From Holger Rune to Daniil Medvedev, a few players have spoken about this year's tennis balls as they aren't very popular.
There has been a trend going on at this year's Roland Garros and the tennis balls used might be the culprit. Starting in the qualifiers we've seen matches kind of drag out with tennis looking a bit slower than it was last year.
It continued in the main draw with many players struggling with controlling the ball resulting in a really high number of unforced errors. Most of the top players had more unforced errors than winners in their matches and it could be down to control. A few players have complained about it already with Benoit Paire branding the balls rubbish.
Yeah, it's getting very, very slow, the ball. It's getting very fluffy and big. It's making the game very slow. It's not my favourite ball, to be honest, but, you know, it is what it is. But for sure the ball is slower and it feels differentcompared to last year.
Daniil Medvedev certainly struggled with the balls as well as he couldn't really generate too much power on them with his type of swing. He called them heavy admitting that players like Alcaraz can generate far more power than he can.
With this heavy balls to adjust with the wind was not easy. In my opinion, players who have like, I don't know how even to say it, but like a wrist game, like my opponent today, like Carlos, I think Stefanos a little bit, have big advantage with these balls, because they can create easy power, which I don't have.
Swiatek herself was asked about the balls being heavier than usual however she didn't want to really talk about the balls opting to focus more on her style. She did admit that she likes these balls more than some others as she complained about the US Open balls last year.
I don't know, honestly (smiling). I don't know, because I don't want to be kind of influenced by that comments. I like these balls more than most of the balls that we have on tour. It's hard for me to say, honestly. And also, because I don't know when they changed from Babolat to Dunlop, but they also said that there was a huge difference between Babolat and Dunlop. And after a year I didn't really remember how it was with Babolat. So a pretty similar situation right now.
So it's tough to say. Some players like them more, some like them less, there does seem to be an issue of overhitting for many of the players due to the ball flying slower as it gets bigger and heavier after only a few games. It could have been a tactic to make matches last longer which we've seen before with the concentrated effort to slow down most courts.
As Medvedev pointed out, some player's playstyle is better suited to these types of balls compared to others and the rest of the field might just need to adjust. Even Alcaraz, a player he referenced struggled with control posting a line of 26 winners and 30 unforced errors.
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