Two more tennis stars have supported Daniil Medvedev’s criticism of the tennis balls being used at the Rotterdam Open, one describing them as “really terrible.”
Arthur Fils, a rising talent who is returning from a longterm back injury, and Alex de Minaur, the world No. 8, played each other Tuesday. After de Minaur’s 7-6(3), 6-2 win, both players expressed frustration with the much-maligned Head Tour XT ball.
“They are terrible. Really terrible. The ball is very bad. It is unbelievable,” Fils said to sports website Bolavip.
“When we are playing at this level, literally playing professionally, very good players, then watching the balls after two games getting bigger and very slow, that is not normal.
“I don’t know who is in charge of it, maybe ATP, but they have to do better, because it is not normal to play with these balls at our level,” he said.
De Minaur told the same outlet: “I have struggled a lot in practice. I have actually been quite frustrated with the balls in practice, which is not like me. I do get what Daniil says about the balls.
“They are definitely not my favourite. I don’t think they are anyone’s favourite balls. They are very difficult to control.”
An ATP Tour spokesperson and a representative for Head did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fils and de Minaur’s comments followed Medvedev’s outburst during a three-set loss to Ugo Humbert Monday. After calling the tournament supervisor to the court, Medvedev said: “These tennis balls are round, or not round?”
“Are they round? Head balls, are they round? Are you sure? Because I see it not round”
After the supervisor confirmed that they are round, Medvedev said: “It’s a bit strange. So I think maybe we should consider not playing with Head balls.
“The Head Tour XT ball is not round, so we should not (be) playing with it, nobody should be buying it, we should not be promoting a tennis ball that is not round.
“We have three more games to play with not good balls,” Medvedev continued.
“The problem is when you touch it with the racket, it does not react the same way on your shots, so how do you want us to play tennis?”
He then tossed them away after the conversation ended.
The ATP is moving toward standardizing the balls used on the tour, which has previously been complicated due to tournaments played on the same surface, or in the same part of the season, having different sponsorships. Regardless of manufacturer, all balls must meet specifications on weight and size, with the diameter between 6.54 and 6.86 centimeters.
In a news release last June, the ATP Tour said that it had made “significant progress in delivering greater ball consistency across the Tour”.
It added: “This is the first season in which the ATP is centralizing the ball-supplier selection process, in collaboration with tournaments, moving away from the previous model where tournaments independently selected their own suppliers.”
The tour said it expects complete centralization by the 2027 season.
De Minaur also went on to make a similar complaint to one Medvedev has made before — that the balls are extremely difficult to hit through and favour the tour’s biggest hitters. “It is tough to explain it, but it is a very dead ball,” he said. “It does suit the big hitters, the players that have a big revolution on the ball and are able to hit through that.”
Medvedev, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the balls used on the ATP Tour, claimed at the Shanghai Masters in 2024 that the ones being used could only be hit through by players with “crazy power” like Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
At that year’s ATP Tour Finals, he said in a news conference: “Every practice is a struggle. Every match is a struggle. I was holding (serve) for long time. Now I feel zero pleasure of being on the court.”
Medvedev had said at the Australian Open last month that tennis balls are “getting better”, but that goodwill evaporated Monday. After his initial complaint against Humbert, he later said “these balls are horrible. Please delete these f—ing balls from this f—ing life.”
World No. 4 Alexander Zverev has been another harsh critic of the balls the tour uses, while Taylor Fritz, the world No. 7, has repeatedly said he would change the balls used and would want an end to the switching of balls at different events. He and others have drawn a link between the balls used and an increase in injuries on the tour, while multiple players have attributed their heaviness to matches feeling slower and rallies longer, though tour data shows that rallies have remained stable or shortened over the past five years.
The players will have to figure out how to use the Head ball most effectively for the rest of the tournament, which finishes Sunday. De Minaur, who is the No. 1 seed, concluded that “it is what it is. The ball or the court is not going to change and my job is to adapt and do my best and continue doing that.”
He next faces either fellow Australian Aleksandar Vukic or three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka in the round of 16 Thursday.