Andy Roddick Slams ‘F*****g Terrible’ Tennis Balls Used During Exhibition Event: “Daniil Medvedev Was Right”

Several players had criticized the Dunlop balls used during this year's Indian Wells Masters.

Andy Roddick Slams ‘F*****g Terrible’ Tennis Balls Used During Exhibition Event: “Daniil Medvedev Was Right”

Andy Roddick, Daniil Medvedev (Image via X/AllAboutHQ, Edoardo Viglione)

In Short
  • Andy Roddick criticized the Dunlop tennis balls used in an exhibition match, calling them "f*****g terrible."
  • Daniil Medvedev and other players have also expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of Dunlop balls.
  • Carlos Alcaraz's recent Australian Open victory has shifted focus away from his performance in subsequent tournaments.

In March this year, Andy Roddick featured in an exhibition event at the Sao Paulo Jockey Club in Brazil ahead of the inaugural Latin America Open, which is an ATP 100 Challenger event. Roddick played doubles alongside Fernando Meligeni, a former French Open semifinalist from Brazil.

The pair locked horns with Argentine tennis legends Juan Martin del Potro and Diego Schwartzman. Roddick, during the latest episode of his Served podcast, reflected on the Dunlop balls used during the match.

They gave us the Dunlop balls, so they gave us whatever the challenger was using. I don’t often like to throw strays unnecessarily, but they are unusable. They are f*****g terrible. The seam on the ball, where you have the felt, and the seam should look level. The rounded edges should be continuous and at least predictable. But there were bumps, nodules, and it blows up quickly.

Andy Roddick said

Medvedev has been a harsh critic of the Dunlop balls and even blamed them for causing wrist discomfort. Taylor Fritz also criticized the balls before this year’s Indian Wells Masters, saying the “quality” of the balls has dropped a lot, also claiming that although they work quite well on fast courts, they do not on slow courts. Alex de Minaur said controlling the Dunlop balls even during practice sessions is difficult, while Arthur Fils called them “really terrible”.

If this is what Medvedev and all these people are talking about, they are absolutely right. Even the seams and where they use the glue is uneven. It’s horrible. We are not trying.

Andy Roddick added

Top players are set to play the Monte Carlo Masters, the first Masters 1000 on clay, scheduled to start on April 5. Last year, Dunlop balls were used during the tournament.

Andy Roddick makes an interesting point about Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero

Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero ended their coaching partnership last December. The tennis world started wondering how the 22-year-old would perform without the guidance of the 2003 French Open champion, but Alcaraz’s victory over Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open ended that debate.

Carlos Alcaraz, Juan Carlos Ferrero (4)
Carlos Alcaraz, Juan Carlos Ferrero (Image via X/Carlos Alcaraz 4K, Tiempo De Tenis)

But because the seven-time Grand Slam champion failed to reach a final in the Sunshine Double events, Andy Roddick, on his Served podcast, said the conversation around Alcaraz at present would have been very different had he failed to win the Major Down Under.

Carlos wins in Australia and full credit. He was the best player in the tournament by far. But also we don’t care, really about Indian Wells and Miami and what happened to him at those tournaments. But if he doesn’t win Australia on the heels of Ferrero and then this happens, it’s a very different conversation if he loses one match in Australia.

While Alcaraz lost to Daniil Medvedev and Sebastian Korda in the semifinals of Indian Wells and the third round of the Miami Open, respectively, World No.2 Jannik Sinner wrapped up both the Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Open in his favor by defeating Medvedev and Jiri Lehecka, respectively.

Thanks to his Sunshine Double wins, the four-time Grand Slam champion has reduced the rankings gap between him and Alcaraz to 1,190. He gained 2,000 ranking points because he skipped both events last year due to the doping ban. Sinner also did not play the 2025 Monte Carlo Masters and now has the golden opportunity to inch closer to dethroning Alcaraz from the top position.

Alcaraz, who will be defending 4,300 points on the European clay swing, will be entering The Principality as the defending champion. Last year, he defeated Lorenzo Musetti to win the title in the event for the first time.

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