"We do Roland-Garros with dog balls! What's this? They are rotten these bullets! Who else but Benoît Paire to shout these words on the Suzanne-Lenglen during his defeat in the 1st round against Cameron Norrie (5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 4-6). If the words make you smile, and their vulgarity due to the circumstances of the defeat in 5 sets, the subject causes cause in the aisles of Roland-Garros.
"They are disastrous," Serbian Laslo Djere said after his elimination against Russia's Andrey Rublev. But it's not just the losers who are picking on Wilson's little yellow ball this year. "I hate them" said American Taylor Fritz, after losing only 4 games in the 1st round. "They're not my favorite balls, to be honest. They become soft and cottony. It makes the match very slow, "admitted, more wisely, the 6th world Holger Rune.
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Even though the weather conditions are perfect this year, without any drop of rain and temperatures very regularly above 20 degrees, the bullets are accused of not standing the test of time. "We play with balls that grow in two seconds. New balls do not even last a game, "described Benoît Paire at a press conference. World number 9 Taylor Fritz said: "After a few rallies they are completely dead, so it's very hard to generate power. You have to hit everything like a deaf, it's quickly exhausting. »
"We go to the highest bidder"
The target of all his criticism is necessarily the official supplier. "Wilson had sent me the tournament balls and they are not the same. They become very heavy, very big. (...) The feeling I had in training is not the same here, "lamented Roberto Bautista-Agut in comments reported by L'Equipe.
Chosen by the tournament organizers since 2020, Wilson has replaced the Babolat brand, much more often associated with clay than the American giant. "It is true that the American brand is not made to play on clay. We worked for years to get a good ball during Roland Garros. With Yannick Noah, we asked for balls upstream to test them and say what we thought of them. With the call for tenders, we go to the highest bidder, "said for RTL Henri Leconte.
🗣️ Confidences of players at Roland Garros
Medvedev: "From what I've heard, everyone agrees that it is, let's say, slower this year and that the balls are bigger."
Liar. pic.twitter.com/mQhdkvxBPf
— Benoit Maylin (@BenoitMaylin) May 27, 2023
A quality of balls that has decreased throughout the circuit since Covid-19, according to several players of the circuit. Manufacturers are accused of changing rubber to reduce the bill. "Now it's starting to be said everywhere, I'm sure they're not the same as before," Gasquet had already explained in the past.
But then, who benefits from crime? According to Roberto Bautista-Agut, to "those who have a lot of strength". For Benoît Paire, "physically, the one who will hold the ball the most in the court". "Those who have a wrist set" judges rather Daniil Medvedev who targets "Carlos Alcaraz or a little Stefanos Tsitsipas". In short, no one agrees, but one thing is certain: the ball is the same for everyone.