Daniil Medvedev called over the supervisor to complain about the quality of the tennis balls during his 7-5 7-5 victory over Thiago Seyboth Wild at the Shanghai Masters. The Russian world number three expressed frustration with the Wilson balls, the same ones used at last week's China Open.
'These balls are not good enough for professional tennis,' Medvedev told the supervisor. 'This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world and the balls are destroyed after five games. No pressure at all.'
Medvedev had previously raised similar concerns after his win over Ugo Humbert at the China Open, stating that the balls were too difficult to control on hard courts. 'Since the warm-up, even before the match, it was tough to control the ball,' he said. 'It’s not easy for the mind to understand it so again, I like to play like this but I don’t think it’s good for hard court tennis.'
Other players have also voiced concerns about frequent ball changes. Zizou Bergs attributed a wrist injury to the constant switch of balls between tournaments, while Carlos Alcaraz acknowledged the challenge, saying 'tennis players have to get used to that.'
