3 Things You Should Do When Playing A Cheater.

[Grinch]

How common is a cheater opponent in your experience? I haven't yet come across one in USTA league; there have been a few on the free-for-all public courts.

Very common here. And it’s not just about line calls. Unfortunately many of them are people I have to play on a regular basis unless I want to quit the club and also stop playing at our condo courts. That’s why I have learned to counter their “win at all cost” mentality with some reactive humor.

 

[socallefty]

Habitual cheaters are rare where I live also amongst adult players in social tennis and USTA leagues. But I do find that the same players make tighter line calls late in close singles matches than they do in one-sided singles matches or doubles matches. Close singles matches and the resulting stress levels seem to bring out the worst in people (or maybe it affects their vision!).

I hear tournament players and parents of juniors complain about cheaters all the time and it seems to be more common in both adult and junior tournaments. Maybe because people are playing against strangers rather than their friends and their ethics go out the window since they don’t care what the other person thinks of them.

 

[WestboroChe]

Well I've tried the 'don't hit close to the lines' routine and found it can lead to more trouble. Actually it's been my experience that in many cases the opponent starts thinking that if he can get can successfully take away a few inches on the lines he will start taking more and more. Then pretty soon you're not hitting into a court that is a few square feet smaller but a few square yards smaller. My God you think, the court over there is shrinking! Where do I have to hit to?

And so then why should he get to hit into a full court when you don't?

I play mostly on clay courts now so cheating is must more difficult due to marks on the court. But when I used to play on hard courts I finally concluded that nothing really works other than calling for a ref if one is available. And that would usually be only in tournament matches. Otherwise, you just decide if the guy is worth playing with in the future or not.

Yes thank you. In HS matches this is always an option. I remember being pressed into service for this. I was asked to call one side of the court and someone from the other team called the other side. We never even needed to make a call as all the shots we saw were obviously in or out.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Yes thank you. In HS matches this is always an option. I remember being pressed into service for this. I was asked to call one side of the court and someone from the other team called the other side. We never even needed to make a call as all the shots we saw were obviously in or out.

I got dragooned into being umpire for a finals doubles match where the parents of one team kept making audible complaints from the sidelines.

Once I stepped in, there was zero controversy: not because of my commanding presence but likely because they didn't have the stones to cheat with someone on-court who could actually overrule.

I think I got a bag of potato chips as my reward.

 

[Morch Us]

The best strategy to apply against cheaters, especially at adult/USTA level is "social pressure". This is done by inviting a few folks including the cheaters friends to watch the match. Also if you are recoding the match, before the match let him know that you may post it in youtube/social forums (this is another kind of social pressure).

That being said, a small percentage of players who feel like are getting cheated, may not be really being cheated. This is because of the fact that, some confident players believes in their strokes, and more often would "assume" very confidently that his shot is IN, when it is close, but OUT. Also at beginner levels of play there is a good percentage of folks whose ball trajectory predictions are very poor, and they may "see" a lot of IN balls OUT.

Also generally, a player who depend on opponents mistakes to win points, could be more aggressive on the calls (not necessarily cheating, but just concentrating a lot more for that bounce ... compared to an aggressive player would be concentrating more on his shot). So when you get called for balls which your usual aggressive opponents does not call, you may feel getting cheated. This is one reason why a lot of pushers are also getting blamed for cheating.

So before making a huge deal about cheating, and possibly breaking some social bonds, please do some fact checks, and maybe get a truthful second opinion.

 

[onehandbh]

It is also possible either you and/or your opponent do not have good vision.

That's why I bring a laminated Snellen Test chart and tape measure (2.8 meters distance to eye chart) to the courts when I play.

I invite my opponents to test his eyes first.

File:Sample Snellen chart.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

 

[thomas daniels]

It is also possible either you and/or your opponent do not have good vision.

That's why I bring a laminated Snellen Test chart and tape measure (2.8 meters distance to eye chart) to the courts when I play.

I invite my opponents to test his eyes first.

File:Sample Snellen chart.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

That is interesting...

 

[onehandbh]

That is interesting...

Years ago I was playing my brother in singles. He would occasionally call shots that landed 1 foot inside the side lines out. I was shocked because he is a very honest person and not even that competitive when it comes to playing sports.

So I placed a ball on my side of the court just past the service line and about 1 foot in and asked him, “is his in or out?”

He squinted his eyes a little bit and said, “ In? Out? Actually, I’m not sure... I think I need glasses.”

He

 

[Morch Us]

That is why you only call the balls on your side of the court. Believe it or not, you don't need perfect vision to call the balls on your side of the court, especially since you are calling most of them right next to the bounce (assuming you are the kind of person who run for everything).

(of course if you are too blind to see lines when it is 2 feet from you, then you probably won't be playing tennis).

But I also agree that mind plays tricks with ball trajectory predictions, and especially if you are not skilled enough, or experienced enough these trajectory predictions go wrong. But this has nothing to do with a "static" eye test, and has more to do with "habit" of predicting it, and you kind of have to force yourself to assume everything is IN, and run for it.

If you don't run for "everything", by definision, you have prediction habits (irrespective of how far the ball is out).
Even if you run for everything, there is still some "prediction calculations" mind is doing (proved scientifically). So knowing this will make you less agressive on calls, and plus experience and skill matters as well.

on my side of the court just past the service line and about 1 foot in

 

[am1899]

Here’s my take:

1. Don’t ask your cheating opponent, “Are you sure?” Rather ask, “you’re calling that out?” The former implies that you’re not sure, either. The latter sends a clearer message that you know the ball was in.

2. Assuming you’ve established that your opponent is in fact cheating, and not just blind or made a couple questionable calls...wait until a big point...first ball he hits nowhere near a line, catch the ball and call it out.

IME one or both of the following things usually happen:

1. Your opponent comes unglued.

2. They insist on a line judge.

Rarely IME has the above resulted in more cheating from opponents (they usually stop all together). YMMV.

 

[Dartagnan64]

My 3 recommendations to deal with cheaters:

1) get educated
2) get a good job
3) join a club with a steep entrance fee

No one wants to get black-balled at a club they just paid thousands of dollars in entrance fees to join. So that reduces cheating substantially as you don't want to be "that guy". Everyone is on their "p's" and "q's" to stay in everybody's good graces.

It's very pleasant to have fun tennis with minimal drama. It came down to: "would I rather have years of enjoyable tennis or a second car?" I joined a club and bought an ebike. Best two decisions I've made in a long time.

 

[am1899]

My 3 recommendations to deal with cheaters:

1) get educated
2) get a good job
3) join a club with a steep entrance fee

No one wants to get black-balled at a club they just paid thousands of dollars in entrance fees to join. So that reduces cheating substantially as you don't want to be "that guy". Everyone is on their "p's" and "q's" to stay in everybody's good graces.

It's very pleasant to have fun tennis with minimal drama. It came down to: "would I rather have years of enjoyable tennis or a second car?" I joined a club and bought an ebike. Best two decisions I've made in a long time.

All good advice. But to me it seems limited to players who would be happy to play the vast majority of their tennis inside the walls of their own club. Many would be happy doing that, and more power to them - nothing at all wrong with it. But for players who want to also play league and/or tournaments, regardless of what club they belong to, good chance they’ll come up against a cheater at some point.