An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Exactly where and how the implications of the tie-break game were added to the ITF Rules of Tennis is completely fascinating to me. Tie-break implications are sprinkled throughout the main body, appendices, ITF Case Rulings, and USTA comments.
This section contains the description of where the server stands and the fact that the position alternates sides each point. Additionally it is indicated that that the first serve is delivered from the right half of the court in every game.
Today we shift our attention to the most underhanded serve in tennis, the drop serve. To execute a drop serve, the server lets the ballRead More
The rule are silent on what happens if a player pretends to strike the ball, but intentionally misses. This transitions us nicely to the matter of trick serves.
The tennis serve should be one of the easiest shots in all of tennis. The server’s opponent has no influence whatsoever on the delivery of the serve. It is the only shot in tennis that is completely within the server’s control. The service motion starts with a toss of the ball.
The ITF Rules of Tennis serves up another organizational curiosity with the title of two consecutive sections. “The Service” is the subject at hand. The subsequent section is “Serving.” Inquiring minds who want to know what the difference is will have to read on.
This project was started long before the bow-wave of the COVID-19 crisis swept the nation. As I write this morning, I am living under a “shelter-in-place” mandate from my local government. Life is very different than it was a month ago when I wrote my last reflection.
The USTA issued two comments against the ITF Order of Receiving rule. Today we revisit USTA comments in the context of these two enhancements.
I am fundamentally disturbed that I am spending more days on Order of Receiving than on Order of Service. The universe is out of balance. I’m laying the blame for this squarely on the doorstep of COVID-19 and the global pandemic.
A case ruling associated with Order of Receiving sends us off into an alternate universe of three person doubles. This can only end with a Code Violation.