‘I don’t get why women use different balls than men’ - Iga Swiatek slams ‘horrible’ US Open tennis ball rules

Iga Swiatek has hit out at US Open organisers for using different tennis balls to the men which she claims “many players” have complained about. The US Open is the only Grand Slam where two different types of balls are used for the men’s and women’s tournaments, with the latter using lighter balls. Ad This could be a disadvantage to the harder-hitting players and Swiatek has called on equality in terms of the balls that should be used.

WTA TorontoSwiatek suffers shock exit to Haddad Maia in marathon Toronto clash11/08/2022 AT 22:22 «We make more mistakes [with these balls], for sure,” Swiatek told the press after her 6-4 7-5 win over Sloane Stephens at the Cincinnati Masters. “So I don’t think that’s really nice to watch visually I don't know why they are different than men's ones. »Fifteen years ago probably women had some elbow injuries because the balls were heavier and they changed them to women's balls.

But right now we are so physically well prepared that I don’t think it would happen. “I feel, it’s really hard to control them, but everybody has the same conditions, so we are trying to deal with that. I don’t get why they are different, honestly.” In 2019, the North American swing saw the WTA tour use different balls at different tournaments.

This year that has changed with the United States and Canadian events using the same balls as the US Open. However, this is still inconsistent with the rest of the season where the women use the same balls as the men. ‘I think those balls are horrible, especially after like three games of really hard playing, they are getting more and more light.