Most Bizzare Flex League Opponent?

[TimothyO]

Who are your most bizzare flex league opponents?

Here are mine...

- A guy who lost every other match of the season and, during our final match of the season, stormed off the court through an ALTA ladies' practice screaming obscenities after I was beating him 6-0, 1-0. As he left the courts he yelled, "I'm done with this bleeping game!"

- A guy who would start calling anything near a line "out" when he was losing. I thought he was nasty during our match but I later learned he was far worse during other matches. He would just blatantly cheat with zero shame when losing. A number of players just gave up and left the court as he became more agitated.

- A guy who sends absolutely bizzare, ranting e-mails to opponents when scheduling matches. In my case he literally double booked himself and thus defaulted. I was going to cut him slack but, after learning he was a maniac, decided to take the forfeit. When he saw the default and realized that I had the e-mails to prove the default he wrote that I was "getting e-mails out of his in-box" to make him look bad. He went down hill from there. Based on the content of his messages I seriously believe that he needs meds of some form. They're really scary.

I've met many nice guys in flex singles but I've also met some completely insane jerks. It's almost enough to make one give up on flex leagues. A like/dislike feature would be nice for flex leagues. Any one rating wouldn't matter but it would neat if, after some minimum number of ratings, one could see a "sportsmanship" rating for each player.

[TeflonTom]

really talented old codger (40+) who would show up dressed as a different pro every week n play in character

one week wearing pat cash headband and he's a rh s&v player

next week he's jimmy connors, abusing every1 and playing lh with a two handed bh

week after he's mac, two tone sweatbands, playin with a woodie n disputing every line call

best outfit was navratilova, complete with wire frames n pleated skirt

depending on his style that week sometimes got beat kinda bad but not as bad as u'd think given he was changin hands and everythin. apparently an ex-d1 college player n it was the only way he found rec tennis a challenge

no idea if he's still gettin round

[Timbo's hopeless slice]

TeflonTom, I started to write a response to Tim, then I read yours and I have to respectfully withdraw.

In the face of that, I got nothin'

[TeflonTom]

he was pretty cool

committed too. i never saw it, but unconfirmed street talk was he once bleached his hair to do edberg

[mikeler]

Played a guy who would smoke during sets and sometimes even on changeovers. He picked up the habit in his mid-30s too.

[fleabitten]

Timothy, which flex league do you play, USTA or another brand?

[tennis tom]

Originally Posted by mikeler

Played a guy who would smoke during sets and sometimes even on changeovers. He picked up the habit in his mid-30s too.

Nicotine's a great relaxant.

[TennisDawg]

Originally Posted by mikeler

Played a guy who would smoke during sets and sometimes even on changeovers. He picked up the habit in his mid-30s too.

I was a smoker when I first took up tennis. Played with other guys that smoked. It was very bizzare to smoke in between sets, kinda funny seeing a smoke screen all around the sidelines. Wouldn't happen nowadays and that's a good thing. I went to an exhibition match that Pancho Gonzales was doing for the March of Dimes. Pancho was smoking as he watched some juniors playing, this was in Salt Lake City, he would have been in his mid to late 40s, I believe. I digress.

[TennisDawg]

I played a flex league match the other day against a somewhat bizzare opponent, but mostly annoying.
The guy was in his 50s, after a few stretches, we start the warmup. He hits everything with no pace or moonballs. When someone warms up like this, I want to start playing right away, so I hit an approach shot to go to net and warmup. He immediately goes to net and stands in no mans land, so we trade volleys. Intentional or just ignorant on his part, I don't know.

After the volleys, I told him I was ready, we both take the serve warmups, hit about 12 serves each. So, we start playing with me serving first. After I finished serving he starts serving but asks if he can take some more practice serves. Yea, man go ahead, whatever! I won the match.

