There is no universal new-ball game.

Which rules this page applies

The baseline here is ITF Rules of Tennis 2026, Rule 3: The Ball, effective 1 January 2026. The ITF is the international rule-making authority for court tennis; it now uses the public brand World Tennis, while the rulebook retains the name International Tennis Federation and the abbreviation ITF.

Rule 27 governs mistakes in the change sequence, and Appendix VI adds a specific rule for a match tiebreak used instead of a final set. Individual tours, Grand Slams, national associations and local competitions can choose a permitted schedule or add replacement-ball procedures, so their published regulations must also be checked.

The event must announce two things

ITF Rule 3 requires organisers to announce before the event:

• the number of balls in play—two, three, four or six; and
• the ball-change policy, if there is one.

“If any” matters. The Rules of Tennis do not require every match to receive a fresh set during play. A competition may have no scheduled change, while another may change by game count or by set.

Game count or beginning of a set

For a repeating game-count schedule, ITF Rule 3 requires an agreed odd number of games between ordinary changes. The first change in the match occurs two games earlier because the opening balls were used in the warm-up. If the agreed cycle is nine games, for example, changes are nominally due after 7, 16, 25, 34 games and so on, subject to the tiebreak exception below.

The other permitted method is a change at the beginning of a set. That is a separate policy: do not import the two-game warm-up adjustment or a nine-game count into a set-based schedule.

Count games in the match, across sets

A game-count cycle does not reset merely because a set ends. Keep a running total of completed games in the match. Points, elapsed minutes, changeovers and set breaks are not extra games. A standard tiebreak is one game for this count, regardless of how many points it contains.

That is why “after seven and nine” is shorthand, not two alternating cycles: in the common professional schedule the first batch of balls lasts seven games because of the warm-up adjustment; each later batch lasts nine games.

A due change waits until game two of the next set

ITF Rule 3 prohibits a ball change at the beginning of a tiebreak. If the running count makes new balls due there, the tiebreak is played with the existing balls and itself counts as one game. The fresh balls then enter at the beginning of the second game of the next set, not the first.

If the tiebreak ends the match, there is no later change. Appendix VI separately says that when a match tiebreak replaces the deciding set, balls should not be changed before that match tiebreak even if a change is due.

Where “seven, then nine” actually applies

• ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour: ATP Rule 6.03 requires six balls for main-draw and qualifying matches, changed after seven games and then after each further nine games.
• WTA Tour: the WTA 2026 Rulebook, Section XVIII.A.5.b, requires six balls and changes after the first seven games and every nine thereafter in qualifying singles and main-draw singles and doubles.
• Grand Slams: the 2026 Grand Slam Rule Book, Section I.1, requires six balls in each main-draw match, changed after the first seven games and every nine thereafter.

Those rules confirm the same visible pattern for the stated professional competitions. They do not convert it into a universal requirement for club, school, junior, national or other sanctioned tennis.

How to determine whether new balls are due

1. Name the competition, draw and match format.
2. Find its announced number of balls and change policy.
3. Decide whether that policy changes by set or by an odd-game cycle.
4. For a game cycle, apply the two-game reduction to the first change and keep a running match total.
5. Count each tiebreak as one game, but never introduce new balls at the start of the tiebreak.
6. If the sequence was missed or altered, apply ITF Rule 27 rather than trying to undo completed points.

Completed points stand and the correction waits

ITF Rule 27 begins with the principle that points played before an error is discovered stand. If balls were not changed in the correct sequence, officials correct the error when the player or team that should have served with new balls is next due to serve a new game. Balls are not changed during a game. The originally agreed number of games between later changes is then restored.

A related service-order error can move the schedule. If a player serves out of turn and the whole game is completed before discovery, the altered service order remains and Rule 27 says a game-count ball change is made one game later than originally scheduled.

ATP procedure does not roll a game backwards

The 2026 ATP rulebook supplies a more detailed tour ruling. If the wrong player or team receives the new balls and the error is found after the first point, that server completes the game with them. The player or team originally due to receive new balls gets new balls for the next game. If a point has already been played in that second game, the altered sequence remains; old balls are not put back after a service game has begun.

This is an ATP procedure, not extra wording in ITF Rule 3. Outside ATP competition, Rule 27 and the appointed referee's authorised procedures control.

A replacement need not mean a whole new set

ITF Rule 3 fixes scheduled changes but does not itself give one universal procedure for every lost ball. Competition regulations fill that gap. Under the 2026 ATP Tour and Grand Slam rules, a ball lost or made unplayable during the warm-up or within two games after a ball change is replaced with a new ball; later, a used ball of like wear is supplied. Play remains continuous.

