Should tennis balls be made bigger?

With the build-up to this year's French Open starting to gather momentum, but with some top players still with a lot to prove to critics and fans alike as they seek to stake their claim of being among the favourites for glory, the debate in the sport has turned to a slightly strange issue. That issue surrounds the size of tennis balls, however odd that may sound.

The debate is one that isn't new to the sport but has been reopened this week by comments from Romanian tennis promoter Ion Tiriac, a man who reckons increasing the size of the balls used by both female and male players could make the sport more popular throughout the world, while increasing revenue for broadcasters with massively increased viewing figures. Those looking at the French Open betting may have their doubts about things though.

Tiriac's arguments revolve around the theory that making the regulation tennis ball used in events around 10% larger than it currently is would slow the game down significantly and make it more entertaining for those watching the game.
The idea is one that has attracted criticism from some quarters, with some fans believing the game to be slow enough already, and others believing that raising the height of the net would have the same effect but without entailing quite as much effort.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the theory, it seems likely that those at the top of the sport will be happy with tennis in the men's and the women's games becoming far more competitive than in recent years, with the old domination of Federer and the Williams sisters thankfully coming to an end.