tennis, life and a few things in between

Can’t win on court? Cheat. We’re playing the same team that tempered with our line up (but got swept anyway last time). Tonight, their 2D won the first set at 5 but we were up in the 2nd Set (4-3) when the Court Clock read 9:53. During the change over the opponents purposely waited at the bench while my players were on the court ready to receive. After a prolonged moment, my pair approached the opponents to urge them to start to play. But the opponents stated that according to the time on their personal watch it was 9:55. My players challenged their position as the court clock clearly had it at least 7 to 8 minutes to 10pm.

One of the rules ..

Timing Matches: If a clock is visible from the courts, then players must go by the time on that clock. If a clock is not visible, players must use the match ending device determined by their captains.

The male player from the opposing team stated that ‘it doesn’t matter as we are electing to take the 90 second change over break’ and that would put the time at 9:55. (Please keep in mind, throughout the match they never took 90 seconds during any of the change overs.)

Is this allowed – that to use 90-seconds change over allowance to exhaust the time in a timed match? Regardless of the rules, it doesn’t sound good sport to me. But the league coordinator ruled that yes it is allowed. They can take 90 second change over allowance in a timed match, and to end a match.

The league coordinator wrote that “no one can deny the 90 second changeover ..” guess the answer is yes.

As to the time device: we’ve been playing at Westside for a long time and everyone knows there are clocks on the wall. So no one ever bothered to decide which time device to use. Actually no one bothered to decide on a time device when there is NO clocks on the wall. We all depend on the goodness and fairness in us.

As it turned out, our 1D was also a timed match and they were still playing when the argument began on the 2D court. Isn’t this a clear indication that there was more than 5 minutes left on the clock? Both my 1D and 3D players said 2D stopped well before 9:55.

I’m thinking: they were leading but to clinch the match win, they resorted to the unsportsman conduct .. does it still feel good at the end of the day? The pitiful team (sorry don’t mean to rub salt .. ) is the 4th on the 6-team division, with 27 points (we’re the 3rd place team with 49 points, as of 12/25/2012). I never like to brag but I’ve to say that my team always do well, only because I’ve great players who are considerate and fair, good sportsmen (and sportswomen, to be PC). Kids, please keep up the good work and deed. At the end of the day, goodness always will trump the evils.

A little side note: Denise was scheduled to play the 3D. I asked Cate to take one of the balls as souvenir for Lady D. The opponents were the home team so they provided the balls. When Cate asked for the balls, the captain said no. After Cate explained the reason, the captain reluctantly surrendered one ball, saying she wanted to bring the rest to her dog.

How I handled a similar match on Jan 18, 2013.

The back and forth emails; back more problems

One of our teammates was running late. The opposing team has a player came late too: the two actually spoke (asking direction) on the way to the club.
Three courts were very competitive. However, we lost 1D to a default despite of leading 9-6 in the tie break, over a line call dispute.

She said:

During the tiebreak, the player from Great Neck hit a ball, which was audibly called wide by our male player.The Great Neck team countered that an “in signal” had been made by our female player, which both players from our team immediately said was not the case. Our female player had to jump out of the way of the ball and explained that she was unable to make any call because while in mid air was unable to see where the ball had landed and had deferred to the player that was watching the spot of the ball.

He said:

Giselle and I were at the net and Giselle hit a volley very wide. The ball takes a funny bounce on the line, the guy calls it out and the girl misses the ball. I was watching her and the line and she immediately gives a flat palm signalling good. The guy becomes very loud arguing that he called it out. Nobody was disputing him but the girl then changes her mind and said he called it out. If she had called it out immediately then I would have moved on to serve again for match point.

The rule: All line calls must be made clearly and immediately. If there is any doubt, the ball is good. (A ball that is 99% out, is still 100% in).Hmmmm … was unable to see where the ball had landed .. hmmmmm …

The coordinator awarded the match to our opponent. Back to more problems

One of the mates was close to 20 minutes late – we forfeited 3D. The opposing team captain who played 2D wrote to me after last night’s match

.. .. there was a gentleman watching the 1st double match from your team who interrupted the tiebreak, walked on the court to correct the players, who were not doing things wrong. That is against the rules and disruptive to our players. Please let them know not to do that in the future.

This is from my player:

We were in 2nd set, 2nd game, the man served. He walked in and said the lady should be serving. I think he must be still very sick L, but we resumed the game right away. I know he shouldn’t do that, he knows he shouldn’t do that, but I didn’t think its such a big deal to send an email afterwards, I still think its tedious especially we didn’t go by the regulation and make him (1D) start the match right after he walks in late.

Apparently each one remembered the detail differently. I wasn’t there, couldn’t verify.  My solution? Stick to the rules. If someone’s late, there isn’t a need to grant a full 15 min warm up.

There was an incidence in 2nd set, we were up 2-0, I was serving at 40-30, I served to the lady, the guy called it out then reversed the call and said it’s a good serve, that’s play over the point. I think we should win that point if the opponent made a wrong call, correct?

Yes, it was our point, and here is the rule: #12 on page 3 (or 47).

I’ve a college senior on the team: a tall girl from New Jersey. She’s friend of a teammate who has been playing with us since the summer. She lives in downtown and would make to Long Island for practice. The devotion is huge. After the match, she texted me, saying they
won 7-5, 6-3.

I’m very happy for her, and congratulated her. It’s a tough match especially the first set, it could have gone the other way. But then my other teammates reported the scores: the 3D is a default. Because one of mates was more than 15 minutes late. Given the 1.5 hour of time frame and controllable of your own action, arriving late really sucks and unfair to three other players.

A killer team, they:

• started the season with seven 3.0, eight 3.5 and five 4.0
• had a perfect season: swept nine matches (out of 12)
• won 5-0 in the Eastern playoff

However, they didn’t go to the National. 10 players got bumped, and the captain was DQ’ed:

• 3 from 3.0 -> 3.5 (year-end)
• 4 from 3.5 -> 4.0
• 1 from 4.0 -> 4.5
• 2 from 3.0 -> 4.0

I’m wondering why this March 2 match did not revert the court win to the opponent? The Dec 2, 2011 match – with the same DQ’ed player – the opposing team has the win. I don’t know if the opponent had won the match out right or was awarded after the DQ.