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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]Perhaps the strangest comment ever made in the afterglow of a Slam victory was the complaint lodged by Ash Barty’s coach, Craig Tyzzer, after his charge had won the 2022 Australian Open without dropping a set. “The US Open really needs to change the ball for the girls. The fact they still use a different ball for guys and girls, it’s a terrible ball for someone like Ash,” Tyzzer said this January, briefly veering into the technical details that all you nerds eat up. “It was the only tournament last year and really for two years where she uses a gut racquet, but I had to change her to a poly just to get any sort of control of the ball. If they keep that ball the same, no one like Ash will win that tournament.” His words were sort of prophetic: Barty never did win the US Open, the one major that eluded her. Though perhaps that has more to do with the fact that she retired this April than the fact that the Open uses a problematic tennis ball.