The US Open will begin on the 29th of August. And players are practicing long hours on courts to get back on track. The organizers are doing their bit to make sure everything is fine and the tournament runs safe and smooth.
One area where the organizers pay close attention to is the ball. The balls are provided by the sports goods manufacturer Wilson. Wilson has been US Open’s partner since the 1978 tournament at the Flushing Meadows.
In a Grand Slam, there are the men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. And so there are over 300 matches. All these matches need new balls. After every nine games, the balls are changed. Grand Slams often see long tense matches and so a lot of balls are used. Approximately 70000 tennis balls are used in the US Open.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek questions why US Open still uses different tennis balls for men and women.
Reigning world No. 1 and two-time major champion Iga Swiatek called the balls used at the US Open “horrible” during a news conference at the Western & Southern Open this week, and questioned why women and men use different balls at the tennis major. It is the only Grand Slam tournament not to use the same balls for all players.
“I don’t know why they are different than men’s ones,” Swiatek said on Wednesday. “I don’t know, like, 15 years ago probably women had some elbow injuries because the balls were heavier and they changed them to women’s balls, but right now we are so physically well prepared that I don’t think it would happen. Plus we can’t get those balls in Europe, or actually, when we buy them at store, they are totally different than the tournament balls, so when I’m practicing with US Open balls at home [in Poland], I’m practicing with men’s ones
“I feel, it’s really hard to control [the women’s balls], but everybody has same conditions, so we are trying to deal with that. I don’t get why they are different, honestly.”
It turns out, to the surprise of many close to the game, that men use different balls than women during their Grand Slam tilts.
According to the United States Tennis Association, the balls – manufactured by Wilson – are identical in every respect except for the yellow felt coating.
“Men and women use the same ball in terms of size, pressure and design,” according to a USTA statement. “The sole difference is that the men compete with an extra-duty felt ball while the women compete using a regular-duty felt ball.”
But this slight difference can have huge effects on speed and ball action, experts says.
The perception is that the women’s balls are faster.
But Wilson Sporting Goods, which has supplied the official tennis balls of the U.S. Open since 1978, said it has not tested its balls for speed and noted that both kinds are manufactured to the identical standard of the International Tennis Federation, the governing body of world tennis.
The ITF sanctions three different speeds of balls for use at regular altitudes: Type 1 fast balls, Type 2 medium balls and Type 3 slow balls. A fourth ball is approved for high altitudes.
The U.S. Open uses Type 2 balls, which, among other things, must:
• weigh 56.0 to 59.4 grams, or 1.975 to 2.095 ounces
• measure 6.54 to 6.86 centimeters, or 2.57 to 2.70 inches, in diameter
• rebound 135 to 147 centimeters, or 53 to 58 inches, after having been dropped from a height of 100 inches
• and exhibit a forward deformation of 0.56 to 0.74 centimeter, or 0.22 to 0.29 inch.
It’s only on the court that players detect a variation, perhaps because the smoother felt of the regular-duty ball makes it more aerodynamic and reduces friction.