Archive for Tennis
Problems we encountered ..
~ 2011 Friend at Court
~ Part 2, The Code
- In ball called out
- Tardiness: the cost of it
- Foot fault
- The timed match
- Balls: losing one; to warm up with old or new
- Ratings: B & D
- You can use 90 second change over allowance to end a timed match
- Walking off the court is an automatic default
- When a default court being rescheduled
- To dispute a score
- The score card
- double default being modified
Grunt .. ..what to do when the opponent interprets it as an OUT call?
- In ball called out
your opponent’s mistake was to call the ball “Out” instead of saying “Bounce it”.
If you look in the Friend at Court, the 7 pages long fm 2011, read item 14 which refers back to item 12.
12. Out calls reversed. A player who calls a ball out shall reverse the call if the player becomes uncertain or realizes that the ball was good. The point goes to the opponent and is not replayed. However, when a receiver reverses a fault call on a serve that hit the net, the server is entitled to two serves.
13. Player calls own shots out. With the exception of the first serve, a player should call out the player’s own shots if the player clearly sees the ball out regardless of whether requested to do so by an opponent. The prime objective in making calls is accuracy. All players should cooperate to attain this objective.
14. Partners’ disagreement on calls. If one partner calls the ball out and the other partner sees the ball good, they shall call it good. It is more important to give opponents the benefit of the doubt than to avoid possibly hurting a partner’s feelings. The tactful way to achieve the desired result is to tell a partner quietly of the mistake and then let the partner concede the point. If a call is changed from out to good, the principles of Code § 12 apply.If your opponent had said “Bounce it”, there would be no issue. As long as the ball was returned, you would need to keep playing the point.
So, next time this happens, politely tell your opponent that they should never use the word “Out” when they are trying to warn their partner and then tell them you’re taking the point because they disagreed.
- Over a line call, Dec 23, 2012
- Out, stop, oops, I’m sorry, Dec 10, 2012
- In ball called out, July 26, 2012
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- Foot fault, Jan 15, 2011
Yes, you can call ..
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.. .. Opponents were kind of tricky and did a lot of talking so after they won the first set, they kept talking so we ended up in second set at 5/5. At one point I had to say let’s play.
- Sorry, you’re on your own .. , Jan 15, 2011
- Cheating, is always an option, Jan 3, 2012
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- During a match what if we lose two balls? Do we continues with the remaining ball or the home team opens another can? March 3, 2010
There is nothing in the rules to cover this. So that will be up to the 2 teams that did not keep track of their balls & captains to decide if they want to open a new can & have both teams split the cost for a can of balls, which is less than $1.50/team.
That is why I always buy 4-ball cans (Dunlops) for my matches. It is easier for warm-up also now that both sides will have 2 to hit with.
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- To use new balls to warm up or not?
Jan 2010: As we opened a new can of balls, our opponents insisted on NOT using them for warmups. They insisted on using old half-dead balls they picked up from the neighboring ball cart. They wanted to “save” the new balls for the match and were adamant about that. We ignored them and integrated them into the warmup with the other balls. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard that our female opponent complained about it after the match was over. So what’s the official word? I don’t think it s rule that you have to use the new balls, but it’s our perogative – right?
It seems rather stupid to get used to dead balls and then have to re-adjust to new ones during match time. There’s no official word.
My suggestion: use the new balls.
- B and D rating, 2010
The league allows self rate if player never played, or didn’t play for (I think 2 or 3 years). Self raters can get DQ easier than computer rated. Computer rated people can also get DQ in mid season. I know a guy who was rated (by a verifier) back several years as a 3.0. The player insisted that he was a 3.5 [sounds a lot like Irene 🙂 ] and the verifier said NO. Well, he went to Sectionals (upstate) and got DQ!!! Now you see how fair that was. I also know another guy recently that appealed his rating down to a 3.5 after he got bumped up to 4.0. The team went to sectionals, won and would have gone to Nationals and this guy got DQ and all the points taken away from the team and they did not go to Nationals.
You can play at any level that you want, however, when the stakes are high, and your team goes deeper/further, to regional, sectionals, anyone can get DQ. At those competition, your performance is visual as well as the scores.
Courts at South High
March 22, 2012
March 22, 2012
More pix in gallery
When I got to the court at the GN South High School, found this lonesome tree. Why did they cut it?
May 22, 2011
Dec 22, 2008
Oct 23, 2010, on court at Great Neck South High. More pix in gallery.
My scores
Player Record for bagels; women and mixed doubles:
A few memorable times/places
If one doesn’t play tennis, would not understand our craziness ..
- Grand Central
- Red clay
- Grass at RI
- US Open
- Westside
- Tile in Nicaragua
- South Beach during a pit stop
- Center Court at Hilton Head
- Let it snow: Bay Terrace & Ally Pond
- Singing in the rain 2013.09.22,
- Early bird weekends
- Courts around home
Call challenge on the center courts
Wimbledon and US Open’s center courts allow players to challenge the line calls. I often wondered, so did Pumpkin how could a ball be called in when the review showed it’s just kissed the line. The shape of the dot vs the line shows it’s the actually size of the ball. But the ball is round, if its shadow kissed the line, then the bottom of the ball could not, would not touch the line, hence it’s OUT. We armatures definitely call it out, because it is out.
