The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has amended the rules of tennis to allow three different kinds of tennis ball to be used in tournament play during 2000 and 2001. The goal of this experiment is to slow or quicken the game for different court surfaces.
One of the hottest topics of debate in pro tennis for the last several years has been whether to and how to slow the game down, especially the men's game on fast courts such as grass. As the average size of pro players and the power of their racquets has increased, so have serve speeds, and the result has been many more short points dominated by the server. For many fans, this makes tennis less fun to watch. Proposals for slowing the game have included a one-serve rule and even a reversion to wooden racquets, but the ITF has opted for the less drastic measure of trying a slower ball.
On a fast court, the ball encounters relatively little friction to slow its forward velocity. Grass is the fastest of the outdoor surfaces, followed by a wide variety of hard courts, then clay. Indoor courts also have a range of speeds, from rare, extremely fast wood to carpet to all kinds of hard surfaces and then indoor clay (also rare).
On the faster surfaces, returning serve is most difficult, because the receiver has the least time to react. That's one of the key reasons that big servers like Pete Sampras have had their greatest success on fast courts like those at Wimbledon. When a ball hits a grass court, the grass doesn't bite into the ball much and thus doesn't slow it down. If the court isn't going to slow the ball down, there's only one other thing the ball touches on its way from server to receiver: the air.
To slow a ball in the air, we want to increase its air resistance. We accomplish this by making it push more air out of its way as it flies, in other words, by making it bigger. The new Type 3 ball will have a diameter seven to eight percent larger than the traditional ball, which will make its surface area fourteen to seventeen percent larger. It will also bounce higher than the traditional ball, but its other attributes, such as weight, felt cover, and color, will remain unchanged. This ball will be recommended for fast courts. None of the three types of balls will be required on any surface, but the Type 3 ball might become mandatory for high-altitude play, where the thin air has always made traditional-sized balls, even with lower internal pressure, fly somewhat uncontrollably.
Type 2 balls will be the traditional ball, recommended for medium-speed courts such as the typical outdoor hard court.
Type 1 balls will be the same size as a traditional ball, but harder, which will make them play faster on very slow courts such as red clay. A harder ball flattens less when it hits the court. This results in less friction, and thus less slowing on impact. It also creates a lower bounce, because the less the ball compresses, the less it can rebound. There hasn't been as much call for speeding up the game on clay as there has for slowing it on grass and indoors, so it will be interesting to see whether these faster balls get much use.
Bigger tennis balls are not a new idea. They hit the market several years ago, the slower speed intended to make tennis more fun for recreational players. Wilson's "Rally" ball was the best known, but none of the bigger balls ever took hold. Now that they're officially sanctioned, though, they might have more success.
Would you welcome slower balls at tournaments such as Wimbledon? How about at your local club? Share your thoughts at our tennis forum.
