The ongoing discussion regarding the various tennis balls used in the sport persists. Most recently, Novak Djokovic expressed concerns, correlating frequent wrist injuries with the issue. Claudio Zimaglia, Djokovic’s physiotherapist, has now joined the conversation and affirmed Djokovic’s observations in an interview with “Gazzetta dello Sport,” stating, “It’s indeed a growing trend, as per a recent study.”
This proves that injuries to the wrist in particular have “increased significantly” among tennis players.
Among other things, the physiotherapist cited the fact that players are trying to “generate more and more spin” as a reason for this development. “The problems of switching balls have caused the risk of injury to the upper limbs to increase exponentially,” Zimaglia explained.
There have been several examples in recent years, with Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Djokovic, among others, lamenting the constant changing of balls.
Fritz, for example, stated on social media recently, “I’ve had to live with wrist problems since the beginning of the US Open, and it’s all because of problems changing the match balls. We’ve had three different ones in three weeks.”
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Djokovic’s physio further commented on the issue, “It leads to increased stress on the wrist due to repetition, which multiplies between matches and training sessions.” The world number one had recently called for “using only one ball” per surface on the ATP Tour to reduce injuries.
Nonetheless, the resolution to this issue might be delayed due to the extended contracts in place with ball manufacturers, particularly at major tournaments.
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