SF Tennis Freak

Posts Tagged ‘Friend at Court’

Vincent Jannink / AP

I woke up in a funky mood today because of an incident that happened yesterday on the courts. In a series of Friday tweets, I described an egregiously bad call that was made by one of my opponents during a set of social doubles, and the subsequent questionable behavior to that call by his partner.

More than just a rules issue, this incident bugged me so much that it clearly warrants a greater discussion on the broader issue of personal integrity within the game. This is how it all went down.

My partner was serving to the deuce court and hit a first serve wide that landed about a foot inside the sideline. The net man on the opposing team, confused by the ten and under lines on the court, called the serve out. Though we immediately stopped play to protest the ridiculousness of the call, he honestly believed he made a correct call.

I pointed out several previous bad calls, including an impossible call of a ball going under the net a few weeks ago, that he’d made in recent weeks and he relented, suggesting that we “Take two.”  I said, “No. The ball was clearly in and the call was bad, and you know it. It’s our point.”

(This type of dispute is outlined in Friend at Court – The Code, Part 2, #12 – Out calls reversed.)

That’s when his partner, the returner for the contested point, finally decided to chime in. Not to admit the bad call on a serve he knows landed well in, but to fight me on the point by saying with a straight face: “Well that’s just your opinion. I didn’t say anything. It was out in your opinion.”

Needless to say, his brazen “lying by omission” didn’t help the discussion. Particularly since this was the second instance in which he was dishonest about a clearly blown call during a set. Also, it must be added that this isn’t a newbie. This guy has been around the game for years. For someone of his level, his behavior was actually pretty outrageous!

My partner and I finally settled on up playing the point over so as to avert WW3. After all, this was just a tennis game and not worth a protracted fight. We went on to win the game, but the damage to the social aspect of the set was done. We lost the set, and then both moved over to the second court to avoid playing with them again.

I’ve said it before and will surely say it again: we all make bad calls. Even veteran officials, with training, make errant calls. The point is in how you deal with the call. Thankfully, the USTA has rules to deal with most of these types of issues in sanctioned events. In social settings, however, all you have is the integrity of the participants.

I’d much rather play with someone who makes the occasional (and unintentional) bad call than the guy who looks me in the eye and then lies to me to justify the cheating response after the call. Some may say this is extrapolating too much, but that action – good or bad depending on your point of view – tells me an awful lot about what someone’s willing to do in order to win a point.

In the end it’s all about what’s personally more important to you. For me, foot faults and minor stuff like that don’t really matter. Trying to make good calls (and being honest when you don’t) does. If you can’t trust the person on the other side of the net, then why bother?

If those things don’t matter to you AND you can keep the game social and fun, then more power to you! Also, I’ve got a bridge to sell you…