Nick Kyrgios and Alexandr Dolgopolov were fighting a rough battle in Cincinnati when something strange happened in the first set. At pro level, the balls are changed after 7 games for the first time and after 9 games during the rest of the match. In the 8th game, Dolgopolov noticed that the logo on the balls was red while it should be black for men. The Ukrainian showed the mark to the umpire, and they had to replace the balls again because that batch was meant to be for women.

Kyrgios wasn’t happy with that to say “What are you guys doing. Christ almighty.”

Why are the balls different?

The balls used on the men’s and women’s tour generally have the same size and pressure, but the difference is that the men usually use the extra-duty version to slow down the game while the women adopt the regular-duty balls.

In Cincinnati, you can spot the difference on the logo (red for women, black for men). Dolgopolov noticed that; the officials didn’t.