to make it perfect for everyone. Somebody will find something to complain about. In recent times, the balls being slow has annoyed lots of players because it makes it very hard to hit winners, so the points and matches drag on.

No player wants to be stuck on the court for five hours, so that one makes sense. There have been loud calls for the ATP to address the issues, but as the ATP generally does, nothing really happened. Players are still having issues with the tennis balls, and two of them prominently spoke of the issue in Shanghai.

The first of those is Daniil Medvedev, who isn't happy about the balls because he deems them to be below quality for an event such as Shanghai. The Russian has had several complaints over the years, as he generally tends to have a particular way of how things should be, whether ball or court.

"These balls are not good enough for professional tennis. This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world and the balls are destroyed after 5 games. No pressure at all".

- Medvedev raises the tennis ball issue at SHanghai

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Alexander Zverev seems to agree with Medvedev because he had some things to say about the tennis balls in use as well. Speaking about them, Zverev said that, to him, they feel a bit dead, as if there is air in them. He further admitted that he struggled with them in New York but also here.

"They feel a bit dead. They feel like there's not much going on there. They don't get big, but they just feel like there's no air inside of them. I struggle with those tennis balls a little bit. I struggled with them at the US Open, I struggle with them here."

It's an ongoing topic in tennis and likely will remain so for the future. The ATP, as an organisation, has shown themselves to be rather resilient to any outside criticism, even from players. They don't really change much, so the tennis balls likely won't be addressed in any meaningful way, much like they haven't been addressed in any meaningful way until now.

The players, as with many things, will have to try and adjust to the best of their ability. Even with the struggles, Zverev made a solid run at the US Open. Medvedev won his first match in Shanghai, so it can be done. Unfortunately, that's the best either of them or anybody else struggling with them can do. Control what you can control.