{"id":2577,"date":"2026-08-01T18:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2577"},"modified":"2026-08-01T18:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:30:26","slug":"jessica-pegula-says-no-other-sport-would-accept-controversial-tennis-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2577","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula says \u2018no other sport\u2019 would accept controversial tennis issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica Pegula<\/a> has made the bold claim that \u2018no other sport\u2019 would tolerate what tennis players have come to accept regarding the supposedly declining quality of tennis balls.<\/p>\n

The American has reached the final of the WTA 500 event in Washington, where she will next face the winner of the match between Alex Eala and Naomi Osaka.<\/p>\n

Pegula<\/a> has enjoyed another remarkably consistent season, reaching the quarter-finals or better at eight tournaments, including four of the last five WTA 1000 events.<\/p>\n

Despite a surprise first-round exit to Kimberly Birrell at the French Open, she reached her maiden Wimbledon quarter-final before being edged out by compatriot Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

Pegula is currently ranked world No 3 and has the opportunity to extend her lead over fourth-ranked Gauff if she goes on to win the Washington title, having only third-round points to defend at the two upcoming North American WTA 1000 events.<\/p>\n

She is also defending a semi-final showing at the US Open, which takes place from August 30 to September 13.<\/p>\n

Despite her impressive form, Pegula used part of her post-match press conference to voice her frustrations over the quality and consistency of tennis balls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked a lot about these freaking tennis balls, till the cows come home, oh my gosh,\u201d she began.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just hard, because you learn a lot about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, there\u2019s different manufacturers. So, obviously, different countries, so different tournaments get the same ball, but it\u2019s from a different place that makes them so it feels different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the surface of the court, and does it fit with the ball? Like, sometimes the balls are okay, but you put it on a gritty court, and they get really chewed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weather: sometimes it\u2019s really hot and humid, sometimes it\u2019s cooler, so that dictates whether they fly or they don\u2019t fly. Like, there are so many variables.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even day to day, how they change from it being, like, maybe cooler today, but hot the other day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so it\u2019s kind of like an impossible thing to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Tennis News<\/h2>\n

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Different tournaments use different brands of tennis balls. For example, Dunlop balls are used at the Australian Open, Wilson at the French Open and the US Open, and Slazenger at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

Pegula\u2019s comments echo concerns raised by several ATP players, including Daniil Medvedev, who has repeatedly criticised the lack of consistency between tournaments.<\/p>\n

Speaking at this year\u2019s Rotterdam Open, the former US Open champion said: \u201cThe problem is when you touch it with the racket, it does not react the same way on your shots, so how do you want us to play tennis?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pegula concluded that the constant changes in tennis balls have a significant impact on players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think where you get frustrated is where you\u2019re constantly changing, and I know at one point, the men were playing with, like, three different balls in three weeks. Like, that\u2019s crazy. Like, you ask any other sport to kind of deal with that, and they\u2019re like, Are you joking? Like, that wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it sounds silly, but it does make a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Jessica Pegula says \u2018no other sport\u2019 would accept controversial tennis issue<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Pegula has made the bold claim that \u2018no other sport\u2019 would tolerate what tennis players have come to accept regarding the supposedly declining quality of tennis balls. The American has reached the final of the WTA 500 event in Washington, where she will next face the winner of the match between Alex Eala and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}