Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta has become the latest player to speak out about the quality of balls being used on the Tour which some are saying is sparking a rise in injuries.
The 32-year-old returned to competitive tennis last week at a Challenger event in Alicante after being sidelined for almost eight months due to an elbow injury. Carreno Busta’s setback occurred a year after he won the biggest title of his career at the Canadian Masters. So far in his career, he has won seven ATP titles and is a two-time semi-finalist at the US Open.
“I have been recovering and it seemed like I was going well, but then it got worse and I had to stop again,” he said of his injury battle during an interview with Punto de Break.
“It has been especially hard mentally because it seemed like I would be able to compete and then I wouldn’t. I tried to come back in Indian Wells, then come back in Madrid, then in Winston-Salem, and in the end, it was last week (at the Alicante Ferrero Challenger).”
Speaking about the root cause of his elbow issue, Carreno Busta believes it is linked to the type of balls being used at tournaments. Throughout this season, players on both the men’s and women’s Tour’s have voiced concerns about the type of balls being used. Some say they become heavy to use after being hit a couple of times which puts more pressure on their joints. On top of that, different events have different balls to get used to.
“I’m sure the balls have something to do with my injury,” Carreno Busta commented. “For example, before Roland Garros I was training with some balls at the Academy to recover from the injury and it was going well, I was playing sets, and I switched to the Roland Garros balls to start training with them and after 20 minutes I had to stop because It (the elbow) had become inflamed again. It is clear that the balls are very different, and the continuous change of balls has an influence.”
“Last week we played with one brand, this week we played with another… On the Challenger circuit it is even worse because more are changed, but on the ATP circuit a lot of balls are also changed. We don’t even do two tournaments with practically the same ones. On the same Australian or clay court tour you can change the brand of balls. This influences more injuries.”
Earlier this week Portugal’s Gastao Elias wrote on social media that the ATP should be forced to pay for his physiotherapy after being made to play with a certain type of balls at a Challenger event, describing the situation as ‘inhumane’ and something he has never experienced before.
American player Tenys Sandgren has backed Elias’ comment. Meanwhile, Paula Badosa added that there are similar issues on the WTA Tour and called for ‘change from both sides.’ Badosa has also been injured for most of this season.
As for Carreno Busta, he admits to still experiencing pain whilst playing but hopes it will ease over the coming months as he aims to climb back up the rankings once again. He is currently ranked 195th in the world.
“It bothers me, especially when I finish playing and when I rest, it bothers me less,” he explained. “For now, it seems that the pain is controlled, the next day I can play again. I’m going to have to live with the pain for at least a while and hopefully it will adapt and disappear.”
