Australian Open to stay with Dunlop despite criticism over soft balls | Australian Open 2023

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Tennis Australia has renewed its deal with manufacturer Dunlop for a further five years, despite criticism from several top players over the quality of the balls at this year’s Australian Open.

The likes of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are among those who have complained about the balls, which they say wear out quickly and lose pressure, become softer and make it harder to hit winners.

The condition of the balls, say their critics, led to longer rallies, which could make tennis entertaining, but led to longer matches and, in turn, later ending a major point of controversy during this tournament.

TA switched from Wilson to Dunlop for the first time for the 2019 tournament, with the manufacturer claiming at the time that players often referred to Dunlop balls as the best on the tour. This year in Melbourne, however, player complaints marred the first week of play.

Despite the backlash from players, Dunlop will continue to serve the Australian Open until at least 2028.

Tennis Australia and Dunlop have renewed their partnership for another five years, a TA spokesperson has said. Dunlop has a long history of producing high quality tennis balls with consistency, durability and little variation. Dunlop is the most used ball on the international tennis circuit.

Player satisfaction is key and we will continue to collect feedback from the player community and ensure it is taken into account in the design, manufacturing and testing process.

Top seed Nadal described the balls, which seemed to inflate quickly, as being of lower quality than the previous year at Melbourne Park, while Murray described them as flat. Nine-time Australian Open champion Djokovic said they were slower than before and seriously affecting the game.

After demonstrating the lack of ball bounce to the referee in his second-round match against Alex Molcan, Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime said the situation was crazy and the balls were terrible.

Jack Draper, who is sponsored by Dunlop, said: They are starting to fly a lot. Then all of a sudden they get quite fluffy. A few got very soft very quickly. I kind of gave them to ref.

Dunlop said the balls that have come under criticism over the past week were no different from those used in previous years, and tournament director Craig Tiley argued that the weather conditions, mainly humidity this year, had changed the players’ perception of the balls.

Félix Auger-Aliassime questions the chair umpire about the condition of the balls. Photography: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

John McEnroe, a seven-time Grand Slam champion turned commentator, dismissed the fury and said the ball quality debate had a lot to do with next to nothing.

But of course I’m just a commentator, so when I was a player you were excited or anxious about almost everything, he told Eurosport. Oh it’s too hot, it’s too cold, it’s too windy, I’m playing too late, I’m playing too early, the tension is not right in my racquet, the balls are getting too heavy.

Of course, the balls get heavier after the way these guys and gals are hitting them now. How about bringing racquets with different tensions? So after three or four games, if in fact the balls are getting heavier or you think they are getting heavier, use the frame with slightly looser forces.

The Dunlops website states that the manufacturer has obsessively crafted every tennis ball we have produced since 1923.

Tennis and the surfaces on which the game is played have changed a lot over the years. So we wrap every ball with our expertise and passion, to develop a ball that performs the same for every player on every court, he said.

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