For those fortunate enough to reach a USTA National Championship event, it makes a lot of sense to practice on the court surface using the exact type of ball expected to be played in that competition. The USTA has contracts for “official” balls with Wilson and Penn. Wilson balls are used in tournaments while USTA League Championship events hand out Penn.
For reasons that still defy my understanding, the USTA provides regular duty balls for women’s events while the men get extra duty. “Separate (But Unequal) Balls” described that practice at the US Open. “Even More Separate (But Unequal) Balls” discussed the use of regular duty balls for Adult women’s Level 1 tournaments.
While practicing with my team in advance of the recent 9.0 55+ Nationals, I proffered Penn regular duty balls during each session. Ironically, that wasn’t the ball used at our event. The 6.0/9.0 55+ Nationals used four different balls during the event. The breakdown was as follows:
- 6.0 Women: Penn Regular Duty Balls
- 6.0 Men: Penn Extra Duty balls.
- 9.0 Women: Pro Penn Regular Duty Balls
- 9.0 Men: Pro Penn Extra Duty Balls
The fact that the premium Pro Penn balls were used at all suggests to me that supply chain issues are still impacting the availability of tennis balls. I have heard from other event organizers that it is a challenge to get enough cases of a single brand and model to conduct events. Earlier this year I played an event that even had to resort to using Wilson practice balls.
The Women’s Intersectional Championships that I competed in last week also used a premium ball. Since that team event falls under the USTA Tournament umbrella, Wilson US Open balls were used. Since this was a women’s event, they were regular duty.
The fact that regular duty balls are used for women’s matches at the US Open isn’t much of an issue for the pros because the balls are swapped out every few games. While Iga Swiatek spoke out against the ball before this year’s tournament, it was because it doesn’t suit her style of play. For the rest of us, I still think it is chintzy that the USTA foists regular duty balls on women competing in hardcourt tournaments. It would make more sense to me to use extra duty for hardcourt play and regular duty on clay regardless of gender.
My key takeaway from these two recent tournaments is that if you really want to prepare and practice with the ball that will be used in competition, it is advisable to reach out to tournament organizers in advance of the event. However, there could still be an 11th-hour swap forced by supply chain issues.
This post is proof positive that I am unlikely to run out of ways to overthink tennis anytime soon.
Using different balls for men and women still makes me shake my head each time I hear it.
I bought a case of balls a couple weeks ago and the price of Wilson US Open is up to $120! I bought a different name brand instead at a lower price but after one use returned the remainder and paid Wilson its ransom.
Just remembered that last year a USTA opponent used Wilson Titanium balls (yes, I think it was meant to be gamesmanship) and I liked them. A case is half the price of US Open balls so this may be a less expensive option for friendly matches on clay.