Daniil Medvedev called over the supervisor to complain about the balls at the Shanghai Masters during his victory over Thiago Seyboth Wild. Medvedev secured a 7-5 7-5 triumph over his Brazilian rival to avenge his defeat in the first round of last year’s French Open.
As the match went on, Medvedev grew frustrated with the quality of the balls in use. At one point, he called over the supervisor to make a furious complaint about the Wilson balls, the same ones that were used at last week’s China Open.
“These balls are not good enough for professional tennis,” said Medvedev. “This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world and the balls are destroyed after 5 games. No pressure at all.”
Medvedev previously complained about the Wilson balls after his victory over Ugo Humbert at the China Open. In his post-match interview, he suggested they were not ideal for hard-court tennis because they were too difficult to control.
“Since the warm-up, even before the match, it was tough to control the ball,” he said. “So I was a little bit, let’s say nervous in a way.
“But then I went on court and he was not missing less than me, so it was a little bit of a strange match where I would probably think second set is, in a way, the best we played together and then I did three double faults and I lose the set.
“In the third set, I lose my serve and I win 6-1. That’s just because of the balls, it’s hard courts but you can basically break every game and that’s what I did.
“It’s not easy for the mind to understand it so again, I like to play like this but I don’t think it’s good for hard court tennis.”
Other players have suggested that changing the balls at every tournament can increase the risk of wrist injuries. Zizou Bergs recently confirmed he had suffered a torn ligament in his left wrist, leaving him unable to use his backhand for several weeks.
In a post on Instagram, he wrote: “I think it’s time to look carefully at the fact that many players are getting wrist injuries which could, possibly, be prevented by not changing every week of balls.”
Carlos Alcaraz also spoke about the constant ball changes between tournaments earlier this month. He said: “I felt it from the first training I did here in Beijing. It is something difficult but tennis players have to get used to that.”
