It’s a hot topic in the locker rooms at IGA Stadium. Without even having to be asked, players have been complaining about the quality of the balls throughout the National Bank Open. And it seems that the problem extends to all tournaments.
After his first-round defeat on Thursday, Stefanos Tsitsipás was fuming. The most avid readers already know about his disagreements with his father, his coach. But the Montreal balls were also the target of his invectives.
“The balls here, I felt that they affected my game a lot. They are rather dead,” criticized the Greek.
It is understandable for a loser to shoot at anything that moves in the heat of the moment. But even victorious players have questioned the quality of the equipment, without prompting.
“The courts are fast and the balls don’t bounce anymore, they fly and become heavy, they start flying very fast. It’s different,” commented Japan’s Kei Nishikori, after knocking down Tsitsipás.
“During the first few days of training, I didn’t control any balls,” he added. “I hear a lot of complaints in the locker room, that’s obvious; it’s just different compared to other tournaments.”
“It’s a little bit different to play here because of the balls. They’re uncontrollable, they’re very strange,” added Germany’s Alexander Zverev a few hours later, after beating Australia’s Jordan Thompson.
They don’t cut, they don’t take any rotation. The more worn they become, the more uncontrollable they become.
Alexander Zverev
Some players have noticed that the temperature is affecting the quality of the balls abnormally. “Last week in Washington it was faster, here it’s slower, we just have to adapt,” said Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Problem to be solved
When it comes to the many criticisms players have about the balls, tournament director Valérie Tétreault seems far from impressed. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“It’s become a very hot topic since January,” she explains. “It’s become a bit of a scourge.”
PHOTO GRAHAM HUGHES, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Valérie Tétreault, Director of the National Bank Open
Wilson supplies the Montreal tournament with balls. Since each competition has agreements with different suppliers, the type of ball varies from one tournament to another.
For example, in the Davis Cup, Dunlop balls were used. The criticism was as harsh as at the National Bank Open.
“Players are always faced with ball changes. It makes a big difference in the way they compete,” concedes M.me Tétreault: They say that the quality of the balls has generally declined. The ATP must succeed in carrying out some control.
The supply of balls should be centralized by the circuit, the players consider. Or, at a minimum, suppliers should have to respect precise specifications for their design, which is not the case at present.
“The only thing we can do is take our balls out of the canes and make them bounce. As for the quality, we can’t do anything: we don’t have the tools or the expertise to assess that,” says M.me Tetreault.
So it’s blurry
A reform could well be organized by the ATP to standardize the quality of balls. In this sense, the association asks tournament organizers to limit themselves to short agreements with their suppliers, to be able to adapt to any future regulations. In doing so, Montreal favors one-year agreements.
Questioned on the subject, the ATP directs The Press to a press release from January. The association explains its desire to change its approach, to ensure better consistency from tournament to tournament.
The aim of the circuit is to “bet on stricter specifications” and this “without negatively affecting tournament revenues,” it concludes.
In its philosophy, the National Bank Open sees itself as a preparatory tournament for the US Open. The balls used in Montreal are therefore the same as those that will be used in New York.
“We would not see ourselves using different balls. That’s always been what guided our decision more than a dollar sign,” assures Mme Tetreault.