Daniil Medvedev has again expressed concerns over the use of the new Dunlop tennis balls at a number of ATP hard court events, saying they were too big.
Following his 6-4, 6-2 win over Matteo Arnaldi at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Monday, the world No. 7 claimed the balls “are like apples” and are causing injury to some players.
“Last two games before they change the balls, the balls are like apples,” Medvedev said. “They are so, so big. You play a bit like padel.
“You hit the ball, whoever hits it at an angle…you don’t feel like you’re in control of the game anymore.
“In Doha and here, it felt like every time… two or three games with new balls, then the game gets slower.
“My game was 6-4, 6-2 and it was like an hour 40 minutes, which is almost nonsense, to be honest. It’s because serve doesn’t matter as much and it’s long stitches.”
This is not the first time that Medvedev has commented on the issue.
“I think the hardest thing for me was getting used to the balls,” he said after beating Andy Murray in the Qatar Open final. “I want to talk about that a bit more because in Australia I felt like those balls weren’t good for hard courts, and in the game with [Sebastian] Korda, before the game, I had a really bad pain in my wrist, but I was like ‘ok, that’s my problem, so I’m not going to talk about it too much’.
“Then in Rotterdam when the doubles players came to me and started talking about the balls and started saying everyone had problems with elbows, wrists, doubles players, they think it’s is because of the bullets. I’m like, ‘wow, so I’m not the only one’.
“Now I see [Holger] Rune, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, who else, Korda, any wrist, elbow, shoulder. So I think these balls are not good for hard courts. They get very fluffy, and like I said, it’s a big shock to play them with your racquet.”
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Highlights as Andy Murray was beaten in straight sets by Daniil Medvedev in the Qatar Open final.
Murray also denounced the poor quality of Dunlop balls.
“It felt like there was no pressure in the ball, almost flat,” the Scotsman said after his five-set thriller against Thanasi Kokkinakis at the Australian Open, which lasted nearly six o’clock.
“It’s just hard to hit winners once you’re in the rallies. I think there was a 70-hit rally yesterday or several 35, 40-hit rallies, which is not normal. “