[tennisbiz] Rule Interpretations

<x-charset iso-8859-1>Hi-

I just returned from the National Open 14's where I watched matches for two
days. During the matches there were roving officials. I have two rules
questions and one question on the alternative scoring issue. I have looked
through "A Friend At Court" and I am unable to find the information to
answer my questions. Here are my questions:

1. What constitutes ball abuse and racquet abuse? I was watching a match
where the roving official was standing near the net post watching the match
and the player got mad, hit a ball into the ground behind her baseline and
the ball bounced over the fence. The players had to wait for someone to
retrieve the ball for them. This same player, with the roving official
watching, threw her racquet at her tennis bag, missed the bag, and the
racquet bounced on the ground and landed five or so feet from her tennis
bag. I have looked through "A Friend At Court" and I cannot find the
definition of what would constitute ball or racquet abuse.

2. In a number of singles matches, the receiver was returning long first
serves into the net. These returners then would walk very slowly up to the
net, push the ball back into the back fence on their side, and then slowly
walk back to take their position to return. I would estimate that it took
the returners ten to fifteen seconds to remove the ball. In most of the
situations that I saw, the server double faulted because of the delay
between their first and second serve. It appeared to me similiar to when a
basketball team calls a time out before the player gets to shoot a foul
shot. The delay can throw off their rhythm. In "A Friend At Court" on page
114, 2.i. it states, "the Server gets two serves if the delay was caused by
the Receiver or if there was outside interference." Futher down it states,
"The Receiver is the judge of whether the delay is sufficiently prolonged to
justify giving the Server two serves." As an outside observer the delay to
me seemed "sufficiently prolonged" and the server was definitely thrown off
most of the time. Is this situation fair and going by the rules? Does the
server have any rights in this situation other than finding an official to
call the match?

3. If the United States is interested in developing top junior players why
are tournaments using match tie-breakers or super tie-breakers in
tournaments? How are players going to get the experience of playing two out
of three set matches? What does this say about having to be in top
condition to play in high level events? What are the positive side effects
of this besides that tournaments can get in more matches per day and make
more money? I would like to hear your opinion about this. Thanks!

Alan Chandronnait


 
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Received on Tue Apr 16 2002 - 10:30:33 CDT