Ettiquette on high balls
 

The percentage of point you can will on high balls and lobs is higher than people might think. I just wonder what the rules, spoken/unspoken are. Is it just not done to hit loads of high balls, rude? Can an umpire intervene? What about quantity of drop shots?

My eyesight is pretty poor so the more high balls which are played at me, the more likely I am to shank one into the net or a mile long. I hate them, personally. Very defensive, very frustrating but tactically astute against players like me.

Why no high ball rallies in pro tennis? I imagine any pro could flatten out any high ball for a winner or get a short ball out of it.

But the weirdness of doing it really high on big points, with people looking up into the sun, could get to an opponent under pressure, like Changs underarm serve at the French. I think there may be an element of guilt in winning a point so ugly.

Google Eddie Dibbs or Harold Solomon, who were both male 'moonballers' par excellence. They were using woodies/metal frames back then, but there's nothing against it in the rules. R. Nadal uses it on his FH.

However, given the racquet technolgy today, most pros or half way decent player would flatten out the shot or hit a swinging volley for a winner.

There are people and pros who use this tactic. Heck, I use it often too. They call them "moonballers." It used to be pretty popular especially on the women's tour. e.g. Anastasia Myskina.

Etiquette? I consider it a very legit strategy. There are ways to deal with it like hitting on the rise, coming in to volley, etc. People who can't adapt deserve to lose to a moonballer as much as a person who can't return fast shots should lose to a hard-hitter.

Because of the ability to hit overheads from the baseline.

Don't forget, on the pro tour there is the entertainment aspect in front of crowds.

Moon balling excessively might be misconstrued by the crowd as trying to take the **** out of your opponent and hence disrespectful.

Imagine this: you're a wild card low ranked player playing federer at centre court. You know you won't beat him so will you try to moonball your way or try to at least hit some nice strokes and have a nice looking match?

As for better players, they don't need to moonball excessively since they got the shots.

anyone with a decent overhead will shut down moon balling quickly.

it's great for a defensive dig to buy you time to get back on court...but you give someone to many looks at it and it will become an overhead clinic/

I disagree. Yes, entertainment is a factor on the pro tour, but the players don't cater their game to what people want to see. They do what makes them win.

Also, Moonballing can be fun to watch. If not the moonballer himself, watching the two opponents try to adapt and deal with new situations is fun to watch. Anyone in the crowd who thinks it's disrespectful would be wrong. The diversity of tactics/strategies/styles is part of what makes our game so fun.

pros arent weekend hackers so those high lobs arent effective in winning points. but topspin moonballers like nadal and wozniacki are different and it is a very effective counterpuncher/pusher strategy .

If you give a pro that kind of time to sit on a ball you will lose fast. Really fast. They will place it in a corner with ease. It works on the weekend warriors because they cant place a ball at will. Pros can.

The effectiveness of it as a tactic depends on how well you can execute it. I played a good moonballer last week and I just moved him side to side until I could take control of a point. Against a mid level moonballer I just mix up pace spin and depth until they throw up a crappy lob that I can pounce on.

The only etiquette around shots that I know of are:

1) In mixed-doubles (or co-ed singles), a man should not rifle 100mph forehands trying to take out the opposing female if she's at net.

2) In singles, if the guy is up at net and you get a floater/sitter which allows you to crush an easy putaway... you don't just peg the guy at net. You pass (or lob) the guy if you are able to.

3) If a loose ball wanders onto the court, you call a let. If you choose not to call a let, you don't hit a shot to the vicinity of the loose ball... and risk your opponent's health.

Other than those things, hit whatever shot gives you success. If your opponent can't run to get a dropper... or can't get into position to take a high ball... then do that all day long.

The part of this post I don't understand isn't the part about spoken and unspoken rules... it is the part about "umpires". Who uses umpires, besides Pros or near-Pros? Why would a near-Pro ask a question on TW Forum?

Unspoken ethics do exist.
Consider, there are almost a hundred guys regularly on tour. Some are liked, some not. Some have friends, some don't. Some get regular practice partners, and lots of guys lining up to be, some need to beg the event organizer to find hitting partners.
So, you play using all the gamesmanship and tactics. Lots of pure hitters would look down at you. Lots of pure hitters on the tour.
Think of yourself. Would you hang around a shyster/flim flam guy who uses all the gray tactics when he plays a match?
Or would you rather hang with a pure hitter, who plays the game clean.

You see it more frequently on the WTA. Patty Schneider was a good moonballer. It probably is not that effective against men.

Also remember that pro tennis is about entertainment. They need to show a high level of play excuse the pun. It is not just about tennis, but also about the image.

No, I wasn't referring to me with umpires, just wondering about the pro game. I still think there's way more situations where if a guy was purely wanting to get in his opponents head, sun was in his eyes, at certain junctures, I'd expect it more, that's all.

It's called gamesmanship, smart tennis, or win at all costs tennis.
You won't gather many friends, or hitting partners.
OTOH, you might get a couple more winds than just playing clean tennis.

Whenever I play with my mates it's pretty much unacceptable. We rarely have to establish that rule.

In games it happens a lot with other teams (lobs and such), but we can't say anything about it so we just smash back at them. lol