The declining quality of tennis balls has become a major issue in tennis. Many prominent players have spoken out about it and criticized the inconsistency in the ball’s quality. Now Carlos Alcaraz has also entered the debate, highlighting that there is a major problem with the quality of balls used in tournaments. He has also demanded better quality balls to be used in all the events.

“I mean, I’ve been talking with the team about how tennis has improved over the years, how fast the courts were back then and now it’s getting slower, but I think it’s not about the courts,” he said in the post-match press conference. “It is about the balls, I would say. We can see in a lot of tournaments, you know, the ball’s reaction from the court is totally different.”

“The ball becomes super big, and it’s a totally different game when it’s new balls, and we played two or three games without balls. You have to adapt yourself the best you can. I don’t know if they’re going to change or not. But what I request is that they have to see the best ball possible for the courts are made.”

The court speed is closely tied to ball wear, as it moves according to the speed of the surface. Players can end a point quickly on fast courts as the ball also moves fast. The ball doesn’t degrade easily on such courts. On the other hand, the quality of the ball can degrade quickly on slow courts, as these are the surfaces where players generally play long rallies and have to hustle for points.

The same was the case at the Laver Cup this year, where players felt that the courts were very slow. Jakub Mensik argued that it was one of the slowest surfaces he played on this season.

“All of us felt like the conditions were very slow,” he said in the press conference. “Compared to the other tournaments, it is the slowest surface I’ve played on this year, as far as hard courts are here. It was really tough for me to get used to it, to get the rhythm, especially for me. My game is a lot about the serve and heavy groundstrokes. So, it’s even more difficult for me to finish the ball. So, the trend of this, I don’t really know where it’s going, but with the combination of the balls, which I consider them that they were not that good as well, it was super slow.”

Another aspect of ball wear is that most events on the calendar are held during the respective countries’ summer season. For context, temperatures at the Australian Open this year breached the 40-degree Celsius mark, with Paris and London also experiencing heatwaves during the French Open and at Wimbledon.

This has only led to controversy becoming even bigger, as more and more players have come forward to complain about the quality of the balls. Jessica Pegula has been one of the leading voices on the matter and had criticized the quality of the balls earlier during the Citi Open.

Jessica Pegula called out Citi Open’s organizers over the ball controversy

“Like, there’s different manufacturers. So, obviously, different countries, so different tournaments get the same ball, but it’s from a different place that makes them so it feels different,” said Pegula in Washington. “I think the surface of the court, and does it fit with the ball? Like, sometimes the balls are okay, but you put it on a gritty court, and they get really chewed up.”

ATP recently tried an experiment to find a solution to the ball issue at the Challenger event in Lexington. According to the experiment, the first ball change in singles matches will take place after the first five games. The ball was then changed every seven games thereafter, instead of the standard nine games.

The decision was made after listening to the feedback of players on ball wear. But after testing the method in the Challenger event, the ATP didn’t carry out a similar experiment in any other tournament.

They chose a Challenger event for the experiment because they weren’t sure whether it was the right move or not. As of now, no changes have been made to the ball change rule in standard tour matches. It is unlikely that a change will be made anytime soon.