tennis, life and a few things in between

~ 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?

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• 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.

1. Over a line call, Dec 23, 2012
2. Out, stop, oops, I’m sorry, Dec 10, 2012
3. In ball called out, July 26, 2012

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• Foot fault, Jan 15, 2011

Yes, you can call ..

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• The timed match

.. .. 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.

1. Sorry, you’re on your own .. , Jan 15, 2011
2. 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.

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• 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.

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