How Do Female Tennis Players Hold Balls? (Tips & Tricks)

If you have ever watched a tennis match between women, it seems that they pull a ball out of thin air, and that makes you wonder, where do they hold their balls? That’s exactly what you will learn in this article, and there is more than one method for that. But where do women keep their tennis balls?

In most cases, female tennis players hold their tennis balls in the expanding pocket of their skirt’s undershorts. Other ways to hold tennis balls are tucking them under their spandex or using a tennis ball holder around their waist. It really comes down to what kind of clothing they are wearing.

For example, if a player is wearing a skirt, the undershirt may or may not come with pockets. If she is wearing tennis shorts, then it certainly will have pockets. However, if the choice is a dress, they often aren’t included with pockets, making holding the balls more difficult.

Anyways, I’ll go over the different options more in-depth, and after that, I’ll explain what might be the best choice, what alternatives are there, and more.

Different ways tennis players can hold balls

1. Shorts pockets

The most common and best way for women to hold their tennis balls is to store them in a pocket. Whether you are wearing tennis shorts or a skort, you can store the ball in a pocket.

The only difference is that you can pull out the ball from a front pocket with tennis shorts instead of underneath the skirt where the shorts pocket is. However, the elastic shorts beneath the skirt will hold the ball more securely and tightly, so that’s a benefit they have.

Which one do you prefer?

• Tennis shorts: Pull the ball from a front pocket but the ball is held loosely in the pocket.
• Shorts underneath the skirt: Pull the ball underneath the skirt and the ball is more securely held.

2. Tucked under spandex

Another way is to tuck the ball inside of the elastic underpants. This isn’t as great as a pocket because it can fall off, but still, the underpants are often really tight so that the ball will be held there quite securely.

That being said, if you are looking for underpants under your dress or skorts, I highly suggest getting one with a tennis ball holder or pockets because that eliminates the risk of dropping the ball. And that is without an extra cost in most cases.

3. Tennis ball holder

Then there are tennis ball holders. These are quite convenient if you don’t lose too much focus on them. There are two kinds of tennis ball holders. One goes around your waist where you can hold multiple tennis balls. Then there is a tennis ball clip-on that is clipped on your waist, and it can hold one tennis ball.

If you prefer to carry many balls on you and aren’t distracted by an item that is around your waist and moves a bit, then a tennis ball holder that goes around your waist is the go choice. However, if you want minimal distractions and are comfortable holding only one ball, a tennis ball-clip-on is better.

Why do tennis players keep extra balls in pockets?

Tennis players have extra balls in their pockets to make it faster to continue when a ball gets far away. This makes the wait times decrease drastically. For example, if a player serves a ball and goes off the court, they can quickly take another and make a second serve without needing to go to the court’s side to find another one.

Whatever the case might be, I highly suggest that you have some means to have at least one extra ball in your pockets, under the spandex, or in a tennis ball holder.

This is because if you don’t, you will keep your opponent and everybody else that is connected to the game waiting, and that’s not cool because you could make it so easy to have another ball. You don’t probably like to wait for your opponent to find a ball from the side of the court, either?

What happens if a ball falls out of pocket during a tennis match?

If a tennis ball falls out from your pocket to the court during a match, it causes many disadvantages that affect the game. These are things such as confusion, risk of injury, time wastage, and losing a point. Let’s take a look at each disadvantage individually.

1. Confusion

As soon as the ball hits the court, it creates a distraction. The first one to notice the ball is probably your opponent and whether he or she is receiving or about to strike, the performance is greatly decreased.

And that doesn’t even matter because the point is paused, so that is just annoying for everyone, but yes, it happens.

2. Time wastage

Naturally, a dropped ball and a paused point wastes time. This includes noticing the dropped ball, pausing the game, getting a new ball, and serving again. This will take time that could be used more enjoyable and productively.

3. Risk of injury

The chances of getting injured by a dropped ball are minimal; however, it is there.

When you drop a round ball to the ground, it raises the risk of stepping on it, and when you step on a tennis ball in the middle of a heated game where adrenaline is high, the focus is entirely elsewhere, and your speed is fast, it can cause do many injuries such as

1. Sprained ankle
2. Concussion
3. Bruises
4. Broken bones
5. Injured joints

Everything off this list isn’t certainly wanted, and it would be really annoying because of a stupid thing as stepping on a fallen tennis ball which is, as I said, really, really rare.

4. Losing a point

Last but not least, you can lose a point if you drop a tennis ball! When you first drop a tennis ball, you are given a warning because of the distraction and time wastage you created. If you drop the ball a second time, you are penalized by deducting a point. This can lead to a loss if the game is close.

If you drop a tennis ball twice in a game, that is either horrible luck or, more presumably, the fault of your clothing or tennis ball holder. This is why you should check your clothing, and when your undershorts becomes loose, for example, you should get a new one.