The growing Injury list is keeping some of Tennis’ biggest stars away from the court. Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has now raised concerns over the playing conditions she believes are contributing to the problem, pointing to the injuries suffered by stars such as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as a warning sign for the sport.

Bartoli believes the combination of slower courts and increasingly heavy tennis balls needs to be addressed before the physical demands of the Tour take an even greater toll on players.

“The problem is the surfaces are getting slower and slower, but the balls are extremely heavy,” Bartoli said on Sky Sports. “I understand that point of view, of course, but you have to take into consideration the health of the players, because without players, you have no tour. Whether they make the surface faster or they make the ball lighter, but one has to come back to what it was before, because at some point, if we keep losing Sinner, Alcaraz, and the rest of the field, I mean, we don’t have much to talk about.”

There have been twelve withdrawals on the men’s side at the US Open, including the World No.1, Jannik Sinner. Not to mention, Sinner’s closest rival, Carlos Alcaraz, was out of action at the French Open and at Wimbledon due to injury.

The issues of court speeds and the heavy nature of the balls go hand in hand. Both the ATP and WTA Tours have a very limited grass-court season, which is considered the fastest surface of the three. However, Wimbledon’s change to Perennial Ryegrass in 2001 was driven by the tournament’s initiative to reduce serve-dominant tennis and promote longer rallies.

While clay has been the slowest surface in tennis, the speeds of hard courts have reduced over the years, especially with the removal of carpet courts in the late 2000s. As a result, tennis balls have a higher coefficient of friction to remain viable on slower hard courts. However, that, in turn, means players do not get free points on their serve and have to rely on baseline groundstrokes to win points. This puts added pressure on the shoulders and arms, and raises the risk of injury.

Also, different brands of tennis balls are used at various events, such as Slazenger at Wimbledon, Dunlop at the Australian Open, and Wilson on North American hard courts, including the US Open, depending on the tournaments’ individual sponsorship agreements. Playing with different balls across the year makes the challenge harder for players who have adjusted their styles to win matches.

Bartoli is not the only one who has highlighted the issues of court and ball conditions. While players like Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas have repeatedly drawn attention to the heavy features of the tennis balls, legends like Roger Federer have questioned the court speeds, citing the need for faster courts as well, as that would give the audience something new and also make sure that the players were adaptive enough to play on different conditions.

Given that scheduling is already a concern and matches at the ongoing US Open have already gone well past midnight, the changes proposed by Bartoli are crucial for maintaining the physical and mental well-being of the players.