It did not take Daniil Medvedev long to realise he was in serious trouble at the French Open. As he tried to find a way past Britain\u2019s Cameron Norrie in the first round, the Russian simply did not feel comfortable striking the ball.<\/p>\n
With his prospects of advancing in one of the biggest tournaments in the world dwindling, the 29-year-old settled on a drastic solution. Medvedev requested completely different strings when he sent his rackets to be restrung mid-match, switching from a hybrid of natural gut and polyester strings to a full polyester setup.<\/p>\n
It is normal for players to alter their string tension during a match, but few would consider a change as dramatic as the actual string type. Medvedev has now made the switch many times this year: \u201cUntil 2023 I had never done it,\u201d Medvedev says. \u201cSomething started to change on tour, I had to adapt. Now I\u2019m never sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world No 18 is referring to the properties of the tennis balls on tour and how slight changes in recent years have\u00a0left him uncertain how to optimise his game. The quality of balls across the tour has been one of\u00a0the most significant talking points and sources of frustration among players around the world. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the biggest difference I can notice, compared to maybe 10, 15 years ago,\u201d Novak Djokovic says. \u201cIt\u2019s the balls.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of many significant challenges in elite tennis is adjusting to the differing conditions each week, including the constantly changing balls. Different tournaments have their own contracts with ball manufacturers, which present other issues. Injuries are often attributed to players having to adjust to different types of balls.<\/p>\n
There is a growing consensus that many different balls decay at a faster rate than ever before, which Emma Raducanu describes as difficult to navigate and another injury hazard: \u201cI do think the balls are a big challenge for all of us,\u201d says Raducanu. \u201cThe way that they deteriorate is really challenging. I think it gets very fluffy. You see a lot of wrist, elbow,\u00a0shoulder injuries happening\u00a0now. And it is hard because the dynamic of the points can be different from when they\u2019re new to when they\u2019re old.\u201d<\/p>\n
New tennis balls are encased in a tight layer of felt but, as they make contact with the racket strings and court surface, it fluffs up, making them less aerodynamic. They travel through the air more slowly, meaning it is harder to hit winners as\u00a0fluffier balls lead to more prolonged rallies. Many players believe they fluff up more quickly today. At least some of these issues can be attributed to production line\u00a0problems in factories during the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the consistency and quality of the felt provided by the suppliers to the tennis ball manufacturing companies.<\/p>\n
Daniil Medvedev says since 2023 he is \u2018never sure\u2019 about how tennis balls will behave during a match. Photograph: H\u00e9ctor Retamal\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
As players try to adjust, the sport itself is changing. Less powerful players such as Norrie now believe it is even more difficult to impose their game with some balls. \u201cI think that the ball\u2019s getting messed up easier in some tournaments,\u201d he says. \u201cFor players like me and Daniil, it\u2019s not easy to generate as much power as other players, and that\u2019s cost me, or it\u2019s easier for other players. But, to be honest, I\u2019m never complaining about the balls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who generate significant amounts of topspin have also felt the differences. A livelier ball accentuates the effects of heavy topspin, allowing the ball to bounce\u00a0higher and rise further outside the opponent\u2019s strike zone. Casper Ruud, who possesses one of the game\u2019s most spin-heavy forehands, believes his strokes are less potent due to the balls: \u201cI feel like the players are handling my heavy shots like way better now than when I came on tour, which was pre-Covid, and they\u2019re able to\u00a0just step in and rip the damn thing back and I\u2019m kind of surprised how well people do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many players have addressed their issues with the balls by incorporating natural gut strings in their rackets alongside polyester strings, which helps to generate more power. Others shift to a looser string tension when they feel they are struggling to generate pace with certain balls. As is often the case in tennis, however, a disadvantage for one player is another player\u2019s asset. None of this has stopped Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner from dominating the sport this year. Both possess such destructive weapons that they can still generate massive speed off slower balls.<\/p>\n
Nobody has been more outspoken on this subject than Medvedev. Two and a half years after holding the No 1 ranking, he is trying to find a way through one of the most difficult periods of his career. The Russian, who has achieved one of his best results of the year this week by reaching the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, now sits at No 18 in the ATP rankings and he frequently describes the balls as his biggest obstacle.<\/p>\n
Medvedev says he does not want to be known as the player \u201ccrying\u201d after every match, but says he is just being honest: \u201cSome players will like this ball, so I get it,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m crying because it disadvantages me. But if you take six balls out of the new balls out of the can, if you look closely and you bounce them, there are going to be six different balls. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It did not take Daniil Medvedev long to realise he was in serious trouble at the French Open.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-203428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}