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The Politics and Etiquette of Drying Wet Courts: Tournaments

On By Teresa Merklin

Extolling the virtues of “The EGO Leaf Blower” earlier this week, brought back a wave of memories of my times spent leaning over a squeegee. A significant part of my junior tennis career was spent drying courts… for my baby brother’s impending tournament match. I don’t recall him ever returning the favor for me, but to be fair, I also can’t recall a time when I went further in a tournament than he did that would have precipitated (see what I did there?) that opportunity.

Tennis Club Dress Codes

On By Teresa Merklin

In one of the most shocking developments to occur at Fiend at Court to date, I find myself rounding up part three of a series on tennis dress codes. What started me down this path was a somewhat rare rule on tennis attire that appears in the local league regulations for the Capital Area Tennis Association (CATA) in Austin, Texas.

USTA League Double Dipping

On By Teresa Merklin

In “Life on the Border: Tennis in DFW” I wrote about a practice colloquially known as “double dipping” in league tennis. It is fairly common in the DFW area for players to play league tennis in both Dallas and Fort Worth. Additionally, most local leagues allow players to play on more than one team within a league, as long as those teams are in separate flights or divisions.

USTA League Captains and Conflict of Interest

On By Teresa Merklin

A couple of weeks ago a player posted a question to the Facebook group of the active USTA tennis tournament players in Texas. The fundamental question is whether it is fair for a single person to captain multiple teams within the same league that play in the same flight. The hallmark of this site is using these types of situations to dissect and analyze the individual and organizational dynamics involved. This is a terrific case study to examine the rules and incentives in the USTA League framework.

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Holding Court: Pickleball vs Tennis

On By Teresa Merklin

One of the immutable differences between pickleball and tennis is the size of the court. Four pickleball courts can be constructed in the same space as would generally be allocated to one tennis court. In fact, the “four pack” arrangement of pickleball courts into the same size area as a tennis court is a very good configuration for considering the social dynamics of pickleball.

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