Today I will start in on Appendix V of the ITF Rules of Tennis as contained in the USTA Friend at Court. That statement brings into stark realization the fact that I am still struggling with how to effectively but succinctly reference the basic rules of tennis. The ITF owns the rules of the game, which is reprinted in the USTA Friend at Court. It occurs to me that the cleanest way to talk about the rules would have been to work directly off the ITF rules of tennis, but that would miss all the USTA Comments. Also, the whole theme of Fiend at Court would break down. I am soldiering on. The struggle is real.
The fact that I am discussing content in Appendix V also sparks the realization that I have covered part of Appendix I, most of Appendix II, and have skipped Appendices III and IV entirely. The Friend at Court is not a linear publication. I think that the Appendices are included in the order of original amendment. They are definitely not in the order of reference in the Friend at Court.
The subject of Appendix V is alternative scoring methods. Front and center of alternative scoring systems is “No-Ad” which is short for no reasonable person would want to play that format, or possibly according to other less-credible sources, “No Advantage.”
No-Ad scoring is exactly the same as in a conventional game with the exception that when the score reaches deuce, a single deciding point is played to determine the winner of the game. In other words, wait for it… No Advantage.
As is my custom, I researched who was the pariah who came up with the No-Ad system and then realized that I already knew the answer. Jimmy Van Alen, we meet again. Prior to starting this project I had never even heard of the man, but now I find that I am developing a complicated relationship with him.
I am starting to believe that Jimmy Van Alen did not actually like tennis, which is an odd thing to say about the founder of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. I am coming to think of him as more of a party and event planner. I am entertaining the theory that to Jimmy, tennis was an effective mechanism to bring people together, but the tennis needed to be abbreviated so everyone could get onto the Mint Julep phase of the party. (I am not sure what the drink preference would have actually been. I feel like I need a pilgrimage to the International Hall of Fame is to investigate.)
The sad fact of the matter is that No-Ad scoring can be found in usage by a lot of formerly respectable institutions. Tomorrow… I am naming names.
- United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
- Tennis Players Go Back and Forth on No-Ad Scoring, Stuart Miller, New York Times, September 16, 2016.
