| A tournament's surface will determine which of three types of balls are used under a new International Tennis Federation rule prompted by powerful serves.
The ITF voted at its annual general meeting, this weekend in Cancun, Mexico, to use ball type 1 (fast speed), ball type 2 (medium speed) and ball type 3 (slow speed) for future play.
The balls will slow down the power and speed of serves on hard courts and grass -- hampering big serves such as Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic -- but speed up the game on slower surfaces, such as clay.
The ITF also approved experimenting through the end of 2002 with a super tiebreaker, which was used for the mixed doubles final in the U.S. Open.
It is used in place of a final set. The player who reaches 10 points first is the winner; as in a regular tiebreaker, it's necessary to win by a two-point margin.
The ITF has given the men's and women's pro tours the option of using the tiebreaker at their tournaments.
Also, the ITF suggested that teams wear national uniforms for Davis Cup, Fed Cup and other international team competitions. At next year's meeting, there will be a vote on making uniforms mandatory for those events.
A new board of directors, who will serve until 2003, was elected: Mervin Heller (United States), Julia Levering (United States), Geoff Pollard (Australia), Ian King (Britain), Juan Margets (Spain), Eiichi Kawatei (Japan), Christian Bimes (France), Eduardo Moline O'Conner (Argentina), Jan Carlzon (Sweden), Paul Chingoka (Zimbabwe), Georg van Waldenfels (Germany) and Ruurd de Boer (Netherlands). | 