Zverev hated Vienna’s slow balls. Paris uses the same Dunlop ball, but Harrison says the new No. 1 likes the speed

Alexander Zverev called Vienna’s balls and court “incredibly slow”. Paris uses the same Dunlop ball, but the tournament says the surface is quicker, and Sky Sports Tennis commentator Ryan Harrison says the new world No. 1 approves.

Zverev’s complaint in Vienna was about the combination of ball and court. After losing to Alex de Minaur in the semi-finals he said the conditions suited his opponent better. The question for the Paris Masters is which half of that combination matters more to him, because only one of them has changed.

The ball is the same, the surface is not

Tournament director Cédric Pioline confirmed at the weekend that Paris will use Dunlop balls, a change “imposed by the ATP, so that there is consistency across the entire autumn swing, from Shanghai to Turin”, as quoted by Tennis365. Zverev had already objected to the Dunlop ball in Vienna, where he asked the chair umpire whether it was “normal to play with these balls in a tennis tournament”. We covered that complaint when he said Vienna’s balls and court were “incredibly slow”.

The court is where Pioline claims a difference. Speaking at his pre-tournament press conference, he said: “The surface is faster this year than last year, and quite noticeably so.” The organisers had been “a bit surprised by how slow it was last year”, he said, and asked for it to be sped up, aiming for conditions close to Turin, with a speed index of around 40. Last year’s index, according to Tennis365, was 35, down from 45 in 2024. That report of Pioline’s comments is where the figures come from.

Harrison’s read

The player view comes second-hand, through a commentator. Speaking on Sky Sports Tennis, Harrison said he had talked to Zverev about it. “He said it’s playing a lot quicker this year,” Harrison reported. “Last year he felt like the ball was slower, he was hitting and it was stopping in the middle of the court.” In Harrison’s words, the new world No. 1 is “liking the conditions”, as relayed by Tennis365.

That is a paraphrase of a private conversation, not Zverev on the record, and it should be read that way. It is still a useful counterweight to the Vienna headlines, and it fits the wider argument Zverev has been making about the tour calendar and conditions: his objection appears to be to pace rather than to a particular brand, since he also criticised the Wilson balls in Montreal.

Why it matters on Wednesday

Zverev opens his tournament against Lorenzo Musetti, who leads their head-to-head 3-2, in the second round. Zverev said in Vienna that conditions suited De Minaur better than him; a quicker court should reduce that gap. Zverev has won 20 of his 27 matches in Paris, including the 2024 title, so the venue has been kind to him even in slow years.

If Harrison’s account is right, Zverev has the conditions he wanted. If the balls still feel slow once the first rallies start, expect the Vienna complaint to return within a day.