Anti-Tennis

Some "social doubles" players think that their being in a spot takes away your right to hit there.

I don't know where they get this idea, unless they are just stretching the rule of sporting play that you never try to hit an opponent with your shots.

But think about that for a moment. In social doubles, both teams are usually in the Up-and-Back Formation. In that situation, when you're at net and get a volley, there's only one place to aim it -- through the Hole. That is, hit it through the angular gap between opponents. That's an extremely high-percentage shot. And, if it isn't an outright winner, it forces a weak return hit up to you from an opposing net player way back in no man's land. You'd have to be a fool to pass up a chance at that shot.

Hitting the other way, to the opposing baseline player, is the next worst thing to hitting the ball out.

So, if some chick is vegetating there at the "T" and thinks you mustn't hit to the Hole because she's plugging it, she's cheating. If she's going to stand there, she had better be ready to return that shot, because you have a right to try to win the point.

If she can't take the heat, she should get out of the kitchen and go back to the baseline.

Some players actually deliberately cheat this way. They can't return your shots, so they stand in the Hole and then act like it's a mortal sin for you to volley anywhere but away from them. In other words, they make it a moral issue, forcing you pass up chances to score and let them off the hook every time they goof and give your volleyer a shot at the ball.

I hate to admit this, but the culprits are usually women playing mixed doubles.

In tennis you must score by making shots, not by hindering your opponent's ability to make them. To prevent players from body-blocking the opposition's shots or hindering them with the fear of hitting you, the rules penalize YOU for getting hit. And if you position in such a way as to hinder your opponent with the fear of hitting you, you lose the point via the Hindrance Rule.

More on that here.