The Rules of Tennis
Today I was astonished to discover that I haven’t written directly about a rule that appears in the USTA Friend at Court since November of last year. It is high time we resumed our (apparently no so) steady march through the Rules of Tennis. We are currently in the “Role of Court Officials” section and this week will turn our attention to the line umpire.
The role of the line umpire is to (follow me closely on this) call the lines in a match. If line umpires are used, then there is also a chair umpire with the authority to correct the line umpire calls. Experience and accuracy as a line umpire is a part of the development pathway for tennis officials. With the rise of electronic systems to call the lines, there may be an impending disruption in the officiating pipeline.
Sometimes the human line umpire cannot make a call because their view is obstructed. The typical way this could occur is if the player’s body was interposed between the official and the place where the ball bounced on the court. The ITF Rules of Tennis accounts for that possibility.
A line umpire who cannot make a call shall signal this immediately to the chair umpire who shall make a decision. If the line umpire can not make a call, or if there is no line umpire, and the chair umpire can not make a decision on a question of fact, the point shall be replayed.
ITF Rules of Tennis Appendix VI (excerpt)
It turns out that replayed points because the chair umpire was unable to make a call are pretty rare. In fact the USTA Officiating manual explicitly says that replay of points is to be avoided if at all possible.
While a replay is to be avoided if at all possible, the Chair Umpire shall order a point replayed if a valid call cannot be made.
USTA Officiating: Techniques and Procedures (Excerpt)
The official tennis term for when an umpire cannot see where the ball landed is “unsighted.” There is a designated hand signal for issuing the unsighted call.
Unsighted Signal – The Line Umpire promptly indicates to the Chair Umpire by an unsighted signal when the Line Umpire is unable to make a call.
USTA Officiating: Techniques and Procedures (Excerpt)
I cannot recall ever seeing the “unsighted” call made in a tennis match. That means that it is either exceedingly rare or that it is just something that fades into the landscape when I watch matches. The USTA Officiating manual describes the physical signal. However, I was unable to find an example photo or video.
“Unsighted” is signaled by placing the back of the hands to the Chair Umpire in a vertical position just below the eyes.
USTA Officiating: Techniques and Procedures (Excerpt)
I did find a YouTube video with an example of the unsighted call being made. It is the first point of the “Worst line calls and umpire decisions in Tennis” embedded video at the end of this post. In that case the line umpire initially called the ball in and then looks to be changing his hand signal to unsighted as the camera pans off him. The chair umpire could not make a determination, so that point was replayed. The audio clearly indicates it was an unsighted call made on the point.
I also included a reel of a series of very bad calls in a match involving Reilly Opelka. None of those were technically the unsighted call, but vision issues were clearly in play. In that case, each point was replayed by chair umpire overrule. Opelka was fairly surly and understandably so.
- Friend at Court: The Handbook of Tennis Rules and Regulations, USTA, 2022
- USTA Officiating: Techniques and Procedures, USTA, undated.
