Men and girls will use the identical tennis ball on the US Open this 12 months, satisfying those that complained final 12 months they have been hitting an inferior product.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek, who ultimately received the match, was among the many ladies who felt their lighter ball did not maintain its energy so long as the one which was utilized by males.
The US Open had been the one one of many 4 grand slam tournaments to make use of a unique ball for women and men.
US Open match director Stacey Allaster stated Thursday the kind of ball getting used was totally as much as the gamers and their tour, and the US Tennis Association solely wanted to know their choice after final 12 months’s match so sufficient balls could possibly be ordered from the supplier.
“We have been unwavering. That’s been their decision,” Allaster stated.
She met final 12 months with a number of the gamers who made clear their choice for the “extra duty” felt ball, relatively than the “regular duty” felt ball the ladies had been utilizing for many years. The further obligation ball is famous by producer Wilson to be perfect for exhausting courts, the type utilized in Flushing Meadows.
Allaster stated she informed the gamers to speak to management of the WTA Tour and their gamers’ council.
“If the WTA wants to change the ball, no problem,” Allaster informed them. “It’s no extra cost, and so the only condition we gave to the WTA was we need to know what ball you want to play with in 2023 at the end of the 2022 US Open.”
Players have been utilizing the ball throughout the hard-court warmup tournaments in Canada and Ohio and can proceed on a trial foundation on the US Open, which begins on August. 28.
Allaster stated the USTA will then await a solution on what balls to order for 2024.
Other adjustments being carried out embrace using tablets by coaches sitting of their containers, given them entry to real-time stats and video, and gamers’ challenges to evaluation conditions resembling a ball they imagine bounced twice.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
