Last week, I included a photo from a tennis match in the post “Two Things That All Adult Tennis Tournament Players Should Do.” It was part of an under-the-radar contest I am running through Labor Day weekend. The challenge is for readers to spot any rule violations that casually appear in the images. Bob from Raleigh won a highly coveted Fiend at Court embroidered hat by correctly identifying that the towel hanging on the fence is an issue…. or is it?
I thought this post topic was one that I could quickly whip out. I am currently in an intense time crunch, and I am intentionally trying to streamline as many of my daily obligations as I can. It turned out to be a little more involved than I had anticipated because the rule doesn’t say exactly what I thought it did. Furthermore, what USTA officials enforce in my local area doesn’t align with the wording either. Fun times.
The contest photo shows a towel hung on the back fence behind the center of the baseline. That was the most common placement for towels in the 1970s and early 1980s when I played USTA Junior tennis. However, once I returned to the competitive ecosystem three decades later, I quickly learned that officials prohibited the placement of towels in that location. I was told that it was a part of “THE CODE” in Part III of the USTA Friend at Court.
And indeed it is… sort of.
Placement of towels. Towels are to be placed on the ground outside the net post or at the back fence. Clothing or towels should never be placed on a net.
USTA Friend at Court, Part II “THE CODE”, principle 46.
There is a tremendous amount of ambiguity in how this rule is worded. By my reading, it doesn’t prohibit a player from hanging a towel on the back fence at all. Additionally, it is the only place in the current USTA Friend at Court where the word towel is used at all.
If you handed the precise wording of this rule to a computer programmer who did not have the current interpretive context, the following logic would probably emerge:
- Towels placed outside the net post must be placed on the ground. Per the first part of this rule, towels cannot be hung on a side fence or placed on a bench that is outside the net post because that is not on the ground. Ironically, hung on the side fence is the location where umpires direct players to move their towels that were previously hanging on the back fence. It is where players routinely place their towels in attempted compliance with the rule.
- Towels may be placed anywhere on the back fence within the net posts. That includes hanging on the back fence, which is routinely disallowed. Towels may be placed on the ground at the back fence, which is currently allowed.
For a second opinion, I fed the text of principle 46 into ChatGPT 4o. It agreed with my assertion that the wording indicates that towels may be hung on the back fence.
Prompt: Using this rule definition “Placement of towels. Towels are to be placed on the ground outside the net post or at the back fence. Clothing or towels should never be placed on a net.” would a tennis player be allowed to hang their towel on the back fence beyond the baseline?
Answer: Yes, according to the rule “Placement of towels,” a tennis player would be allowed to hang their towel on the back fence beyond the baseline. The rule specifies that towels should be placed on the ground outside the net post or at the back fence, so placing a towel on the back fence is permitted.
Interpretation of THE CODE Principle 46 by ChatGPT 4o.
The prohibition on hanging towels on the fence is intended to prevent players from placing a bright yellow or visually distracting towel in their opponent’s line of vision. In that context, it is a good rule. On the other hand, my home section of Texas has fire ants and frequently scorching hot court surfaces. Due to those two factors, most players prefer to hang their towels on a fence.
Maybe the USTA officials in my area are interpreting this rule all wrong, or perhaps it is time to revisit the wording. If hanging a towel on the back fence is OK, then I would propose this as a good starting point for revision: “Towels may be placed anywhere that does not create a visual distraction for any player on the court. Players must move towels away from the back fence if their opponent or an official believes it is a visual distraction.”
I spent some time combing through USTA officiating manuals, which are silent on this topic. Additionally, the fact that the “correct” answer came from a reader in the Southern Section suggests that this is not a uniquely Texas phenomenon. I am curious how this rule is interpreted in other parts of the country,
Certainly, on the west coast of Florida, Officials request that towels not be placed behind the court in the fencing or windbreak. The preferred option is to place towels on side fencing near the baseline.
As well as being in the eye-line of players at the far end which may cause an issue – particularly if it is windy, I have had complaints from court maintenance crews who say towels placed in the ‘flap holes’ which are cut to relieve wind pressure on win-breaks, cause damaging tears as the towels are pulled from their placement position.
Ever since Rafa started taking two towels on court, this became a trend for juniors and resulted in lengthy delays between points as players would use the towel and way to delay the game, compose themselves or whatever. Quite why a player should go to the towel after an ‘ace’ has been served against them is quite puzzling, other than to interrupt the flow of their opponent. In the UK most players don’t take a towel with them from their bag at the net post…. perhaps because the weather is not quite as extreme!
Incidentally, I read that ball-kids/people handing towels to players is again to become the norm which is a bad idea. The towels are dripping with players’ sweat and players should be responsible for them. When working as a line umpire we would wait for players to remove towels from the back of our chairs, before we sat down because they were so wet. To have ball-people, particularly kids, handing the towels to players is, frankly, disgusting.
Speaking as an Official, the placement of towels as noted in The Code is actually quite definitive. The phrase “…are to be…”, can’t be more definitive based on my modest linguistic comprehension. As I’ve learned through experience and USTA COE training, there is a plethora of gray throughout the FAC in which an Official must use common sense. I agree that as written the code specifically states that the towel must be “on the ground”. But Officials, using common sense (and fire ant awareness 🐜), would and should allow the towel to be hung well outside the plane of the net post on the back fence. In lieu of that the owner of the towel, or the Official, can simply ask the opponent “May I/your opponent hang my/their towel there?“. Issue resolved diplomatically 🕊️