The thresholds differ. An ATP Tour event adds a replacement as soon as reasonably possible. An ATP Challenger event must add one when fewer than three balls remain. A Grand Slam may add one sooner but must do so when fewer than four remain. These are named competition procedures, not a single ITF-wide count.

Match balls are protected during a re-warm-up

The 2026 ATP and Grand Slam regulations say that match balls from a suspended or postponed match are not used for the warm-up when play resumes. They are returned only when the match restarts. The ATP casebook also says that if new balls were due immediately before a rain-delay re-warm-up, a separate new set is used for that warm-up and another new set is supplied for resumption.

For a competition outside those rules, check its suspension procedure rather than assuming the same inventory policy.

A ball that breaks during play causes a replay

ITF Rule 3 is direct: if a ball breaks during play, the point is replayed. This is not a penalty against either player and is independent of the scheduled change count. The damaged ball is removed and the competition's replacement procedure supplies the appropriate replacement.

The 2026 ATP casebook describes its broken-ball case as a ball with no compression. In an ATP match, the chair umpire decides the condition of the ball; a player should not stop or catch a live ball merely to make that claim.

Soft is not the same ruling as broken

If a ball is found soft—but not broken—at the end of a point, ITF Rule 3 says the point is not replayed. The ball can still be removed from use, but that does not erase the completed rally.

The ATP casebook makes the live-rally consequence explicit for ATP matches: a player who catches a ball during a rally and then claims it was soft loses the point. The claim did not entitle the player to stop play.

A nine-game cycle reaches 16 games

Situation: the event announced changes every nine games. The first set finishes 6–4 and the second set reaches 3–3.

Ruling: new balls are due for the next game. Ten games were completed in set one and six in set two, making 16 in the match. The first change occurred after game seven; the next nine-game interval ends after game 16.

The count lands on a tiebreak

Situation: in a best-of-five match using a nine-game cycle, the first set ends 7–6. The second set then reaches 6–6, taking the match total to 25 games.

Ruling: do not change before the second-set tiebreak. Play it with the existing balls; it counts as game 26. After the first game of set three becomes game 27, introduce new balls at the beginning of set three's second game. The decisive fact is Rule 3's tiebreak deferral, not which player would otherwise serve first with new balls.

The umpire notices a missed change mid-game

Situation: new balls were due for Player A's service game, but old balls remain in use. The error is noticed after two points.

Ruling: finish the game with the current balls; the two points stand. Give new balls when Player A is next due to serve a new game, then rebuild the announced interval from that correction. Rule 27 expressly prevents a mid-game change.

A soft ball is found after game point

Situation: after a rally ends the game, an official checks the ball and finds it soft but not broken.

Ruling: the game and point stand. The official may replace the ball under the applicable competition procedure, but ITF Rule 3 permits a replay only for a ball that broke during play.

Four shortcuts that give the wrong answer

• “Every match changes after seven, then nine”: that is the current ATP, WTA and Grand Slam pattern; ITF Rule 3 also permits other announced odd-game cycles, set-start changes or no change.
• “The count starts again each set”: a game-count schedule continues across set boundaries.
• “A tiebreak is ignored”: it counts as one game, although a due change cannot occur at its start.
• “Any dead-feeling ball means a replay”: a broken ball during play causes a replay; a soft ball found after the point does not.

ITF and competition source material

• ITF Rules of Tennis 2026 — Rule 3 (ball count, change methods, tiebreak treatment, broken and soft balls), Rule 27(c) and 27(i) (sequence errors), and Appendix VI (match tiebreak).
• ITF 2026 Technical Booklet — section (ii), Rule 3 and Appendix I, effective 1 January 2026.
• ITF 2026 amendments notice — checked for later published changes; it does not amend Rule 3.
• ATP Official Rulebook 2026 — Rule 6.03, Balls, and the ball-change, wrong-server, re-warm-up, broken-ball and soft-ball cases.
• ATP changes to the published 2026 rulebook, current revision 27 April 2026 — checked for post-publication changes; none alters Rule 6.03.
• WTA Official Rulebook 2026, as of 27 July 2026 — Section XVIII.A.5.b, number and rotation of balls during match play.
• Grand Slam Rule Book 2026 — Section I, Balls, including the main-draw schedule, replacement thresholds and resumption procedure.

Source note: this page was checked on 28 August 2026 against the ITF 2026 rulebook and amendments, the ATP 2026 rulebook and its April revision notice, the WTA rulebook current to 27 July 2026, and the 2026 Grand Slam rules. Competition fact sheets, national rules and local regulations may supplement the ITF baseline and should be checked for the appointed match.