Taylor Fritz says Indian Wells has made a major change which could make players’ lives ‘miserable’

Medvedev slammed the Rotterdam balls mid-match, which was backed up Alex de Minaur and Arthur Fils at the Dutch tournament.

Ahead of Indian Wells, Taylor Fritz has revealed that the balls have been changed which could create a whole host of problems for the players.

Taylor Fritz says the tennis balls have been changed at Indian Wells

Fritz has a special relationship with Indian Wells, as it was the location of his very first Masters title in 2022.

However, the American pointed out an Indian Wells change he’s less than thrilled about on his recent Twitch stream.

“Here’s the thing, it’s going to be very interesting because they’re changing the ball at Indian Wells this year to the Dunlop ball,” he said.

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“The Dunlop ball is what we play with the most on Tour, but I also think it plays slowly. The Dunlop ball plays slow when it’s worn out, and they’ve been wearing out really fast.

“The quality of the ball has dropped exponentially. Delray, you play like two games and these balls are f——— balloons. You can’t hit a winner to save your life.

“I’m hitting them as hard as I possibly can and I can’t hit a winner. I’m interested to see because the balls before, they weren’t fast, but they were missable. Certain balls have better feel.”

Fritz outlined the pros and cons of the new ball being introduced to Indian Wells, and how it could impact the quality of tennis.

“The Dunlop ball I feel like you always have good timing with it. Less unforced errors are made with the Dunlop balls compared to the Wilson US Open balls,” he explained.

“Wilson US Open balls, people make a lot more mistakes. That’s kind of what the old ball at Indian Wells was so now they’re using the Dunlop ball.”

Fritz believes there could be longer rallies, which many critics have suggested is the reason for the high number of injuries on Tour in recent years.

“I’m really interested to see how slow it feels because people are going to be missing less, there’s going to be longer points and I don’t know how much the balls are going to wear out.

“It’s going to be a very different Indian Wells because this is going to be the first Indian Wells I think, I’ve ever played in where they’re not using the Penn Tour ball. It’s hard to say, I’ve had success with both balls.”

Fritz believes the Dunlop balls will not work on a slower court, such as Indian Wells.

“I like to play with the Dunlop balls on a fast court, like in Dallas. The balls actually work because Dallas is fast. If you play with the Dunlop balls on a slow court, it’s f——— miserable.”

Fritz’s issue is not exclusively with Indian Wells, as he believes the ATP Tour as a whole has a major ball problem.

“The quality of that ball has got so bad over the years. They used to not do that, and now they do. They still feel the same when they’re new, the ball is pretty similar. But they used to not blow up so quickly.

“We need to switch the ball changes. 7-9 is just too long. I’m looking at the ball at 3-3 thinking: ‘how are we playing with this right now? How are we playing professional tennis with this ball?’ It’s ridiculous.”

Fritz’ last tournament was the Delray Beach Open, where he was knocked out in the quarter-finals by Tommy Paul.

Taylor Fritz’s record at Indian Wells

Fritz has enjoyed decent spells at Indian Wells, which peaked when he defeated Rafael Nadal to lift the trophy in 2022.

Since his sole victory, however, Fritz has only reached the quarter-finals of Indian Wells on one occasion, in 2023.

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In the last two years, Fritz has been dumped out at the fourth round stage to Holger Rune and Jack Draper.

Ahead of the 2026 event, Fritz arrived at Indian Wells with a 22–8, which equates to an impressive 73% win rate.