Emma Raducanu made her return to competitive tennis at the Nottingham Open with a victory against Japan’s Ena Shibahara. The 21-year-old British tennis won the US Open in 2021, and reached the Top 10 rankings in 2022! But after that, she has struggled a lot with her fitness and form. Raducanu was sidelined for almost eight months last year due to the surgeries on both her wrist and one of her ankles. Recently, she was spotted renewing her calls for the WTA to introduce a uniform tennis ball, “at least for each swing” by claiming the constant change of balls has put her wrists under severe threat. 

The tennis balls are usually two-and-a-half inches in diameter and weigh slightly more than two ounces. Irrespective of its tiny size it has now started to create a huge amount of controversy in the tennis world. Players feel that frequent changing of these tennis balls across different surfaces may be a big reason for their fatigue and injuries. The official ball of the ATP Tour is the Dunlop AO but, the tournament organizers are not obliged to use it. Partnership deals with the ball manufacturers play a huge role in taking the final call here.

A similar thing happens in the WTA as well! Emma Raducanu missed the French Open this year to focus more on maintaining her fitness level ahead of the grass-court swing. But now, she says she is “feeling healthy” given that she was “on a mobility scooter this time a year ago.” However, speaking about her wrist and her appeal to WTA she added, “I think wrists are always very delicate and I think especially with how the tour is right now, and the fact we have to change balls every single week pretty much, and they don’t regulate the ball.“

Emma Raducanu has played just around 17 matches this season and her win percentage is currently, 58.8%. Reflecting more on the actual reason for her being out of action, she said, “I’m not the only one with wrist issues. I’m probably just the one who’s had them most publicly. So, I think for me it’s definitely a factor where I have to miss certain events because either the conditions or the balls just don’t favor my situation.“

Although the tournament organizers are trying hard to make tennis more interesting and pul more crowds by making points longer, Raducanu feels it’s the players who are getting the “short end of the stick“. She now hopes the higher authorities do something about this for the sake of players. Even earlier, several players spoke on this issue publicly and expressed their opinions.

“Players suffer all the time”- It’s not just Emma Raducanu but even ATP stars have often raised their voices on this issue

Australian tennis star, Nick Kyrgios once spoke about the frequent change of balls after seeing Novak Djokovic struggling with his wrist. He said, “Changes of balls every week finally got to Novak’s wrist. The ATP really needs to do something about the problem. Players suffer all the time.” Earlier this year even, Rafael Nadal brought up this topic while playing in Brisbane. He said the ball got “super big” at the end of the first set and it needed quite a bit of effort while hitting it.

American tennis player, Taylor Fritz once revealed, “[I] have been dealing w[ith] wrist issues since the beginning of USO [US Open’ series ‘cause of ball changes.” Even Carlos Alcaraz thinks it’s kind of a “different feeling” when the players have to come into the tournaments and wonder what is going to be the ball in that event.

There are a few other players who have also raised their voices on this issue. So, this quite rightly justifies Emma Raducanu’s statement that she is definitely “not the only one” who is facing injury concerns with frequent changes of tennis balls. Share your thoughts on this burning issue.