Stan Wawrinka and
Taylor Fritz have joined the likes of
Daniil Medvedev and
Stefanos Tsitsipas in criticizing frequent ball changes between tournaments and suggesting that this creates a greater risk of injury.
Belgian player
Zizou Bergs posted about the difficulty of ball changes on his Instagram stories, writing:
"I think it's time to look carefully at the fact that many players are getting wrist injuries which could, possibly, be prevented by not changing every week of balls..."
In response, three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka voiced his agreement by replying with "Yep" followed by a rolling-eyes emoji, along with a tennis ball and a head-in-hands emoji.
Fritz agrees with Tsitsipas and Medvedev
Meanwhile, World No. 8 Fritz responded to Bergs' post with a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Have been dealing w [with] wrist issues since beginning of USO [US Open] series cause of ball changes we went 3 different balls in 3 weeks," he wrote.
This came after World No. 3 Medvedev and World No. 5 Tsitsipas both voiced their concern with the frequent ball changes earlier this year. In March, the Greek player called for consistency in the types of balls used between tournaments in order to avoid injury.
"I think the biggest issue this year was the change in balls and that was an issue that has been discussed among the players. Balls need to stay the same in most tournaments and especially on hard surfaces. This benefits us all and protects players from injury," he said.
Tsitsipas also claimed that the injuries he sustained after the 2023 Australian Open were caused by ball changes and that it was a common topic of conversation among players.
"I have had comments from other players about the balls at the beginning of the year and that they had a significant impact on the shoulders, wrists, and arm in general. I think that’s where my injury comes from," he continued.
Meanwhile, Medvedev also attributed an injury he sustained in Melbourne to ball changes.
"I want to talk a little bit more about it because in Australia, I felt like these balls were not good for hard courts. Before the match with [Sebastian] Korda I had a very big pain in my wrist, but I thought, 'okay, that's my problem, so I'm not going to talk much about it," he said.
