DRAMA

[lendl lives]

I know some grown men who at times can pretty childish on the court. I've seen a number of them who have just stopped the match because they start shouting at eachother. Recently, on two occasions two different player 'lost it' because they claimed the guy returning their serve was making calls after he'd hit the ball. (I played this returner later and understood the frustration) However if a guy has a big serve how quickly do you have to call it out? The other big source of fights is calling a serve out and then chaning it to good. Some guys wanna take two and some guys want the point....Silly stuff.

[drummerboy]

Yes this can be a delicate situation. It is easier on the clay courts where you can check the ball out. We have this rule in our club that you can like hit the return ball in the net and then go check the serve out and if it is out it is out. There's no need to shout out immediately if you are not sure. If the guys are fighting over the points like that then they are acting a little childish. It is harder on the indoor courts. I myself always try to play the return if I am not sure if it is in especially indoors.
Yes this stuff can get silly sometimes.

[Roforot]

I don't see why you wouldn't get the same number of arguments on clay... Here's the mark, out!
No that was from the ball I hit last game.
No really that's the mark, it's out like I said.
Well what about this mark here inside the line, I swear I saw it hit there?
What, you crossed over to my side. Point violation!


What makes me upset is when an opponent will ask his bystander-friends to back him up on an out call on a ball he's not sure about!

[cantaloupe]

its better on clay, but yeah there are same arguements about which freaking mark it is. best thing to do is to be gracious and give them the benefit of the doubt, they'll know what u mean when you smack an ace or return winner on the next point.

[Datacipher]

IMO, the call should generally be made before or as you are hitting the ball. If you have time to read and react and hit the ball, you have time to say "out!" Bear in mind, that if you are not immediately certain the ball is out, then it is good. If it is at all close...then it is good.

If you hit a return and then immediately call out right after the hit, fine...if you hit the return...your return goes in...then you yell out...ok...but you're getting a little late....but if you hit the return and your return goes out...then you call out...that just makes you look bad.

As far as I am concerned I cannot see as far as the other side of the court with any accuracy and I cannot hit with 100% confidence as to where the ball lands. When I play someone I expect them to respect calls I make on my side of the court and I rely on them to make calls on their side of the court. Sometimes both players will make mistakes. Its difficult to play and call the shots at the same time.

What else can one do?

[Verbal_Kint]

I shout when I hit the ball, I can't shout any earlier because I don't exhale until I hit the ball.

Marnix

[Robert Jones]

Hey thats part of competition. Things get heated its very common and yes maybe childish. I would rather play someone that is that intense than some guy that does not care and just plays for fun.

I don't like fighting so I usually just play close calls as always in. I may give up some points but it saves on dirty looks on close calls.

I don't know any guys that play competitive tennis that do not get mad at times. The ones that pretend they don't care are lying to themselves.

Example: Some of the guys in my league wanted to have trouphies again, some sort of reward for winning the league. A employee that plays in the next higher league said we should just play for fun and learn to hit good shots, don't be so competitive. Its just a game yada yada ......

a few weeks later my opponent did not show up for a match, guess who filled in as a sub? The employee that just plays to have fun. Well fun was not what he had, he had an off day and got beat. He was so mad he did not shake hands and would not let me use a demo stick he offered up before we played. I did not say one word during the match other than scores. He was fine the next time I saw him, said he was just disappointed in his game that day. I was fine with it, I know I have been in the anger zone myself.