"It's really hard to control them" - Swiatek not a fan of the US swing tennis balls

Iga Swiatek is not a fan of the tennis balls used during this part of the season as she feels it's really hard to control them.

The US swing is quite specific in the sense that WTA tennis balls are different than anywhere else in the world. Usually, both men and women use the same balls at every event but the US Open swing has women using lighter tennis balls. It makes a huge difference and Swiatek as a heavy hitter is not a fan of it:

"We make more mistakes [with these balls], for sure, so I don't think that's really nice to watch visually. I don't know why they are different than men's ones. Fifteen years ago probably women had some elbow injuries because the balls were heavier and they changed them to women's balls. But right now we are so physically well prepared that I don't think it would happen."

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Swiatek feels it's really hard to control them properly which creates more mistakes and according to her makes the product on the court worse:

"I feel, it's really hard to control them, but everybody has the same conditions, so we are trying to deal with that. I think the balls are horrible, especially after like three games of really hard playing, they are getting more and more light. At the end, you can't even serve at 170km/h because it's going to fly like crazy. I think they are pretty bad."

There have been initiatives by players to reverse the change that was introduced last year and Swiatek was at the forefront of it:

"I know that many players complain, and many of them are top 10. Me and Paula Badosa last year talked with Steve about changing to men's balls. I don't think it would be a problem because it's still the same company. Maybe we should push a bit more. I stopped pushing and trying to convince WTA because the war in Ukraine happened and I refocused on something else."

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