Etiquette: Hit overhead toward your opponent?

[a529612]

Is it bad etiquette to hit overhead or volley and direct the ball toward or near your opponent during a club level match?

[Phil]

No, not if you hit at his feet.

[TwistServe]

I hit a friend on the knee, and I've been hit on the chin and the arm ... hmm not too big of a deal..

oh I also pegged my double's parter in the a$$ during a serve.

[Cypo]

It's much preferred over hitting them to your partner :-)

Seriously, I got beaned the other day (and I'd be singing soprano if I were I guy), and frankly, it was my own dumb fault. It had been one of those endless crosscourt rallies between the back players, I'd drifted off and realized too late that the net player across from me had dropped back to take the overhead and I was way out of position.

[ProStaffTour90]

Well it's the best place to put them, as long as you apologise if you hit them, they shouldn't be too bothered but i guess you'll always get a couple of idiots who take offence!

[kevhen]

I hit an overhead at the net man last night but we were playing two seasoned 4.0's who rip the crap out of the ball themselves so they thought nothing of it and it ended up a couple feet away from hitting him but he had enough time to get out of the way. It was sort of a deep overhead too not one where I was on top of him. It was my best play to hit at him and they both knew it as well and I didn't even apologize and there were no hard feelings. Just some good competitive tennis.

[cak]

It depends what you mean by club play. If I am playing a social match with folks that don't move well I tend to hit away from them. If they are fast movers I've found hitting at them or any where near them gives me the same chance of hitting them. Heck, if I hit straight at them I know they won't be there when the ball gets there. Also, our pro tends to teach folks to back up, or if it's just too juicy, run away on a short lob, so there aren't too many of our club players standing that close. Which leaves opportunities for dink overheads, which somehow make them just as mad.

[chadw01]

For the really hard-core competitive club players, I would hit their partner if given the opportunity - they should know better than to setup their partner. If there's anyone that's going to apologize, it's the opposing baseliner to their own partner, than me.

Besides, I would expect just the same if I were at the net and looking down the barrel of an overhead.. if you play passively against good players, that ball will come back at you before you know it.

In cases where it is a more social atmosphere, I'll go for placement rather than obliteration...

[MrHatchet87]

Despite the fact that I've been hit in the eye with an overhead before, I think it's perfectly okay to hit it at the person, as long as you apologize if they get hit. At least, if you're playing competitively (whether it counts or not). They should understand that you're trying to win the point, not injure them.

For those wanting details of the eye incedent, I was playing doubles with some friends, and my partner popped up a lob, when my opponent hit the overhead, I tried ducking, it bounced directly in front of me and popped up into my eye, there was bleeding inside the eye, on the short term I lost my vision, stayed out of school for two weeks, wasn't supposed to read for a month, had a fear of fast moving balls for a little while after I got back to tennis, long term, no major problems. No problems with either my partner that day (who lobbed the easy ball), or the guy that hit the overhead, still hang out and play with both of them.

[Pushmaster]

In singles, never. I always try to hit away from my opponent. In doubles, yes. Like Phil said it's O.K. to hit at their feet, although your occasionally going to accidently drill your opponent. Sometimes there's just no getting around it, just part of the game.

[ucd_ace]

Some people are jerks about it but it's just part of the game to me. I'm going to go after my opponent and I expect them to come after me. If I figure out that they try to avoid it it can really turn into a strategical advantage. The way I developed tennis was all about trying to kill each other during practice and we improved a lot as a team. When most of those guys graduated and practice went back to more normal (I guess you could say) we didn't improve nearly as much. Intimidation can be a huge factor in a match.

[fastdunn]

It's perfectly OK although there could be some tricky moments
especially, in a social tennis settings.
If you smack the ball into the face of your opponent, right after
you had huge argument over line call or something, not many
people can be cool about it, IMHO. Or if you keeping hitting
body shots to the inferior player to win a social double match.

In many cases, if people pick on someone regarding this problem,
it's often because people generally does not like that guy's
other behavior in general (or he is not so social to
other people..)
If it's social tennis setting, try discussing this issue with people.
I would say it's generally no problem among serious tennis
players...

[The YoYo Freak]

During high school tennis season we had a lot of that happening. In doubles the net man would stay close at the net, so on our opponent's second serve the net man wouldn't back up, so we would crush the ball directly at the net guy. We managed to hit a few of them, but generally there were no hard feelings.

Just don't do it after an argument, or it'll look too suspicious. :)

Jared