The Hilton Garden Inn
We stayed at Hilton Garden Inn at Albany Airport Hotel that I booked through Hotwire.com. Pretty good. The lobby is cozy and intimate. The swimming pool is small but ok. It’s about 10 minutes drive to the courts.
Albany is dull and small. But the prom that was held at the Marriott was quite an event. The kids filing in as we were leaving, looked rather sophisticated confident, well put together, despite the tacky dresses. They looked good on the girls.
A play
Directed by Irene
The leading Cast:
Green Hat
Fire Marshal
Eunuch
The supporting Cast:
..
..
Argument in their bedroom over xxx .
Ready .. Camera ..
..
Let’s roll ..
2010 USTA Eastern Playoff
Central Park at Schenectady, New York; staying at Hilton Garden.
- Friday June 4, 8am, vs Southern – Westchester
- Friday June 4, 11am, vs Northern – Albany
- Saturday June 5, 9:30am, vs Long Island
- Saturday June 5, 12:30pm, vs Western/Buffalo
- Sunday, June 6, 9:30am vs New Jersey
23067
The bona fide captain
For the record, the Long Island – Hempstead Lake, Moramarco team has no captain. Both Captain and Co-Captain fields listed N/A. But Adam is more than a skipper than any of us combined – he would scout out opponents with a note book in hand: hope my kids won’t ask for it .. I simply can’t measure up ..). I met him at the captain’s meeting on Thursday. Someone said he was banned from captaining due to some shady dealings in the past but he came anyway. He was very talkative and loudly claimed that he’s the nicest team, and how fair group of players he has. When he learned that I’ve played with one of the girls on his team, his comment was ..
“If you think Darlene’s former partner was great, you would definitely enjoy her current, Cary (Gary?). He’s such a gentleman. Once during a match when she was getting hammered by the man, we kept on urging him to do the same. ..”
In the mixed doubles parlance .. hit to the girl. Simon said it zillion times. (On gentler side Wai said, many times that unless the opposing man does it first he would not hit hard at the girl.)
So Adam acted it out for us, as Cary: stood straight and shocked his head, meaning no he would not do it. Adam even added the sound effect..
“He totally refused to do the same. Never once did he hit hard at the girl.”
Heart warming. I loved it.
(But by the way, isn’t that a coaching? And coaching is forbidden.)
And they won that match, btw. Eventually Darlene and Cary won all their four matches at Albany as second (1) and third (3) doubles team.
It rained on Saturday so we moved to indoor at Tri-City Fitness at Latham. French Open was on TV, Italy’s Francesca Schiavone was battling Aussie Samantha Stosur 6–4, 7–6(7–2).
Adam’s Long Island is the first team scheduled to play against us on the second day. It rained so we moved indoor. Sean and I – the newly minted 7.0 are the second doubles. As if happened, we faced the duo whose combined ranking is 8.0. Cary (4.5) looked bored from the beginning. Sorry sport, we weren’t up to your level. And yes to Adam’s proclamation, Cary never once hit it hard to me. Actually he never once hit it hard to Sean either. No need. A little drop shot and a soft touch there, we were out of breathe. He toyed with us for the most part when he finally got bored did he hit a somewhat forceful shot to end win the point. Under such circumstance, Adam could not refrain himself from coaching from the little opening on the side.
“Come on Cary, calm down .. concentrate .. don’t let up .. hit to .. ”
Calm down? Was he ever excited (too much credit to Sean and I ..) or anxious?
I wasn’t aware that Cary and Darlene were ever in danger of losing a point. Adam would come back again and again offering his advice. It was so annoying. You had your 8.0 playing on the 7.0 level, what’s there to worry? If I was fortunately enough to be in his shoes, you would be seeing me 叹世界 with a glass of martini in feet up, watching the French Open on TV.
Sean and I lost our match quickly, 1 and 2. .. that freed me up to to see my kids playing.
Wai and Mary were in the corner and the atmosphere was tense: scores were close disputed and judge was called. What’s more, that match has produced a huge drama that played out in the parking lot. It required not only my team but the coordinator to smooth it out .. it became the talk of the town for a long time.
Anne and Kai were in another corner court (I think it’s #12?). When I got there, I heard whispers again, coming from the little enclosed corner to the end. I opened the flip, and saw herd of opposing teammates whispering tips and encouragements to their players. I said to them, please no coaching. They looked at me wearily then one by one they filed out of that cozy corner. There isn’t a million dollar on the line .. .. why would people willing to sink so low? Show me some good sportsmanship, not sneakiness.
It’s my first time to a playoff. My feeling is that the up state teams are very enjoyable to play with. They are competitive yet exhibit great sportsmanship while New York metro area teams were less so, too cutthroat.
#1 Doubles Nicholas Robert Tursi/Esther Forrester vs Kai H. Chung/Anna Leung: 4-6 6-4 1-0
#2 Doubles Cary J. Markowitz/Darlene Sotomayor vs Sean Yuen/Irene Eng: 6-1 6-2
#3 Doubles Wai Chiu Leong/Mary Wong vs Gary Spitz/Amanda L. Aniboli: 6-4 6-2
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