Key facts
- Taylor Fritz accused Wilson of selling practice tennis balls that differ in quality from tournament balls.
- Fritz stated that the practice balls feel "incredibly soft, dead, and going nowhere".
- Fritz noted that he has experienced similar inconsistencies with Dunlop balls.
- Fritz said that the difference in balls significantly impacts how players construct points and take risks.
Tennis player Taylor Fritz has publicly accused Wilson, the supplier of tennis balls for the US Open, of misleading players regarding the quality of their replica balls. Fritz, who was eliminated in the third round of the 2026 US Open, stated on social media that while the tournament balls were good, the practice balls he has been using since returning home feel significantly different.
Fritz described the practice balls as "incredibly soft, dead, and going nowhere," contrasting them with the tournament balls that he felt he had a "VERY good feel" for after extensive use during training and competition. He emphasized that Wilson markets and labels these balls as identical, but the performance off his racket is vastly different. Fritz has attempted using balls from multiple cases to rule out a faulty batch and reported that other players have shared similar experiences.
He also noted that this inconsistency is not exclusive to Wilson, stating that over the past year and a half, he has observed a significant difference between retail balls and their tournament equivalents from both Wilson and Dunlop. Fritz asserted that these differences are substantial enough at the professional level to alter playing strategies and risk-taking during matches. He clarified that he does not attribute his US Open loss to the ball quality.