An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
The ATP is having a bad run of on-court reckless behavior involving multiple players. The men’s professional tour has been criticized by some in the media for not taking more decisive action to penalize the individuals involved. Some are starting to wonder if the ATP actually wants to discourage that behavior.
There are provisions interspersed throughout the ITF Rules of Tennis and the USTA Friend at Court for suspending play when demanded by external conditions. In officiated matches, the decision on when to suspend play is at the discretion of the chair umpire or the referee. The rules are somewhat vague in defining the conditions under which a match may be suspended.
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Today I was astonished to discover that I haven’t written directly about a rule that appears in the USTA Friend at Court since November of last year. It is high time we resumed our (apparently no so) steady march through the Rules of Tennis. We are currently in the “Role of Court Officials” section and this week will turn our attention to the line umpire.
The USTA recently posted a fun quiz on how to correct certain types of errors that can occur during a tennis match. The quiz is a great social media engagement mechanism for educating tennis players on the rules of the game. It is also a potential vector for identification and outreach for prospective officials.
The World Tennis Number (WTN) is a new ITF global rating system for all tennis players, regardless of age, gender or ability. The USTA recently announced the adoption of WTN and has been conducting informational webinars on the forthcoming system. A couple of weeks ago, I attended one of those sessions and gathered some additional information about WTN from both the presentation and the question and answer session that ensued.
Reilly Opelka continues to amaze me with his ability to get fined for violating obscure ATP rules. After the finals of the Dallas Open last week, he was penalized for wearing his hat during the award ceremony.
This is the final post in a series that examines new rules that appear in the 2022 USTA League Regulations. This year there are changes in the automatic appeal process that is applicable to players who are 60 and over.
The USTA recently released the 2022 USTA League Regulations. Unlike in years past, there are some non-trivial changes in the document from the draft version circulated earlier in 2021. The most striking change is in the page formatting and layout. For reasons that defy my understanding, the final document is not a standard paper size. It is thin and narrow and not particularly friendly for printing or viewing on a mobile device.
In her women’s finals at the Australian Open against eventual champion Ash Barty, Danielle Collins snapped of a forehand with so much force that her “lucky” bracelet flew off her wrist. Quite frankly I am always astonished at players who can play with anything loose on their wrist. The fact that she broke the metal clasp during a tennis stroke is also fairly impressive.
In the second round of the Australian Open, Pablo Carreno Busta hit an unusual “around the net post” winner against Tallon Griekspoor. It is a perfect example that highlights one of the more obscure rules of tennis. In fact, it is a rules interpretation that the ESPN announcer didn’t get exactly right.