London: Moves to blunt the bludgeoning power in men's tennis and counteract monotonous play have been adopted by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).In more than 100 years of tennis, the only rule changes have been the introduction of the tiebreak in the 1970s and permission for servers to jump.

But racket technology has developed far beyond the Bjorn Borg era of laminated wood and cat gut, and has changed the nature of the game into one dominated by big hitters with hi-tech rackets rather than finesse players.

Fewer rallies and "one-hit" tennis where the serve dominates are a common complaint among tennis fans, and the ITF has stepped in to try and find a solution.Rule changes approving the use of three different types of ball were agreed by the ITF at its Annual General Meeting in Cancun, Mexico.The meeting voted overwhelmingly to allow three different types of tennis ball according to the pace of the surface -- ball type 1 (fast speed), ball type 2 (medium speed) and ball type 3 (slow speed).

The introduction of the different balls will also help speed up the game on very slow surfaces, including European clay, where the service is almost negated completely.ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: "I want to congratulate the AGM for their approval of this important amendment and thank the tennis ball manufacturers for their support during the experimental period and in the run-up to the AGM."

INJURY FEARS

The move will not go down well with everybody involved in tennis, however. Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic relies on his serve to win matches as does Britain's Greg Rusedski, holder of the fastest recorded serve in tennis at 149 miles per hour.

There are also fears that there could be an increase in injuries as players try to hit the slower balls harder to compensate.A new "super tiebreak" was also approved as an experiment until the end of next year to replace the deciding final set in a three or five set match.The first player to 10 points will win the new super tiebreak provided he leads by a margin of two points.

The 84 nations who attended also overwhelmingly approved a move to require team uniforms in national colours for Davis Cup, Fed Cup and other international team competitions.At present players wear their own, often sponsored, tennis outfit but next year the ITF will ask nations to co-operate and will propose to the 2002 AGM in Morocco a rule change to make team uniforms in national colours compulsory.The AGM also gave the ITF a mandate to amend the current Fed Cup format for 2002 to include a 16-nation World Group.ITF members also voted to accept an application by the Kyrgyzstan Tennis Federation to become a member of the International Tennis Federation.