Yesterday as we moved into the Hindrance section of the USTA Friend at court, the centerpiece of that discussion was Robin Haase being called for grunting in a way that mimicked an umpire’s out call. As I continue to review other examples of hindrance, I keep running across articles about that episode spun that Haase had grown tired of Lama’s grunting and that he was actually imitating his opponent. Again, perhaps Robin Haase lost sight of the fact that there is video of the episode.
Today I will continue to dwell on additional audible examples of hindering an opponent. The first is a clip between Maria Sharapova and Maria Kirilenko. I chose this example because it a good example of a non-verbal sound.
This clip is of particular interest to me because I frequently tap my racquet on the court in the middle of the point. Heck… I often have to use my racquet as a cane to restore balance to get myself back into position. The umpire’s ruling is very interesting to me, because she makes it clear that one tap would have been permissible, but the repeated tapping was the issue. I agree with the umpire on that call.
Another example is way more subtle and challenging to grasp out of context. The following is a point between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova in the 2015 Australian Open Finals.
As Serena delivers the serve, she starts to issue a “Come On” that was a little bit premature. I think she thought that she had served an ace, but Sharapova managed to put a racquet on it. You can barely make out the “Com…” in the clip.
To understand how the umpire and both players were sensitized to this, it is important to be aware that Serena and Maria were exchanging pumped fists and “Come On” yells at each other throughout the match. Serena immediately understood the call, accepted it, and moved on to the next point.
These two clips provide good examples of and intentional and unintentional hindrance call correctly made. In the first, Kirilenko is clearly attempting to create a distracting sound. The second clip shows Serena commit an intentional act that resulted in an unintentional hindrance. In that case the call was also correct.
This serves as a nice transition into fully unintentional acts which will be the focus tomorrow.
- United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
