Photo credit: Lacoste
Every tennis match is a story.
Lately, the bouncing ball is a controversial character in the ongoing plot.
MORE: PTPA Files Lawsuit Against ATP, WTA, ITF
What's the most effective way to elevate quality of play and reduce player injuries?
Standardize the tennis ball, say Daniil Medvedev and Grigor Dimitrov.
Dimitrov and Medvedev joined legends and fellow Lacoste ambassadors Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten, Juan Martin del Potro and Miami Open Tournament Director James Blake for a fascinating dinner discussion covering a wide variety of tennis topics.
The group discuss favorite tennis fashions, the star responsible for the rise of the headband, the major champion with the largest sneaker size, their favorite one-handed backhands—Dimitrov cites both Stan Wawrinka and Tommy Haas as his favorite one-handers—their favorite on-court moment and tennis heroes. Medvedev's revelation of his tennis hero may well stun you—then again it may well make perfect sense to you given the counterpunching contrarian's unique style.
Host James Blake poses a simple question shortly before the 14-minute mark of the Lacoste video above: What change would you make to make tennis better for players and fans?
Celebrating his 17th professional season, Dimitrov said the solution is simple: standardize the tennis ball.
“I like tradition,” Dimitrov said. “For me, if I could change one thing in tennis it would just be one ball.
"Just have one ball and that would be it…. The Slazenger ball is the most consistent ball.”
Hall of Famer and Eurosport analyst Mats Wilander says the fluffier ball can be an equalizer in that lower-ranked players can really swing out whereas when it's a livelier ball it benefits players with great control.
Former world No. 1 Medvedev proposes a dual solution: Standardize the ball and adopt a new ball change rule to play with new balls at five games rather than the standard ball change at seven and nine games thereafter.
Medvedev said when you examine the evolution of the game virtually every aspect, including court surfaces, racquets and string technology has changed over the years while balls and the ball change rule has not changed.
That, suggests Medvedev, is the biggest impediment to improving the sport.
“It’s very tricky because I can only talk for myself,” Medvedev said. “Courts–we have slow courts, fast courts, we have medium-fast courts—not a huge deal though sometimes I complain, but whatever…
“But balls seem to get slower and slower in my opinion. When I was young, when I was playing Challengers, there were some balls that would go big….So I want diversity in the game so that everyone can play.”
The 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, whose career was cut short by multiple knee and wrist surgeries, said he believes the ball changes can cause injury.
“In my opinion, the injuries come from the balls,” del Potro said.
Former Miami Open champion Medvedev says the game is so physical today that one long deuce game can beat up the balls and render some lifeless after only one deuce game.
“And of course some balls you play with they are getting even smaller and kind of even faster,” Medvedev said. “But now that doesn’t exist anymore. Now, when you play with the new balls, it’s a very fast game.
"But if you go to deuce for one game, for the next seven games you’re gonna play with old balls. It’s a different game and for guys who know how to accelerate the slow ball it’s such an advantage."
For Medvedev the bottom line is clear: change the ball and improve the quality of play.
"If we talk about what we need to change in tennis it would be [balls]," Medvedev said. "Apparently there was discussion in the [ATP] Player Council to make [ball changes] at five and seven.
“And apparently, it was turned down by the players. I’m not on the Player Council. Since when was [the rule] seven and nine [games], 40 years, 50 years?
“Racquets change, strings change, courts change and this doesn’t change. And the players turned it down. Apparently, that’s what I heard. I’m not there so I don’t know."
View this post on Instagram
Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst John McEnroe says bounce the ball talk.
The entire controversy is much ado about nothing, McEnroe asserts.
The former world No. 1 in singles and doubles says tennis, at its core, is all about adjustments and points out unlike many major sports, tennis players adapt to different balls and surfaces throughout the season.
It’s just part of the job, says McEnroe, who believes players’ ball beef is really all about stress relief.
“Back when I was a player you were excited or worried about pretty much anything,” McEnroe said on Eurosport. “‘Oh, it’s too hot, it’s too cold, it’s too windy, I’m playing late, I’m playing too early, the tension in my racquet isn’t right, the balls are getting too heavy’.”
Furthermore, McEnroe says it’s annoying to him that the stars complaining don’t see a very simple solution: String a few racquets at a lower tension so when you feel the balls getting softer switch to a stick with looser tension.
“Of course the balls get heavier now that the boys and girls have hit them. How about bringing racquets with different tensions?” McEnroe said. “So if after three or four games the balls are actually getting heavier or you think they are getting heavier, use the frame with slightly looser gauges.”