After multiple players complained about the use of a different ball for women during the 2022 US Open, tournament director Stacey Allaster said the USTA would be using the same ball for both women and men during the 2023 event.
During a news conference on Thursday held at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Allaster said the decision was made at the conclusion of the 2022 event following the feedback from players.
“Every year, the WTA informs us of what Wilson US Open ball they would like their athletes to play with,” Allaster said. “Last year during the tournament, we had some players that wanted to change the ball and I met with some of those players and said, ‘Look talk to [WTA chairman and CEO] Steve Simon. Talk to your player council representatives. If the WTA wants to change the ball, no problem, Wilson can accommodate that.’ It’s no extra cost.
“The only condition we gave to the WTA was we need to know what ball you want to play with in 2023 at the end of the 2022 US Open. That’s how far the lead times are for Wilson to produce the volume of our US Open ball.”
Ahead of the 2022 tournament, then and current No. 1 Iga Swiatek told media during the Western & Southern Open the balls used at the US Open were “horrible” and she didn’t understand why women couldn’t use the same one as the men. Poland’s Swiatek also said she was unable to purchase the balls in Europe, and thus practiced at home with the balls used by the men, making it challenging to properly prepare for the tournament.
Swiatek, who went on to win the title, said she and Paula Badosa, then ranked No. 4 in the world, went to Simon to voice their opinion. Badosa said the balls created “unfavorable conditions” in a post to her Instagram story.
The US Open was the only major to feature different balls in the men’s and women’s matches.
In a statement to ESPN last August, Amy Binder, the WTA’s senior vice president of global communications, said the organization would take the players concerns into account going forward.
“The WTA has always utilized regular felt balls for hardcourt play, and we have now begun to hear from a select number of our athletes that they would like to consider a change to using the extra duty ball,” Binder said. “The basis behind using the regular felt ball was that it limited the potential of arm, shoulder, elbow and wrist injuries. This is something that we will continue to monitor and discuss further with both our athletes and our sports science teams.”
Allaster…
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