Paphos Life

I've been watching Wimbledon as usual and often
wondered, what do the servers look for with tennis
balls prior to serving!

They tend to have 3 or 4 in their hand and have a look
at them, then discard the ones they don't like.

What are they looking for?

Is it wear and tear on the material or what?

I think it's to check if the ball has fluffed up at all. Seems a bit daft to me as they then use same balls later on but hey ho.

Jimgym wrote: ↑Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:27 pm I think it's to check if the ball has fluffed up at all. Seems a bit daft to me as they then use same balls later on but hey ho.

Depending on which serve is chosen, slice, twist, it can be an advantage to take the ball that is more suitable for it. Depending on how the balls were hit, whether slice topspin or straight, they are different worn out. It is therefore worthwhile to see which ball is even better suited.
Before the question arises: yes I was playing tennis in the past. I even built the two first sand tennis courts in Paphos district in order to attract professional players from Germany to come over to Cyprus for their preseason training camp. (long long time ago )

Max

think it's to check if the ball has fluffed up!!

This topic is making my eyes water!!!

NEW BALLS, if only,

'It’s often seen as part of a ritual during a game – a player will bounce the ball a number of times to get into the flow.

A pragmatic reason is that the quality of balls can vary, and bouncing it allows the player to get an idea of how it will bounce of travel before placing their serve'.

I can quite believe the latter as the quality of the surface must change quite dramatically between the first and the seventh game (or whenever a new set is used) due to the 'punishment' they receive.

https://metro.co.uk/2017/07/12/why-is-t ... g-6774696/

I had to delete WHL's post because Google flagged it as containing sexual content.

Dominic wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 8:49 pm I had to delete WHL's post because Google flagged it as containing sexual content.

Benny Hill would be turning in his grave