An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
It seems odd to find the rules for the warm-up in tennis relatively close to the conclusion of the main body of the rules. In the ITF Rules of Tennis, as printed in the USTA Friend at Court, the warm-up period is defined in the very last item in the “Continuous Play” section.
Our steady march through the ITF Rules of Tennis as published in the USTA Friend at Court has arrived at the point where we are entitled to a break. Specifically the break between sets.
Occasionally in senior women’s tennis I have encountered enthusiastic new umpires — apparently very recently removed from their own junior tennis — who want to enforce their ideas of genuine need for a bathroom break. In senior women’s tennis, I generally assume that my opponent isn’t faking it.
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Every Wednesday this site overthinks an excerpt from the ITF Rules of Tennis as published in the USTA Friend at Court. A systemic march through the rules of tennis was one of the founding objectives of this site. Last week the rule regarding recovery of condition was examined. This week we dive into the second sentence of the same rule which deals with medical conditions.
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I highly recommend tennis as a sport to parents who are looking to raise independent and assertive children. Tennis is the perfect environment for developing and growing problem solving abilities in kids. Due to the unique rules of tennis, players learn to stand up for themselves. It is a valuable life skill.
Every Wednesday this site contemplates a rule taken sequentially from the ITF Rules of Tennis as contained in the USTA’s Friend at Court. Today’s rule is from the “Continuous Play” section. The general principal underpinning all the rules in this section is that play should be continuous from the moment that the first serve is put into play until the match is completed.
Every Wednesday this site considers a rule from the ITF Rules of Tennis as published by the USTA Friend at Court. We are currently in the midst of a sequential march through the rules. Currently we are in Section 29, “Continuous Play.” Today’s topic is the Set Break.
I rarely sit down when I play tennis. I have found that for me, any benefits of rest from sitting are negated by the fact that if I stop moving I tend to stiffen up. Besides, it it embarrassing when I have to ask my opponent for help getting back up.
It is hard for me to imagine that this news would have escaped the narrow niche of tennis enthusiasts who follow this site, but just in case, there was a fairly significant story line that emerged from the US Open last week. Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the tournament after hitting a ball in anger that injured a court official.
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Last week in “Skipping Forward in the Interest of Continuous Play” we discussed that the time limit between points in the official rules of tennis is 25 seconds. There is a USTA comment on this rule that establishes one pretty significant exception.