The state of tennis balls with Mauro Pinaffo from HEAD

Tennis balls have been in the spotlight lately, with multiple complaints about quality and consistency from pro tennis players. Why is this happening, what has been done to improve the situation, and what can be done in the future? Mauro Pinaffo is HEAD's Senior Global Product Manager for Tennis and Padel balls and gives us all the answers and some interesting stats and details about tennis balls you might not know.
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[@movdqa]

I watched the video on this topic during the winter and was noticing that balls didn't last and right now balls are lasting much longer and the bounce is great for 2-3 hours. One minor exception is a premium ball (Penn Marathon) that developed a hole or problem. But playability and durability seems vastly different due to temperature. We try to keep the tennis balls in a warm place before going to the courts but it doesn't always happen. I'll check again this winter to see if this happens again.

[@gkinghsmith9352]

Very interesting and helpful interview. I would love to have the question of pressure durabilty and materials discussed. I'm comparing it to mike tire inner tubes. Butyl, latex or TPU? Would be interested. But the only way we'll get longer lasting balls is for the pro's to use longer life balls.

[@mcmillin08]

Awesome interview, I've always wondered about the specifics of the balls! My only question that didn't get answered was, is there a difference in the manufacturing process or quality control now verses 30 years ago? It seems to me now that there are way more balls that are not perfectly round, are kind of egg shaped, almost one per can! And/or one that has an imperfection or overlap/raised little bump in the felt... as compared to 30 years ago when I was playing on my high school team, I don't remember there being hardly any balls that were out of spec.

[@raytrace2014]

Well done to Head for doing this. Other tennis equipment manufacturers should take note. One point about Head balls, and this is purely psychological and subjective, even the premium balls look cheap because of the graphic design. Head Tour for instance has a really basic design, the typography looks cheap. The Wilson US Open ball looks more premium to me, so does the Dunlop AO ball. The ugly design of Head balls puts me off buying them even though they play well. They look like supermarket own-brand balls.

[@bengray5013]

Jonas knows a lot of the guys at Head and they’re always keen to do podcasts. I imagine all the other brands would do the same if asked to do so.

[@fausto_colella]

recently played with just opened can of head tour xt... they totally sucked! fly around with very unpredictable launch, control and spin were worse than anything i ever played (maybe only old days Tretorn stone-like balls were worse!) if those are really considered high quality balls designed for "performance players", i guess no real player tested them before putting on market!

[@mattiastennis]

Dont agree with the comment at the end. Not everyone has the same wrist / fingers or can hit well with the same ball and this is further exacerbated when the balls are trash. Make quality balls that bounce properly(some Tour Xts didnt do this) dont fly like rock-rockets('Championship') and dont destroy your hands/fingers(Wilson balls and Babolat 'Golds'), and then players can just focus on playing.

[@mattiastennis]

Goran in this case is right and wrong with his statement. He is right in his mind that 'society' is whining / weak but he is wrong to not go the same way with quality / manufacturing and the state of things. A lot of equipment has been in free-fall decline since WEF-'Great Reset' aka 'covid' transpired.

[@derekpappas1556]

The problem is that the surfaces of grass and clay are being made to be harder . To make a court play the same no matter the surface , makes for a boring game. This is why watching grass tennis is now boring .The players do not want to change the way they play on this surface and why would they need to , when the surface is getting slower and harder and more even . The media and tours created the problem when they rigged the game against the serve volley and all court player . Now players want to slide on grass !

[@bengray5013]

Spot on

[@mattiastennis]

Head Rubbish-ship / 'Championship' Along with Head 'Reset', Penn and those Babolat 'Gold' these are the WORST BALLS OF ALL TIME! Mauro states that Head Tour & Tour XT are for 'performance players' and thus their 'highest quality'. If that is the 'highest quality' then Head need to retire from making balls... 'spin', 'control' are non-existent. Every tournament and fixtures there is always complaints about them. What has changed over the years? Quality has gone from bad to worse. 4 mins he is right the Quality has got worst. SO - make the balls in Europa in high quality control facility. 'covid' this 'covid' that is just an excuse. The real story is that these companies just use this INVENTED 'disease' in order to reduce to eliminate all their production costs. A great example of this was fuel companies LITERALLY for 2 yrs stopping all oil production. 'Great Reset' is what their head halfwit autored... 1 BALL for the WHOLE TOUR. End of story. F1 can do this so can Tennis. F1 has Pirelli and tyres are much more complicated and very engineered vs a tennis ball. There is more money in F1 and its just more difficult than anything tennis could imagine so..

[@GT-fx8fd]

Been saying this for years when people are like ‘Ohhh I’ve bought the Wimbledon ball….I’ve bought the US Open ball’ Yeh that isn’t the ball even in the slightest close to what they are making & using at that tournament. You really think they are going to sell to the public the same ball they make specifically for the fucking tournament 😂 Tennis muppets owned by BS tennis marketing as always. 👍🏽 Love it

[@bengray5013]

I’ve played with Slazenger Wimbledon balls that were brand new sent directly from the all England club during the covid year that the tournament was cancelled and the balls were identical in feel to the Slazenger Wimbledon balls you get from the major tennis shop distributors, so although I agree about some of the balls you mentioned it is still possible to get some of the pro tournament balls.

[@Tennis040]

Worst ball i ever played in history HEAD RESET 🤮🤮🤮.The second worst ball HEAD Pro 3rd worst ball HEAD Championship, come on Head put the penn extra duty ball back to europe.

[@mattiastennis]

Thank heavens I have never encountered this HEAD 'RESET', Head RUBBISH-ship was bad enough.. But you should not wish for Penn to come back its even worse. Head balls are trash use Tecnifibre or Artengo balls

[@sebastiandomagala9233]

You have clearly missed the first gen. Tretorn unpressurized cannonballs. I was forced to play these in my junior years. Since then I would rather stop playing tennis than purchase a single product from Tretorn. Head Reset are not much better, but Wilson Trinity is the second worst ball ever made i.m.o.

[@Tennis040]

@@sebastiandomagala9233 no if you are Interested in tretorn "cannonballs" sport thieme has it in stock ...

[@mattiastennis]

Stop wasting time with Padel. Its not as bad pickle$hit but its still inferior to tennis. Touch-tennis is better than Padel. pickle$hit should be universally condemned Thank heavens you have NOTHING to do with pickle$hit. Should be banned for Noise disturbance alone. Its not a sport its trash.