Wilson Roland Garros tennis ball review
Clay tennis courts have recently had a strong resurgence with tennis clubs springing up with a popular artificial version. The Wilson Roland Garros Clay Court tennis ball is ITF approved for competition, made of gum and felt, comprising of 100% natural rubber and has been the official ball of French Open since 2020.
Pairing the right tennis ball with this surface, is of the utmost importance and will get the best out of your game. Tennishead is unable to ignore the calling of sliding into action and review the Wilson Roland Garros clay tennis ball. On y va!
The Tech specs
Wilson Sporting Goods have formed a strong partnership with this special slam played on ‘Terre Battue’ or clay as we know it and claim to have produced a high performance ball which boasts a specially designed ‘x Core for longer rallies and their ‘ClayShield x Felt’ which limits moisture and the pick-up of clay court debris.
Wilson say this contributes to “peak consistency … during gruelling points and produces performance fit for the zenith of the clay court season.”
The Playtest
Tennishead are expecting this specific surface type tennis ball with it’s Grand Slam status to truly be a ‘magnifique’ bouncing delight on the red dirt.
Gareth Richman opens a can to see how perfectly the Wilson Roland Garros tennis ball lands on the artificial clay court. Who doesn’t enjoy cracking open a fresh tube of fuzzy yellow balls and hitting the court!?
How do the Wilson RG Clay Court tennis balls feel fresh out of the can?
On first inspection the balls feel nice and firm (but not too ‘bullet’ hard) with a plush quality finish. The bounce and feel is pretty springy (as expected), but this regulates within the first 10/15 minutes of practice hitting.
How does the ball perform after the first hour or so on court?
The Wilson RG Clay Court tennis ball takes centre stage and plays exceptionally well. When hitting the ball felt just that little bigger and extremely balanced. I sensed a gorgeous hitting (but not massively weighted down) sensation as I ripped through my topspin strokes – they kicked with superb bite off the racket stringbed and ground alike. Spin is king here (much like Nadal or Alcaraz) and where the ball excels.
What about consistency and durability?
Thee ball fuzzed up nicely (which gave me optimum volume hitting). The Wilson RG is built to withstand longer rallies and this is what it exactly does. When the ball fluffed up, the felt stayed pretty much as is and I continued happily hitting with lush spin and a consistent bounce for way longer than I expected.
How long did the Wilson RG Clay Court tennis ball actually last?
I tested a tube of 4 balls for over 4 hours on an artificial clay court in warm dry conditions with a resting period of 24 hours split into two 2 hour sessions. The first two hours the balls were awesomely crisp, fluffed up nicely, and maintained a fantastic feel and responsive bounce.
In the second two hours a slight drop in performance was detected – naturally air pressure decreases and the felt roughed up a bit more, but no major alarm bells rung out. Considering how long they had been on court, the Wilson RG Clay Court tennis ball continued to impress and punch at a high level. Play still cleared club match standard
Yes, some purists might opt for a change of new balls after 2/3 hours. Others might make a little noise on the price tag, but from where I’m standing, it’s a complete no brainer for the quality performance and longevity you get.
I actually added on an extra 2 hours practice hitting session the following day and they still had life left inside them. That’s how good they are!
How do they compare to other tennis balls you have recently played with?
In all honestly, this is a difficult one to answer as there are lots of factors in play here. Weather conditions, court surface, how stringent you are with tennis balls, as well as, your style and or level of play.
Some balls have a lighter feel, some are much harder and simply do not suit you, perform inconsistently or just go bald or dead.
This specific tennis ball (in my opinion) plays better than any other I have jumped on the (artificial) clay court, if it didn’t, I would be worried and be asking some serious questions.
Wrap-up
The Wilson Roland Garros Clay Court tennis ball stands out as a real top performer in terms of consistency, feel, weight, durability and is made for a real clay, but performs just as brilliantly on it’s sister artificial surface.
Notably hitting topspin brought the most out of the ball. Weight and firmness had an awesome feel to it. Speed of the ball wasn’t ridiculously zippy nor slow – just pitched nicely in between with a sound bounce with next to nothing debris pick-up.
Wilson clearly have hit the mark here and produced a true Roland Garros Grand Slam tennis ball winner on the clay.
Click here to test out the Wilson Roland Garros Clay Court tennis ball and see if it hits your spot!
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