"She's got to come to grips with it" - McEnroe on Iga Swiatek's complaints about the balls used at the US Open

Eurosport expert John McEnroe says Iga Swiatek and other players have “got to come to grips” with the ball situation at the US Open, amid a debate regarding different balls being used at the final Grand Slam of the year.

The US Open is the only Grand Slam where two different types of balls are used for the men’s and women’s tournaments, with the latter using lighter balls. This could be a disadvantage to the harder-hitting players and Swiatek has called on equality in terms of the balls that should be used, urging the WTA and US Open organizers to change the “horrible” balls.

“Maybe that's just letting out some nerves,” said McEnroe, when asked about the ball situation. “Maybe there's some truth to that, maybe the balls are a little bit lighter, maybe she doesn't like that.

“But whatever it is, she's got to come to grips with it because she's still obviously one of the favourites, or the favourite, even though she hasn't done well, she's still going to be No. 1 seed and people are going to expect you to do well.

“She's an incredible athlete and I believe that she'll figure it out and she'll win majors. I believe she'll win some on a faster hard court. I don't think that she's only going to win on clay.”

In 2019, the North American swing saw the WTA tour use different balls at different tournaments. This year that has changed with the United States and Canadian events using the same balls as the US Open.

However, this is still inconsistent with the rest of the season where the women use the same balls as the men.

“I don't know how much different the balls are,” said McEnroe. “I always used to remember that at Wimbledon I always felt like the balls were heavy, I would have preferred lighter balls. But then I thought some of my best results are at Wimbledon. So you just accept it."