Paula Badosa agrees with Iga Swiatek that the current balls used for the US Open women’s event are “horrible.” The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament which uses different types of balls for the US Open men’s and women’s events.
The women play with a bit lighter balls, and according to Swiatek, that’s not very helpful. In Cincinnati, Swiatek described those balls as “horrible” and “pretty bad.” Badosa noticed Swiatek’s comments and wrote on Instagram Story: “Totally agree.”
Paula Badosa agrees with Iga Swiatek as the world #1 has criticized the balls used in the US Open series
“Totally agree. There are really unfavorable conditions for the players and for the show” pic.twitter.com/QnIIKcHaCH — Mario Boccardi (@marioboc17) August 19, 2022
Badosa agrees with Swiatek
“We make more mistakes [with these balls], for sure,” Swiatek said in Cincinnati.
“So I don’t think that’s really nice to watch visually I don’t know why they are different than men’s ones. Fifteen 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. I feel, it’s really hard to control them, but everybody has the same conditions, so we are trying to deal with that. I don’t get why they are different, honestly.
We [women] have really powerful games right now. It’s not like 10 years ago. Right now we play powerful, and we kind of can’t loosen up our hands with these balls.” Swiatek suffered surprise back-to-back round-of-16 exits in Toronto and Cincinnati.
“I think those balls are horrible, especially after like three games of really hard playing, they are getting more and more light,” Swiatek said. “At the end, you can’t even serve at 170km/h because it’s going to fly like crazy.
I think they are pretty bad”. After suffering a surprise Cincinnati loss to Madison Keys, Swiatek once again blamed the balls. Like Swiatek, Badosa also hasn’t impressed in recent weeks. After losing her opener in Toronto, Badosa also suffered a loss in her opening Cincinnati match.
