Slowing the game with bigger balls

The game of tennis, in one form or another has existed for many centuries. Although the game has seen constant change over the last 125 years, critics claim that recent changes to the racquet have caused the game to be dominated by the serve.

Many solutions to slow down the serve have been proposed including changing the court surface, the racquet, the rules or the ball. Changing the court surface is likely to be unacceptable to the tournament organisers; changing the rules is not popular with the players and limiting the racquet even if it could be done, would not be popular with the manufacturers. This leaves modifications of the ball as the most realistic solution (Brody, 1996).

This paper will look at some of the evidence to show that the game is becoming "too fast" and will assess the effect that the introduction of a larger ball would have on a serve.