The Rules of Tennis
Every Wednesday this site discusses a rule pulled directly from the ITF Rules of Tennis as published in the USTA Friend at Court. The sequential march is currently in the midst of the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis.
My friend Michael always extolled the virtues of the adaptive rules of tennis for wheelchair players. Since his death in a car accident a few years ago I am frequently reminded of the gap he left in so many lives. It is almost trivial to lament the fact that I don’t have him as a resource to consult as I dive into the rules of Wheelchair tennis.
The first sentence of the Rules of Wheelchair tennis starts off with understated elegance.
The game of wheelchair tennis follows the ITF Rules of Tennis with the following exceptions.
Opening Sentence of the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis, ITF Rules of Tennis
The exceptions are more numerous than might be expected. The first and most visible one is the two bounce rule.
The Two Bounce Rule
Rules of Wheelchair Tennis Exception (a),, ITF Rules of Tennis
The wheelchair tennis player is allowed two bounces of the ball. The player must return the ball before it bounces a third time. The second bounce can be either in or out of the court boundaries.
The wording in the two bounce rules reveals one of the fundamental tenets of the Wheelchair tennis rules. They are designed in such a way that a wheelchair player can reasonably compete against fully able bodied players. The wheelchair tennis player is allowed two bounces of the ball. Any player on the court who is not in a wheelchair is permitted only one. It is beautifully inclusive.
The rest of the rule adds more details to the two bounces that are allowed. First, only the first bounce has to land within the boundaries of the court. It is not clear to me why it was necessary to clarify that two bounces is not three bounces, but that detail is in there as well.
As a formalized sport, wheelchair tennis was created in 1976. Brad Parks and Jeff Minnenbraker are credited with the invention of the adaptive rules. Parks, a former acrobat skier, had suffered an injury which left him a paraplegic and met wheelchair athlete Jeff Minnenbraker during rehab. It is probably no coincidence that this happened in the United States at the height of the USTA membership boom of the 70s.
Various organizations and associations were formed after 1976 as formalized tennis competition at the National and international levels were codified. ITF took over stewardship of the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis in 1998. That paved the way for the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis to be included alongside the Rules of Tennis.
My friend Michael was a paraplegic who took tennis in college to satisfy the physical education credits required to earn his degree. He was what we would call a “casual” player in current tennis marketing terms. The college class he took was just the standard PE class intended for all students.
As we continue to work through the Rules of Wheelchair tennis, I am struck by the fact that I knew a little bit more about the adaptations than I initially perceived. I have my friend Michael to thank for that.
- United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
- International Tennis Federation, A Guide to Wheelchair Tennis, May 6, 2020.
