The final case ruling in the “Player Loses Point” section in the ITF Rules of Tennis is one that almost everyone has absentmindedly violated from time to time. The technical term for this is “brain fart.”
Case 8. A player standing outside the court hits the ball or catches it before it bounces and claims the point because the ball was definitely going out of the correct court.
Decision. The player loses the point, unless it is a good return, in which case the point continues.
USTA Friend at Court, ITF Rules of Tennis, Case 8
The best part about arriving at this Case Decision is because it gives me a chance to share a video from my new favorite WTA player, Kristie Ahn. She has the by far strongest social media game in the WTA and her stock has rapidly been climbing during the COVID-19 suspension of play. In this video, Kristie completely captures the emotional reaction following that absent minded moment before a player catches an out ball before it bounces.
Like the assertion in Kristie’s tweet, this is also likely to happen to me when competitive tennis resumes. For me, it is because I have been playing a lot of cone drill games where the only way to win a point is to knock down a cone on the other side of the net. In that game I regularly play swinging volleys from at or beyond the baseline because it is better for the game to simply keep the rally going.
Catching the ball on the fly turns a won point into a lost point instantly. Hitting a successful return off the fly takes a won point and gifts the opposing played with a second chance. In either case, it is a brutal realization in a close match.
This takes us through all the ITF content in the “Player Loses Point” section. There are two USTA specific comments to deal with and then we are on to the next section.
- United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
