The Indian Wells 2024 organisers, including founder Larry Ellison and tournament director, Tommy Haas would be a worried lot as they already find themselves mired in controversy. Andy Roddick took to X (formerly Twitter) to question the quality of balls being used in the ATP 1000 tournament. He promised to elaborate upon this issue in the upcoming episode of his podcast, also sharing a meme from the official account.
The Served With Andy Roddick podcast has quickly become one of the most popular tennis podcasts out there. Fans await the weekly episodes with much anticipation. The host gave a sneak peek into a topic for next week’s episode.
Roddick claimed two top professional tennis coaches personally messaged him about the poor quality of balls at the Indian Wells tournament. He attached an image of a fuzzed-up ball, saying this is how it looked after only a few minutes of warming up. The debate over ball quality has been raging on for over a year now. Hence, the 2003 US Open champion was surprised that nothing had been done to address it, even at such an important tournament.
Roddick tweeted the following –
Have gotten two texts from two of the top coaches on earth in last hour saying how bad the balls are at Indian Wells. Apparently this was after and handful of minutes of a warmup. How has this problem not been fixed over time?
Indian Wells is arguably the biggest ATP Masters tournament, often called the ‘fifth Slam’. Hence, for an event of this stature to use such low-end balls that lose their shape/smoothness so soon is shocking. Roddick said he would further discuss this issue on the upcoming episode of his podcast. The official account of the Served with Andy Roddick later shared a meme comparing the fuzzy ball to a troll doll.
Fuzzed-up balls travel slower and have low bounce, bringing the pace of the game down. This facilitates longer rallies and matches, an accusation many players have levied upon the ATP/WTA.
Other tennis players join Andy Roddick in complaining about balls at the Indian Wells 2024
Roddick’s concerns were also echoed by a couple of other ATP professionals. Fellow American Tennys Sandgren replied to the former World No.1’s post, claiming this is how balls are everywhere now. Sandgren, who recently played in the Dallas Open, said balls in all tournaments become fluffy and lose their shape after ‘one rally’.
Retired Australian player John Millman also joined the crusade. He said this was a deliberate effort to slow down the game, along with making courts slower. He alleged that extra sand is mixed in the courts to make them rough and gritty, which fuzzes these balls up. The one-time ATP titlist said this was done to ensure matches last longer.
The longstanding ball debate reared its head just days into Indian Wells 2024, which is already rocked by the news of Rafael Nadal withdrawing at the 11th hour on Wednesday, which means more mop up work for Larry Ellison and his team. More players or coaches are yet to speak up. Perhaps, as the next episode of Served With Andy Roddick gives this more coverage, more concerned people could talk about the issue on a larger scale, despite the implications it could have on the competition.
