What would you do???

[Tombhoneb]

Take the default, if you are playing tournaments to win, then you will win. Its you opponents fault for trying to play when he/she probably felt ill to start with.

[canadave]

Originally Posted by tenniscrazed

Just to clarify, no "expectations" just would you do it. Not even out of sportsmanship (personally I don't think it applies under sportsmanship) moreso the desire to complete the tournament and determine the "true" tournament champion.

[snip]

So, the questions is still posed would you "take the def" or "offer to reschedule" knowing that your offer maybe rejected or accepted. Either way. what would you do???
.

Sorry, I thought my response made my position clear. The answer "would I do it" depends on the circumstances (the nature of the tournament, how high a level it's at, how much is on the line). If it was an "official" sanctioned serious tournament governed by rules, yes, I would do it. If not, if it was some sort of semi-serious loosely-governed tournament, I'd probably want to win "fairly" in the manner you describe.

And yes, it has *everything* to do with sportsmanship, which includes as a subset the "desire to complete the tournament and determine the true tournament champion" as you aptly put it. Good sportsmanship includes not only playing fairly, being a gracious winner/loser, and so on, but also includes a respect for the integrity of the sport and winning and losing "fairly." And all things being equal, obviously as you say it'd be better to win in competition than to win by illness default.

I have to say though (as someone who's practiced better sportsmanship than most people I've played against, and as someone who believes in good sportsmanship and "giving all possible benefit to the opponent") that at a certain point, a match is a match and rules are rules. Once we start picking and choosing rules to selectively ignore or follow based on a subjective code of ethics, then things can become tricky.

Here's some examples off the top of my head of what I'm talking about. What if you know your opponent, going into the final, is playing at only 40% capacity because of a serious ankle injury he suffered late in the previous round's match? Do you offer to reschedule your final until he's fully healed so you can hopefully win "fairly"? What if his mother died the day before, and he's decided to finish the tournament anyway, but you can see from the first point played that he's in no emotional shape to play a tennis match and has no chance of winning? Do you offer to reschedule?

Again, when a player enters a tournament, he/she tacitly accepts that things like illness or injury or emotional trauma may occur, and that's part of the risk of choosing to play sports.

I could also add that hopefully that will not be your opponent's last tournament, and if he's that good, he'll have ample opportunity to enter many more tournaments in the future....and who knows, maybe you'll have the opportunity to meet again and have a competitive final.

Of course, as I also said, if the "tournament" is 8 people playing for no prize money as part of a local club gathering, an offer to reschedule in the case you described is probably fair enough. Anything more than that is "part of the game" and you should without question take the default.

[mikeler]

In an official tournament with anything on the line, I would take the default. I know there are cases where professionals like Agassi did not, but they did have something else on the line. Fan support. You'll get a lot of it for doing something like that. Your opponent just was unlucky that day, it is too bad. On another day, it will be you that may have to default.

On the other hand, if this is a local unofficial tournament at the club you play at, I would offer to play the final at another time. In return for your sportsmanship, maybe your opponent will offer to start the match fresh, not at the losing score you indicated.

[tennisguyak]

It depends on the opponent. If he seems like the type of person that would take the default and win if you got sick then yeah. If its a good friend or somebody who seems very kind then I might reconsider.

But in the end a W is a W

[miniRafa386]

TAKE THE DEFAULT.

didnt something like this happen to mcenroe, except his opponent wasnt sick, but something else...someone chime us in on that por favor.

Originally Posted by miniRafa386

TAKE THE DEFAULT.

didnt something like this happen to mcenroe, except his opponent wasnt sick, but something else...someone chime us in on that por favor.

no por defecto, porque, en el gran mundo, ganar con orgullo que es más importante.

[[K]aotic]

take the default. what if that person comes back to win it? i think you'd regret that loss.

Originally Posted by [K]aotic

default.

In the "scenario" you were down when the choices and decisions had to be made, so the default would hardly be considered a win.

[Bundey]

I don't care the size or location of the tournament, you take the default.

Originally Posted by Bundey

I don't care the size or location of the tournament, you take the default.

Based on a quick review of the answers the def to play ratio is about 4-1 or worse. In all fairness that maybe the problem with tennis in the United States we seem to lean toward an easy win mentality.

I would be interested to read answers from those across the Atlantic.

[Tombhoneb]

Originally Posted by tenniscrazed

I would be interested to read answers from those across the Atlantic.

If you look up to my previous post you can see that i would take the default .... plus i'm from the UK and most of my friends who play competitive tennis will most likely also do the same.

^^^ I guess even our compadres from the other side of the Atlantic aren't exempt from taking the easy way out. I pose this question then. What if there is nothing on the line, no points, no wild card, no money just pride? I suspect yours and the rest of the answers would be different.

Or this scenario since you were down in the score count at the time of the illness the choice is play in 2 hours, or lose? My guess is now playing becomes a lot more appealing. That is called hypocracy.

Given that spend your money on education, the prize is easier to get which should appeal to most that have answered this.