An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
As we continue to work through the Rules of Wheelchair tennis, the final adaptation for delivery of the service presents a perplexing conundrum. While some wheelchair players can execute a conventional tennis serve, sometimes physical limitations make that action an impossibility. There is a rule adaptation that accommodates that situation.
There are a handful of adaptations in the Rules of Wheelchair tennis regarding the serve. Most notable of these is that that the service motion starts from a stationary position. However, the player delivering the service is permitted one push to build momentum before striking the ball.
The recently released 2021 Friend at Court includes three new USTA comments against the ITF Rules of Tennis. Since this site is currently in the middle of exploring the section of that contains the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis, it makes sense to cover these comments now. This requires a little backtracking. All three of the new USTA comments are in the main body of the ITF Rules of Tennis rather than the wheelchair section.
The first change that appears in the 2021 USTA Friend at Court comes courtesy of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). It is a seemingly inconsequential note appended to the Forward of the ITF Rules of Tennis. This makes it high time to revisit the relationship between the USTA and the ITF.
The 2021 edition of the USTA Friend at Court was released a little over a week ago. As was anticipated after examining the 2021 ITF Rules of Tennis earlier this year, there are no substantive rule changes involving match play in this year’s updates. However, there are some significant structural changes that were made to the Friend at Court as well as a slew of new USTA event regulations.
Remember that time when Andy Murray couldn’t keep his balls in his shorts? In 2012, there was an issue with Murray’s clothing that resulted in tennis balls accidentally falling out of his pocket during points. The recurring hindrance calls forced Adidas to make a mid-tournament update to his shorts to address his issues. It is an interesting case study in a hindrance caused by something that is within a player’s control yet still unintentional.
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In 2020, this site launched into coverage of the hindrance rule in tennis with the post “Hindrance in Tennis: A Conceptual Description.” As it turns out, hindrance is one of the more subjective and controversial items encoded in the ITF Rules of Tennis as published within the USTA Friend at Court.
Wheelchair players compete under the ITF Rules of Tennis. The modifications for wheelchair tennis are relatively minor. This establishes tennis as one of the premiere sports for adaptive competition. Head to head competition is possible between adaptive and non-adaptive competitors.
My friend Michael always extolled the virtues of the adaptive rules of tennis for wheelchair players. Since his death in a car accident a few years ago I am frequently reminded of the gap he left in so many lives. It is almost trivial to lament the fact that I don’t have him as a resource to consult as I dive into the rules of Wheelchair tennis.
When this sequential march through the ITF Rules of Tennis was first initiated, I anticipated that discussion of wheelchair tennis might be omitted altogether. However, after the backlash against the USTA for attempting to eliminate the wheelchair tennis from the US Open in 2020, it became a topic that was impossible to ignore.