[beernutz]

Originally Posted by TennisDawg

I was a smoker when I first took up tennis. Played with other guys that smoked. It was very bizzare to smoke in between sets, kinda funny seeing a smoke screen all around the sidelines. Wouldn't happen nowadays and that's a good thing. I went to an exhibition match that Pancho Gonzales was doing for the March of Dimes. Pancho was smoking as he watched some juniors playing, this was in Salt Lake City, he would have been in his mid to late 40s, I believe. I digress.

I went to our state tournament a few weeks ago and the one thing that surprised me most was seeing the number of smokers I did. I never saw any women smoking (this tournament was for 4.0 women) but among the 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 men's teams I saw a lot more smokers than I expected to see. Of course, I was probably predisposed to thinking I wouldn't see any of them so the ones I did see made more of an impression. Thankfully nobody was allowed to smoke in the playing area so I didn't see any sideline smokers.

[TimothyO]

Originally Posted by fleabitten

Timothy, which flex league do you play, USTA or another brand?

The latest whacko is a guy from Ultimate Tennis.

He double booked matches, I heard he's a complete jerk on the court, and so I defaulted him since I showed up for our match at his courts only to learn that he already had a match for the same time. I thought about cutting him slack and would have but for the reports from other players that I received.

He sent e-mail rants to one guy for taking two days to reply to one of his messages. And now he's sending me paranoid messages saying that I've deleted e-mails from HIS e-mail account. He has also sent me long, scary e-mails with no punctuation, numerous misspellings, and completely bizarre ravings.

I encountered the others in T2 and League Tennis.

Haven't played USTA but am considering it. I've heard the players are very competitive and some hyper competitive ones might be more prone to make line calls "favorable to themselves" but are otherwise more "professional" in their conduct. At this point I'm willing to try anything since these other leagues have so many jerks.

[Pitmiksovic]

Originally Posted by mikeler

Played a guy who would smoke during sets and sometimes even on changeovers. He picked up the habit in his mid-30s too.

I played a small local tournament a few years ago in the mens 35 and over bracket and there was a guy who played a friend of mine in the semi-finals, before the match he had to go down the street to the nearest gas station to get a large cola and a pack of smokes. These guys played 2 1/2 hours and only completed one set because this guy spent 10 minutes on the changeover talking to my friend who was too nice to say anything about it. The smoker started cramping up in the breaker, managed to win the breaker anyway. Then he wants a 10 minute injury timeout because he said "that's what the pros get." Mind you, this was not even a usta tourney. So while he is cramped up during his injury timeout he lights up a smoke and relaxes on a lounge chair. After wasting about 20 minutes of time, he finally goes out to play the 2nd set, cramps up again in the very first game, collapses on the court and finally decides he can no longer play. So luckily I ended up playing my friend in the final because I would not have been so nice on the changeovers if this guy pulled this crap with me.

[TennisDawg]

Was it the Marlboro Open? Back in the 70s the Womens tour was actually called the Virginia Slims tour. hahaha!

[jdubbs]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

really talented old codger (40+) who would show up dressed as a different pro every week n play in character

one week wearing pat cash headband and he's a rh s&v player

next week he's jimmy connors, abusing every1 and playing lh with a two handed bh

week after he's mac, two tone sweatbands, playin with a woodie n disputing every line call

best outfit was navratilova, complete with wire frames n pleated skirt

depending on his style that week sometimes got beat kinda bad but not as bad as u'd think given he was changin hands and everythin. apparently an ex-d1 college player n it was the only way he found rec tennis a challenge

no idea if he's still gettin round

If true, one of the funniest things I've read in a while.

[retlod]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

really talented old codger (40+) who would show up dressed as a different pro every week n play in character

one week wearing pat cash headband and he's a rh s&v player

next week he's jimmy connors, abusing every1 and playing lh with a two handed bh

week after he's mac, two tone sweatbands, playin with a woodie n disputing every line call

best outfit was navratilova, complete with wire frames n pleated skirt

depending on his style that week sometimes got beat kinda bad but not as bad as u'd think given he was changin hands and everythin. apparently an ex-d1 college player n it was the only way he found rec tennis a challenge

no idea if he's still gettin round

All other bizzaro opponents got nothin' on this guy. I would love to see him play.