Carlos Alcaraz says he also finds it challenging to constantly play with different balls around the Tour but noted he feels players should find a way to adapt to all conditions and circumstances. This week in Beijing, several players called out frequent ball changes around the ATP Tour tournaments. Most notably, Taylor Fritz said playing with three different balls in as many tournaments led to him experiencing wrist issues. “I felt it since the first practice that I did here in Beijing. It is something tough, but the tennis player has to (get) used to that. They change balls in every tournament or almost in every tournament is a different ball. You have to get used to that. It’s kind of different feeling when you are coming into a tournament, is like: What is going to be the ball? It’s a question that I think every player is asking themselves about the balls. Here in just one game, two games, the ball becomes different from the new ones. It’s kind of different play, and you have to get used to that,” Alcaraz said.
Carlos Alcaraz© Getty Images Sport – Emmanuel Wong
Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev & Zizou Bergs weigh in on the ball-change issues
Medvedev, who criticized the balls earlier this year, again voiced his displeasure. According to Medvedev, the ball “becomes a grapefruit” after a couple of shots. “As soon as you play some shots with them, they go very big, much (fluffy)… it becomes like a grapefruit. We’re basically playing 30-shot rallies because it’s almost impossible to hit a winner. With these balls, you have to be 100% on every point, until the last point of the match. I managed to do it well so this, I’m happy about,” Medvedev told AFP. Zizou Bergs also criticized the balls, writing on his Instagram Story: “I think it’s time to look carefully at the fact that many players are getting wrist injuries which could, possibly, be prevented by not changing every week of balls….” Wawrinka shared Bergs’ post and wrote: “Yep.”
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