John McEnroe has called out Nick Kyrgios and other players who have blamed heavy and slow tennis balls for an increase in the number of injuries. The balls used at various tournaments are provided by competing manufacturers and are far from identical, with players being forced to chop and change throughout the year.
The issue was recently highlighted by Kyrgios after Novak Djokovic needed treatment on the court during a match in Perth, with the Serb appearing to suffer from a wrist injury. The Aussie speculated about the cause of the problem on X, formerly Twitter, posting: “Changes of balls every week finally got to Novak’s wrist.
“The ATP really need to do something about the problem. Players suffer all the time.” Kyrgios later added: “The people who think balls aren’t a big enough factor to result in an athlete being hurt are potatoes. The load through a player’s elbow, wrist over this vigorous season is enormous.”
Rafael Nadal also complained about hitting ‘dead’ balls in Brisbane earlier this month, citing their larger size as an area of concern. Vasek Pospisil, meanwhile, told BBC Sport in November he had ‘no doubts’ that balls have contributed to his injury problems over the last two years.
However, McEnroe has suggested that balls only seem to be a problem for players when they are not doing well, telling ESPN: “I’m going to have to respectfully disagree on that one. I think the whole thing is just that players are always wound up before. ‘Oh, my God, the ball is too heavy, it’s terrible. I can’t play, my shoulder is falling off’. I mean, come on.
“It’s something that you get worked up about to blow off some steam. Then suddenly in the semis, it’s the greatest ball ever once you made it that far. ‘Slazenger balls were too heavy at Wimbledon. The Wilsons are too’. Weigh them.
“I’d like to see what the difference in weight is in balls that these top-notch players can’t, God forbid, go down one pound maybe in their tension or go up one pound. How about the strings? Do you think the strings are maybe tougher on the players than the balls, these synthetic strings that come off the racquet?
“How about the racquets? How about the courts? How about the travelling? How about the body holding up playing too many events? I would rank those all above the balls personally.”
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