What You Can Find in the Tennis Blogosphere

Mr Topspin, over at The Frameshot suggests doing away with the let serve:

Yes, remove the service let across the board on all levels. During a point, when the ball hits the net and lands in, you play it. Why should it be different just because it’s a serve? In NCAA tennis this is already in effect. If a player’s serve hits the net and lands in, it’s considered good and you play it.

Read the rest of his argument here.

In "Etiquette? Are you sure?" Dave Winship, over at On the Line seems to question the etiquette in this rule of ettiquete. And he sees young players leaving the sport because of how common cheating is becoming in junior tennis.

Picture this. Little Johnny is playing a match in the junior national championships. It's a set-all and going with serve in the decider when Johnny rips a backhand passing shot that lands plumb on the sideline only for his opponent to stick a digit in the air and pronounce "No! Unlucky!". Johnny's parents squirm and gnash their teeth while Johnny retaliates with the standard riposte: "Are you sure?". "Of course I'm sure," his opponent protests....No one would seriously contemplate organising a junior football match without providing a referee, but when it comes to junior tennis, not only is Cyclops blind and Hawk-Eye in the dark, but linespersons and even umpires are conspicuously absent, even at national level. At best, a tournament organiser may be around to mediate disputes, but this person typically patrols half a dozen courts or more.

Of course Dave is right, but I doubt the issue will be addressed. And of course, when you add up how many officials you'd need for a tennis tournament and compare that the number needed for a football or basketball game, you see why tennis has tried to get by without officials. Yet, come on, one person in a chair with the authority to over-rule a call would make a big difference.

And as for that rule of "etiquette" that says you're supposed to say, "Are you sure?" I have always thought that's totally stupid. Why ask such a stupid question? That just gets your face rubbed in it. He isn't going to admit he isn't sure! If he did, he'd be admitting he did wrong to call the ball out. In fact, it's both foolish and wrong to expect a person to give evidence against himself like that.

I tell kids to just blow off doubtful and even bad calls unless they're sure their opponent made a bad call intentionally. Then walk up to the net and say, "That ball was good."

If they change the call, fine, but they probably won't. In any case, don't argue. There's nothing else to say. Just walk back and play the next point. You have served notice that you aren't going to take it laying down. So, more often than not, that will be the end of it.

But, if it happens again, march right back up to the net, say, "That ball was good," and then lodge a formal complaint with whoever's in charge.

Try it. You'll like it a lot better than saying, "Are you sure?"

And Peter Bodo is a little OT here in "Read it and Weep" in his Tennis World, but ...

Hope you all had a good weekend, whatever your belief; after all, atheism is a faith, too, isn’t it?

Huh? Uh, so if I believe there are no Italian restaurants on the planet Pluto, that's a religious belief?

On that note....