Foot Fault!

With the tennis not exactly setting the world alight on Sunday, day one of Roland Garros was ruled by talk of balls. That’s tennis balls.

Just a week before the tournament, the Roland Garros officials made the decision to switch from the dunlop tennis balls usually used to new Babolat balls. The Babolats are said to be much firmer than the oldies, flying through the air quicker and favouring more powerful players.

Not that he ever is, but Muzz wasn’t very happy about the change.

“I practised with it in London before I came over here. I don’t mind the ball but I would just rather we played with the same ball throughout the clay-court stretch and the same throughout the hard-court stretch.” He said

“It happens in the States as well. At the US Open they play with Wilson, and at the hard-court events in the build-up they use Penn. I just think for the players’ joints, your wrist, elbow and shoulder, it makes sense to stick with the same ball.”

And nor was Novak, to be honest;

“The courts are dry and therefore there’s more speed,” he said. “That’s why, even if the balls’ specs are similar to last year, the sensation could be quite different.”

“very, very fast, so it’s really difficult to control. Maybe it’s going to favor the servers and the big hitters.”

Hilariously, of all the tennis players currently in Paris, the voice of reason came from one Jelena Jankovic after her 6-1 6-3 victory over Alona Bondarenko.

“It tends to take off and really move around. That’s the biggest difference actually,” she said. “You just have to get used to it. It’s different to the other balls which are a little bit heavier and stick to the racquet a little bit more.”

Hell has truly frozen over.