"I don't know where Sascha did the research": Daniil Medvedev responds to Alexander Zverev's claims about quality of tennis balls

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev has responded to the claims made by Germany’s Alexander Zverev about cost-cutting, which is impacting the quality of the balls used on the tour. The balls’ quality on the tour has been talked a lot about in the recent past. There have been players who claimed that balls used on some surfaces are completely different to the ones that are used on other surfaces.

World number two Zverev was recently quoted in a report where he claimed that elbow and wrist injuries are down to the use of sub-quality balls. The 2024 French Open runner-up was of the opinion that the quality of balls used on the tour now has dipped in order to cut the cost.

"Before even a Dunlop ball, why I used to love it, why a Dunlop ball was so great, when they were new, they were very fast through the court, then they got bigger," he said. "When they got bigger, they were still flying through the air because the air inside and the pressure inside didn't leave. The ball just fluffed up. What happens now with the tennis balls is that the air and the pressure leaves the tennis ball because of the material. The material doesn't keep it inside. It's not only that the ball fluffs up, but actually the air and the pressure of the tennis ball drops drastically. That's why a lot of players now have elbow issues. A lot of players have wrist issues. That was not the case about 10, 15 years ago.”

World number five Medvedev, who is currently taking part in the ATP Finals, responded to those comments made by Zverev. The one-time Grand Slam winner was of the opinion that he had no idea where the German tennis star got that information but also admitted that he has also heard similar stories. “I don't know where Sascha [Alexander Zverev] did the research,” he said. “I didn't do it and I don't know how to do it. I heard about this. Some players like me that are not satisfied with the balls, they're saying it's exactly after COVID that it changed. I had to change strings for softer ones so my ball goes faster through the air because I basically couldn't hit a winner anymore. It worked well.”