Tennis. Why do they keep switching between different balls?
Sun 3:00 am +00:00, 2 Aug 2026Jessica Pegula has made the bold claim that ‘no other sport’ would tolerate what tennis players have come to accept regarding the supposedly declining quality of tennis balls.
The American has reached the final of the WTA 500 event in Washington, where she will next face the winner of the match between Alex Eala and Naomi Osaka……………………
Different tournaments use different brands of tennis balls.
For example, Dunlop balls are used at the Australian Open, Wilson at the French Open and the US Open, and Slazenger at Wimbledon.
Pegula’s comments echo concerns raised by several ATP players, including Daniil Medvedev, who has repeatedly criticised the lack of consistency between tournaments.
Speaking at this year’s Rotterdam Open, the former US Open champion said: “The problem is when you touch it with the racket, it does not react the same way on your shots, so how do you want us to play tennis?”
Pegula concluded that the constant changes in tennis balls have a significant impact on players.
“I think where you get frustrated is where you’re constantly changing, and I know at one point, the men were playing with, like, three different balls in three weeks. Like, that’s crazy. Like, you ask any other sport to kind of deal with that, and they’re like, Are you joking? Like, that wouldn’t happen.
“So it sounds silly, but it does make a big difference.”
msn
TAP – Changing ball types takes a day or two to adjust to. If players had advance notice of when changes were coming….
Still the media is full of Eala being some kind of tennis magician – with a slow serve yet somehow it’s continually presented as unplayable. Spinning serves is all part of the game and always has been – top spin, slice, veering rightwards or leftwards all normal. Yet to millions of newly discovered ignorant Asian tennis fans who spend tens of billions with brands like Adidas and Nike, top competitions are now just an extension of advertising, with opponents paid off to help the selected media icon seem like the Elvis of tennis.
Here’s an example.
Why stand so far back to a slow serve, and then not move forwards to cut the distance of turn? (Or even sideways once it’s clearly a right curving ball). The curve increases the more you allow it distance. Very odd from Osaka. She then runs away to the left to open up the court for a simple killer shot from Eala, when she might have approached the net closing down the available angle, forcing a decision of where to play the ball. It’s like Osaka made the decision for her. Losing the match pays better than winning when it’s an advert with juicy fees paid to the actors. And so much less stressful than gladiatorial on court battles to the death. Bring back McEnroe. All is forgiven.
