WORLD No1 Ig Swiatek and plenty of other female stars have slammed the “horrible” US Open tennis balls they have to use – because they are designed for clay courts.
The New York major got underway on Monday with Serena Williams and Andy Murray both making safe passages.
Iga Swiatek sparked a row over the US Open tennis balls
Men and women use different versions for the tournament
But the row over the balls did not take long to explode back up again.
The US Open is the only one of the four tennis majors where the men and women use different balls – something male top seeds Rafael Nadal nor Daniil Medvedev even knew about.
And it’s safe to say the move is not popular on the women’s side.
Everyone plays with Wilson balls.
However, the men have US Open extra duty balls but the women use regular duty.
The regular duty balls are thinner and lighter while Wilson states they are likely to fluff up more, meaning they play faster but are “less durable”.
And this can lead to more errors which in turn makes the tennis viewing spectacle less exciting for fans.
French Open champ Swiatek, the top seed at Flushing Meadows, moaned: “I think those balls are horrible.
“They are pretty bad. I know there are many players who complain, and many of them are top ten.
“Especially after three games of really hard playing, they are getting more and more light.
“At the end, you can’t even serve at 170kmh [105mph] because you know it’s going to fly like crazy. They are pretty bad.
“Right now we play powerful, and we kind of can’t loosen up our hands with these balls.
“We make more mistakes, for sure, so I don’t think that’s really nice to watch visually.”
She then jokingly added: “You’ve just started a war,” after the question in Cincinnati last week.
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Incredibly, the tubes for the women’s balls say they are designed for clay or indoor surfaces – yet the US Open is an outdoor, hard-court tournament.
Whereas the extra duty balls used by the men are “ideal for longer play on hard-court surfaces”.
Paulo Badosa, ranked fourth in the world, highlighted this in an angry Instagram post.
Stan Wawrinka’s coach Daniel Vallverdu replied: “The game has evolved. Should be the same extra duty ball for men and women. She is 100 per cent right in my opinion.”
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Coco Gauff added she could “definitely tell there’s a difference” while Jessica Pegula is “personally not a huge fan” of the balls.
Petra Kvitova and Maddison Keys’ games are well suited to the faster balls and love them, though, and Emma Raducanu clearly enjoyed using them in her fairytale run in New York 12 months ago.
Ash Barty’s coach, Craig Tyzzer, said in January before her shock retirement the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon winner would not complete the career grand slam at the US Open if they kept using the problematic balls.
The regular duty ball is used in the mixed doubles – meaning anyone playing in the men’s tournament and the mixed doubles will have to switch for matches.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) said it “works closely” with the WTA and ATP Tours and player councils “to determine what type of balls they recommend playing with for the coming US Open”.
WTA spokeswoman Amy Binder told the Associated Press: “The basis behind using the regular felt ball was that it limited the potential of arm, shoulder, elbow and wrist injuries.
“This is something that we will continue to monitor and discuss further with both our athletes and our sports science teams.”
Emma Raducanu will be hoping for more success with the Wilson ball
Paula Badosa took to Instagram with her fury
