Will Bouncy Ball Spoil Ivanisevic?
WIMBLEDON, England, June 29 — Goran Ivanisevic took it a trifle personally when the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club trotted out softer tennis balls for this year’s championships. “It doesn’t matter, they can put water balls or whatever they want to do, that’s the way,” rumbled the lanky ace machine on Wednesday in his voice-of-doom bass with the thick Croatian accent. He had just trounced Jonathan Stark, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), in the second round. “They can’t slow the game here,” Ivanisevic boomed. “It’s no good, because Wimbledon is grass. It’s always going to be fast.” Not only is the grass going to be fast, it’s going to be unpredictable. The committee here does not move quickly — it was the last Grand Slam event to go to the more visible yellow balls, in 1986 — but the officials did do something about the velocity of the balls this year. They are using balls that are supposed to be 2 percent softer, that would make them bounce higher, to cut down slightly on the number of
