Iga Swiatek slams US Open for using different balls for women than for men
WTA
Iga Swiatek is one of the biggest favorites to win the 2022 US Open and also one of the players who like to dictate the game, which is why she wasn't happy about the balls in use.
The tournament chose to use different balls for women than those used for men, and many players have already criticized that decision. Now, the WTA World No. 1 player also explained why using different balls doesn't make sense, and she hopes that the decision will change.
Swiatek explained that since the balls are lighter, they are much harder to control. She argued that while the decision to give women lighter balls might have been based on the past, female players now have much more strength-based games, which makes such a decision illogical.
"Honestly, I don’t like them. I have heard many players actually complaining, as well. Women players because we have different balls than men. The thing is that they are lighter. They fly like crazy."
"We have really powerful games right now. It’s not like 10 years ago. Right now we play powerful, and we kind of can’t loosen up our hands with these balls. I know that many players complain, and many of them are top 10."
While the lighter balls might be used to make the women's matches more interesting, as faster rallies produce more excitement, it do the exact opposite. Swiatek explained that with these balls, players actually make more mistakes.
"We make more mistakes with these balls, for sure. So I don’t think that’s really nice to watch visually. I don’t know why they are different from men’s ones."
"15 years ago probably women had some elbow injuries because the balls were heavier and they changed them to women’s balls, but right now we are so physically well prepared that I don’t think it would happen."
"I feel, it’s really hard to control them, but everybody has the same conditions, so we are trying to deal with that. I don’t get why they are different, honestly."
