Women play with lighter weight balls than men at the US Open.
It made the world number one Iga Swiatek furious.
– I think the balls are horrible, she says.
Yesterday, the last major tournament of the year, the US Open, started.
The tournament has already received criticism from the world number one, Iga Swiatek.
The reason is that the US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament where women play with lighter balls than men.
The reason women’s lighter balls were introduced decades ago was the risk of injury, but today’s players feel they can handle the heavy balls they play on in all the other hard court tournaments quite well.
– The balls are awful. Especially after a few games with really hard gameplay, it gets easier and easier. In the end, you can’t even serve at 170 kilometers per hour because the ball flies all over the world. Unfortunately, the balls are really bad, Swiatek said before the tournament.
– I know many players are complaining, many top ten players. We guarantee to make more mistakes. So it can’t be fun to watch.
knocks
But the US Open organizer is resisting and believes the criticism comes too late.
“Decisions about the balls must be made several months in advance so that we can bring in approximately 100,000 competition balls for use at the US Open,” the US Tennis Association said in a statement.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Ashleigh Barty, who retired earlier this year, said the Australian could not have won the US Open because of the balls.
