Tsitsipas Joins Medvedev In Blaming Dangerous Tennis Balls For Injuries
ATPWednesday, 22 March 2023 at 03:00
Updated at Friday, 04 April 2025 at 15:09
Stefanos Tsitsipas has joined Daniil Medvedev in calling the tennis balls dangerous and blaming them for the increase in injuries on the ATP Tour.
For a while now, there has been a disconnect between the Tour and the players when it comes to the tennis balls. The balls change way too frequently for anyone’s liking, leaving players unable to really get a proper feel for them.
There have been instances where players used a couple of different balls within a span of weeks. That has been one complaint, while the other issue has been the heaviness. Balls have been made purposefully heavier to extend rallies and matches.
It’s all for profit, but the players are starting to suffer because the heavier balls mean more stress on the joints, and there has been an increase in injuries in recent times. Wrist and elbow injuries have been part of tennis forever, but the recent rise in both has been concerning.
Some players have made the connection between these injuries and the balls. Medvedev has spoken about it, and now Tsitsipas, who has recently struggles with a shoulder injury, has shared his thoughts on the matter as well.
"I think the toughest for me was to get used to the balls. I want to talk a little bit more about it because in Australia I felt like these balls were not good for hard courts, and in the match with Korda, before the match, I had a very big pain in my wrist, but I thought, okay, that’s my problem, so I’m not going to talk much about it."
Tsitsipas's experience is not unique because a few players have talked about it, and after speaking to some of his colleagues, he is more confident in his hypothesis.
"Then in Rotterdam, a doubles player came to me and started talking about balls and (said) that everyone has problems with their elbow, wrist. He thinks it’s because of the balls. I was like, 'Wow, so I’m not the only one.' I think my shoulder injury happened because of this."
It’s something that should be addressed, even though, for now, there has been radio silence from the ATP.
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