Latest Posts

Basket Case: The Gift of Tennis for Easter Improve Your Tennis IQ: The off-court workout for on-court skills A Ratings Expiration Edge Case A Final Yoga Flow Tennis Beyond the Headlines: March 24, 2025 Tennis Ratings Management: Adult Edition Tennis Ratings Management: Junior Edition

The Joy of Non-Conformance

I have been enjoying a fun diversion of reading about equipment that appears on the ITF Non-Confirming Equipment list. I think I would like to get my hands on some of these items and see if they really produced a material difference in play to the point of threatening the traditional skills required to play the game of tennis.

The Tradition of Racquet Conformance

The ITF is the arbiter of compliance to the Rules of Tennis for racquet and racquet technology. The ITF “Product Conformity” pamphlet for this aspect of the game indicates that the interpretation is performed in a manner that preserves the “traditional character of tennis” as well as the skills traditionally required to play the game. Tennis is a game based largely on tradition.

All Strung Out

An ITF Case ruling indicates that if a player accidentally breaks a string that he can continue to play with the racquet unless doing so was specifically prohibited by event organizers. This begs the obvious question why does it have to be accidentally?