Faster, Harder

I think John Isner's "gargantuan serve" and surprising but ultimately unsuccessful five-set opening round French Open match against Rafael Nadal yesterday had something to do with his balls.

From today's Wall Street Journal:

"Even as the sport of tennis changed radically over the last 100 years, the balls pretty much stayed the same. At this year's French Open, however, the old Dunlops have been replaced with new balls made by Babolat and the players, a notoriously vigilant lot, have noticed.

"Novak Djokovic, the No. 2 seed, who won his 38th-straight match of 2011 on Monday, called the balls 'very, very fast' and 'really difficult to control.' Men's No. 3-seed Roger Federer, a 16-time Grand Slam winner, said they're 'faster, indeed,' especially when they're fresh. 'That will be an issue,' he said.  Samantha Stosur, last year's women's finalist, said that she thinks the new models are 'a little bit harder.'

"A faster, harder ball, the thinking goes, could add a little zip to a serve or forehand, making it more difficult to return. 'Maybe it's going to favor the servers and the big hitters,' Djokovic said."