2023-06-02 15:22:37
“We do Roland-Garros with dog balls! What are these shits? They are rotten these balls! “Who else but Benoît Paire to shout these words on the Suzanne-Lenglen during his defeat in the 1st round against Cameron Norrie (5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 4-6). If the words make you smile, and their vulgarity due to the circumstances of the defeat in 5 sets, the subject makes you talk in the alleys of Roland-Garros.
“They are disastrous”, strongly criticized the Serb Laslo Djere after his elimination against the Russian Andrey Rublev. But it’s not just the losers who go after the little yellow ball made this year by Wilson. “I hate them” let go of the American Taylor Fritz, after having lost only 4 games in the 1st round. “They’re not my favorite balls, to be honest. They become soft and fluffy. It makes the game very slow”, admitted, more wisely, the 6th world Holger Rune.
Even though the weather conditions are perfect this year, without any drop of rain and temperatures very regularly above 20 degrees, the balls are accused of not standing the test of time. “We play with balls that grow in two seconds. New balls don’t even last a game”, described Benoît Paire at a press conference. An impression confirmed by world number 9 Taylor Fritz: “After a few rallies, they are completely dead, so it’s very hard to generate power. You have to hit everything like a deaf man, it’s quickly exhausting. »
“We go to the highest bidder”
The target of all his criticisms is necessarily the official supplier. “Wilson had sent me the tournament balls and they are not the same. They become very heavy, very big. (…) The feeling I had in training is not the same here”, lamented Roberto Bautista-Agut in comments reported by L’Equipe.
Chosen by the tournament organizers since 2020, Wilson has replaced the Babolat brand, much more often associated with clay than the American giant. “It is true that the American brand is not made to play on clay. We worked for years to have a good ball during Roland-Garros. With Yannick Noah, we asked for balls upstream to test them and say what we thought of them. With the call for tenders, we go to the highest bidder,” said for RTL Henri Leconte.
A quality of the balls which has dropped on the whole circuit since the Covid-19, according to several players on the circuit. Manufacturers are accused of changing rubber to reduce the bill. “Now it’s starting to be said everywhere, I’m sure they’re not the same as before,” Richard Gasquet had already explained in the past.
But then, who benefits from the crime? According to Roberto Bautista-Agut, to “those who have a lot of strength”. For Benoît Paire, “physically, to the one who will hold the ball the most in the court”. “Those who have a wrist game” rather judge Daniil Medvedev who targets “Carlos Alcaraz or a little Stefanos Tsitsipas”. In short, nobody agrees, but one thing is certain: the ball is the same for everyone.
#RolandGarros #balls #controversial