Dan Evans bemoans balls 'you wouldn't even give dog to chew' after five-set loss at French Open

[ASFN Admin]

Was there an element of the bad workman blaming his tools as Dan Evans grumbled about “balls you wouldn’t give a dog to chew” after losing to Kei Nishikori? Perhaps, but then Evans is not the first man to get stuck into the French Open’s new Wilson balls. On Friday night, no less an expert than Rafael Nadal complained that their extra size and weight – as compared to the old Babolats – would be “dangerous for the elbow and the shoulders”. Throughout this five-set match, Evans kept shaking balls by his ear and throwing the ones that displeased him to umpire Renaud Lichtenstein, who then hid them away in his pockets. After Nishikori had sealed his 1-6, 6-1, 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 victory in 3hr 49min, you half expected Lichtenstein to stagger down from the chair, groaning under the weight of all the rejects. Tennis professionals are hugely sensitive to even the slightest shift in conditions and equipment, often claiming that individual courts at the same venue play differently. And in the case of the new Wilson balls, any discrepancy has only been magnified by the eight-degree temperatures and light drizzle that made this such an unappetising first day.

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