Andy Murray: What he said, really meant and definitely did not

Andy Murray Roils Up Some Tennis Balls

What he said:

"If you asked a golfer to change balls every single week, they’d be hitting balls 20 yards too far and hitting shots all over the place."

Andy Murray takes aim at the differences in tennis balls used for various tournaments.

Murray set the ball (pun unintended) rolling with his comments on Tuesday, 11th October, 2011 at the Shanghai Masters.

Rafael Nadal chimed in —on Wednesday:

You play in Bangkok with one ball, in Tokyo with another ball, here with another ball. That’s too much in my opinion. (It) is dangerous and can cause injuries.

Something must change because is too dangerous for the shoulders. You cannot change the ball every week.

Nadal was almost magnanimous claiming that he would accept less prize money as long as he does not have to give in to sponsor demands to use their spheroids.

I am very happy to win less money and have my health.

If we compare the Tokyo ball with this one (in Shanghai), it was much bigger, slower. The ball is completely different. This ball is very fast, it goes small and doesn’t stay on the racquet. It flies a lot and is tough.

Nadal relented somewhat conceding that it was not necessary to have one standard ball the whole season.

For example, when you start the clay-court season, you have the same ball for that period; when you have the American hard court season, you have the same ball. So that’s positive.
But what cannot happen is to have one ball in Rome, one ball in Madrid, one ball in Barcelona… That doesn’t work.

What Murray really meant:

“It’s not as though we’re dancers on court—a slow dance, tango and then salsa. Can you imagine that?”

What Murray definitely didn’t:

“Goodness gracious great balls of fire!”