A couple of Wednesdays ago, my weekly tennis rules post centered around an unusual situation that arose in a match between Madison Keys and Leylah Fernandez. “A Swing and a Miss for Madison Keys” described how she whiffed on a ball that had bounced on her side and back over the net. I speculated that it was possibly because she didn’t have clarity that it was legal for her to reach across the net to play the ball in that snap judgment scenario.
Two days after that post ran, I was playing a mixed doubles match in the Wichita Falls City Tournament when a precisely similar situation arose. Our opponents framed a ball that barely cleared the net and bounced back across the plane of the net. This unfolded directly in front of where I was already standing, so unlike the scenario for Keys, no footwork was required. I reached over the net and played the ball at a sharp angle that bounced onto the court and straight into the sideline bleachers.
I almost missed it. My ball bounced very close to the line, prompting my opponent to observe that it probably would have been called out during our junior days. Even with mental clarity on the rule and no footwork required, it was still a challenging shot. I experienced firsthand the hesitation in muscle memory to play it that way.
One of the things I love about the Wichita Falls City Championships is the social atmosphere. In that tight-knit tennis community, people hang out to watch the matches, and there is a great deal of banter between the players and the people on the bleachers. Consequently, it allowed my friend Greg to remind me that I had written about that rules scenario just two days earlier. It is definitely the record for the shortest time between writing about something like that and having it unfold in one of my matches.
My best doubles skill is finding a strong partner to carry me to victory. Chad carried us to the City Championship.
So now that I have completely buried the lead, I am announcing another very under-the-radar contest. It will run between now and Labor Day Weekend, when the winners will be announced. I have three still photos that show a clear tennis rules violation. I will not highlight that they are contest photos in any way. The first person to correctly identify each rule violation will win one of the highly coveted Fiend at Court embroidered hats.
If you have made it this far down in the post, you have a pretty good chance on this one.
