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Andy Roddick has raised concerns over the quality of the balls being used at the Indian Wells Masters.
The qualifying rounds of the prestigious ATP Masters 1000 tournament have already started. Main draw matches are set to get underway from March 6. Warmups and practice sessions have begun as well.
Penn Racquet Sports, Inc. is the official racquet and ball sponsor of Indian Wells. However, the company, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, has come under fire recently for its tennis balls that are being used at Indian Wells.
Roddick, a former ATP World No. 1, took to social media to criticize the balls after receiving texts from two coaches. The American did not name them in his social media post.
"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?" Roddick wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, a Vietnamese-American tennis player, responded to Roddick, saying that the fault lies with the courts rather than the balls.
"Wilson ball does the same thing on those courts. The courts are just insanely slow and gritty, any ball would look like that. We played Wilson at a Challenger there in January and it was insane also."
Roddick replied to Kwiatkowski's comment.
"There seems to be enough of a difference where coaches who've coached top players from three decades think this year is especially bad,"
The 2003 US Open champion, in a separate post, used a GIF to showcase players' condition after practicing with the balls ahead of the Indian Wells Masters.
"The players after hitting w the balls at IW," Roddick captioned the post, followed by the GIF.
Stan Wawrinka recently took a swipe at the balls at Indian Wells too
Stan Wawrinka, the 2017 Indian Wells Masters runner-up, was not pleased with the balls at Indian Wells after a recent practice session. The Swiss claimed that it only took a rally for the balls to deteriorate. He also tagged Tommy Haas, the tournament director, and the ATP Tour.
"Question: Is not normal that in 2024 at @BNPPARIBASOPEN one of biggest tennis tournament in the world, we have to do are 2nd practice with old balls ?? @atptour @TommyHaas13 That's 1 rally play with the ball," the 3-time Grand Slam winner wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Wawrinka will begin his Indian Wells campaign with a first-round match against Tomas Machac.
