tennis, life and a few things in between

The Sweet Open (coach initially wrote sweat 😓… One letter different but actually both are good) is our first tennis tournament for the community. 13 men and two women players showed up. The coach has to step in to make the 8th team. We drew our partner from a hat 🎩.

Lucky me to partner with a good player. We won 3 and lost two to the coach/Stan team.

First match was against Craig/Dick. As Craig first serve to me went long, a ball rolled onto our court. I said “take two.”
He said, “seriously?”
“Of course, ball on court.” I said.
I’m wondering if these simple etiquette is being followed here. Silly me.

Second match was against Dennis/Pu. We ran into the bad line call again. My partner hit a lop that landed on the baseline: you can hear the sound and see the funny bounce. P called it out but Dennis said it’s good. Next up, my first serve was out in the alley but P played it. I lost the point. This is bad, so elementary school stuff. But we beat this team and again twice in a row – not sure how did this happen with eight teams draw. But I’m very glad we did. Cheater doesn’t deserve to win.

Our third match was again the coach team and we lost.

Fourth match was against Dennis/P. We won soundly again.

Next match was final against the coach team and we lost again.

The runner up prize is $50 … My first career win: I’m quitting my day job now …ha ha ha.

More on bad line calls here:

The usta has a mantra, that  a 99% out is 100% IN whenever I encounter a bad line call, and there are a few here, from the same player.

USTA has a couple of rules, too:

#1: if you don’t call an out ball immediately, it’s your opponent’s point. The hawk eye system honors this. When you circle a ball mark 3 times and asking if it’s out, every player knows what’s going on, call it IN and move on.

#2: if two partners disagree on a line call, it’s your opponent’s point.

Both rules, I interpret, are up holding the gentlemen or women’s game: when unsure, be courteous, give the point to your opponent.

You may say, come on old bag 👵, this is only recreational game. But, the fact that you’re chewing over a line call, shows exactly you care win or loss, that needs rule to play the game fairly. Let’s face it, without rules, how can you can play any game?