The Rules of Tennis
This week we are moving into the Appendices of the “ITF Rules of Tennis”. It is tempting to celebrate the milestone, but we still have a long way to go. The main body of the rules concludes on page 19 as published in the USTA’s “Friend at Court.” The appendices run through page 36. The first topic on the docket as we continue to march through the rules is Appendix I, “The Ball.”
The very first statement in this section is “For all measurements in Appendix I, SI units shall take precedence.” For the benefit of my United States centric readership, SI the stands for “International System of Units.” The order of the letters is reversed because the native language of the ITF is French. Put succinctly, SI units are what is used in the metric system.
In Fabulous ITF Historical Facts, I mentioned how the ITF became stewards of the Rules of Tennis with the stipulation that they were to always be printed in English. The rules that the ITF inherited from the All England Club naturally used English units. The fact that the original measurements of tennis are the English units is evidenced by the absence of decimal points when the standard measurements of things like the courts and racquets are even units without decimal points.
I feel like the insistence that SI units are primary is a little patch of ITF rebellion against the “forever in English” stipulation. Additionally, who would a statement on precedence even be needed? Conversion between English and metric units is basic math. Is the statement of precedence from the ITF an indication of a lack of confidence in their calculations? Are they subtly changing the specifications of the game right under our noses because the English speaking countries don’t understand the metric system? This could very well be the start of a vast ITF conspiracy to convert us all to the metric system.
I am keeping an eye on you, ITF.
