The Rules of Tennis
Am I really spending three straight weeks on the same rule subsection? Darn right I am. One of the founding ideas of this site was a complete traversal of the ITF Rules of Tennis as published in the USTA Friend at Court. We are currently in Section 29, Continuous Play.
A limited number of toilet/change of attire breaks may also be allowed, if this is announced in advance of the event.
USTA Friend at Court, ITF Rules of Tennis, 29(c) excerpt
This is another rule where it is also important to consult Section III Table 13 in the USTA Friend at Court. Just in case you are not following along with your own copy of that publication, Table 13 contains the details of medical timeouts, bleeding timeouts, and toilet/change of attire breaks.
According to the guidance in Table 13, toilet breaks are allowed whenever the official determines that the need is genuine. It is not clear to me how an official can reasonably determine if a player actually has to go or not. I really don’t think there is a reliable method other than taking the player’s word for it.
Occasionally in senior women’s tennis I have encountered enthusiastic new umpires — apparently very recently removed from their own junior tennis — who want to enforce their ideas of genuine need for a bathroom break. In senior women’s tennis, I generally assume that my opponent isn’t faking it.
Until very recently, bathroom breaks were not allowed during NCAA Division 1 Men’s matches. The exact wording from the 2016 rule book was as follows:
A player may use the bathroom only during the 90-second changeover or two-minute set break. There are no bathroom breaks in Men’s Division I.
ITA 2016 Rulebook
The reason for this was apparently because men were using excessive bathroom breaks to disrupt the momentum of their opponents. In the interim the collegiate rules committee decided that it was a bad idea. The 2020 rules indicate that the men are permitted a bathroom break. However, it can only occur during the set break.
Regardless of when a bathroom break occurs during a match, the rules are clear that no coaching is allowed unless the bathroom break is taken during a time when coaching is allowed. In junior and adult recreational tennis coaching is generally permitted between the second and third sets.
When the umpire I gave birth to was playing junior tennis, there was a player in her orbit that was notorious for always taking a bathroom break after loosing the first set. That player’s mother would also visit the facilities at the same time. What a coincidence.
At a tournament in Amarillo, a parent of a player engaged in a match with that girl asked me to loiter in the bathroom when it was apparent that we were about to see another instance of the parent-child synchronized bathroom break. When I entered the bathroom, the player’s mother was already in there, standing by the sinks.
Once the daughter arrived on the scene, we all stood there for at least two minutes, simply staring at each other. Eventually the daughter and mom departed the bathroom with me right on their heels. No one ever said anything.
No one peed either.
- United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
- ITA Intercollegiate Tennis Association 2016 Rulebook, Intercollegiate Tennis Association, Tempe, AZ.
- 2019-20 ITA Official Rulebook, Intercollegiate Tennis Association, Tempe, AZ.
Another suggestion, after a bathroom break, there would be a 2 min warmup period similar to the warmup period prior to the match. This would give the player not taking a bathroom break, who has been “iced” by the length of his opponent’s break, a chance to regain his/her pre-break match rhythm.