“What women play!” Paula Badosa complains about differentiation in the US Open balls for women against men
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Paula Badosa
Paula Badosa has been slowly climbing the ladder of success since her WTA title win at the Serbia Open in 2021. The young sensation has won three WTA titles and is being regarded as the next big thing in tennis from Spain.Badosa was the defending champion at the Cincinnati Open as she had defeated Victoria Azarenka in a thrilling three hours final at Cincinnati in 2021 which was also her first WTA1000 title win. But she failed to defend her title this year as she lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the Round of 32.
The Spaniard had also faced an early round exit at the Canadian Open after handing a walkover to Yulia Putintseva due to an injury for which she couldn’t continue after the second set even though she had already lost the first set. It was a major setback for her after her great run at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic event where she lost to the Russian Daria Kasatkina in the semi-finals. She had a good grass-court season but only managed to reach the Round of 16 at Wimbledon as she lost to Simona Halep in straight sets.
“We are playing on the hard court” Paula Badosa on the use of different balls for women’s and men’s matches
Paula Badosa on her social media account on Instagram, shared a story pointing out the difference in balls used for women’s and men’s matches at the US Open. She highlighted that the balls used for women’s matches are lighter in weight and are ideal for use in indoor and clay matches whereas the balls used for men’s matches are ideal for hard-court matches which should be used as the US Open is the hard-court event. Badosa even highlighted the fact that the balls being lighter in use during matches will make the ball swing a lot and will be harder to control which may lead to the players making some unforced errors during the course of the match.
Badosa is not the only player who has pointed out at the difference and criticized the authorities for such an indifferent attitude among men and women in matches at big tournaments. The world number one Iga Swiatek had even highlighted the same issues during her matches at the Cincinnati Open and expressed her feelings that she is unaware why such rules are in place rather should be acted upon as soon as possible it becomes easier for them to hit balls and play matches without many errors.
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Prateek Pradhan
(601 Articles Published)