Plenty of tennis players have complained about the tennis balls in use this year, and now we have tennis moms getting in on the action as well.
Plenty of tennis players have spoken about the tennis balls in use this year and how terrible they are. You'd be hard-pressed to find any tennis player who likes them, though Aryna Sabalenka said that they kind of fit her style of play.
Some other players also benefit from the slowed conditions, but most players don't like it. Holger Rune is one of them as he loves to play attacking tennis, and while he doesn't mind slow conditions necessarily, he doesn't like tennis balls that get heavy quickly, making it hard for him to hit winners, which is how he likes to play tennis.
His mother talked about that in a recent interview, as reported by Ekstra Bladet, echoing sentiments that we already saw from many tennis players.
"There is broad agreement that the balls are not what they used to be. They very quickly become heavy and slow and harder to play with. At the same time, the surfaces have become slower, and then it suddenly becomes a cocktail that gives long, grueling duels with a heavy ball."
She has a point as matches have become somewhat longer, which is great for ticket sales, and that's exactly the point. The change was made to counter the growing trend among players to play attacking tennis, which results in short rallies that aren't that appealing to watch.
It's a tough situation because on one side you have the players that clearly want something else while the Tour and events might want something else and for much of this year, we've seen them clash over this issue especially how it seemingly increased the number of injuries which Rune's mother also spoke about.
"When you optimize shoes, rackets, etc. to minimize stress, it seems bizarre that you downgrade the quality of the ball. When several players, as I understand it, are out with wrist and shoulder injuries, it is clear that you will have to look at the quality of the balls. It is unnecessary wear and tear on the players, who have been used hard beforehand."
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