Calling a let on neighboring tennis court in USTA match.

[struggle]

don't say a word to my court unless one of us is about to break a cankle.

 

[OrangePower]

It's a judgment call.

If I think the people on the court are aware of the ball on, I will keep quiet and let them decide whether to call a let or not.

But if the ball is rolling dangerously close to someone who I think is not aware of it, I'll say something (ball on, or watch for the ball, or something). Of course it's up to them whether to call an official let or not, but 90% of the time they do.

 

[gmatheis]

Couple of things.

Me, I don't read minds. I cannot know whether you "know what is happening on your court." All I can know is that a ball is on your court and is a threat to you. So I will stand there watching you and the ball and I will say something once I can see there is a problem. And then I will say something.

If I yell "Ball on" for a ball that is actually near you or your opponent, you have options. You can keep right on playing. So if you are aware of the ball or feel that continuing to contest a single point is worth the risk of injury, play on.

If a ball comes onto my court either myself or my opponent will have a clear view of it. If we decide to do something we get a let and replay the point, no problem.

However, I may have made the conscious decision to play on and am planning on stepping over/around that ball as I hit my shot but then you yell out "ball on", because as you said you can't read my mind, I'm now distracted and miss my shot when I knew the ball was there all along.

If you were on the court next to me calling "ball on" my response would be "thanks for looking out for us but please refrain from doing that in the future, it's more distracting than helpful"

 

[OrangePower]

If a ball comes onto my court either myself or my opponent will have a clear view of it. If we decide to do something we get a let and replay the point, no problem.

However, I may have made the conscious decision to play on and am planning on stepping over/around that ball as I hit my shot but then you yell out "ball on", because as you said you can't read my mind, I'm now distracted and miss my shot when I knew the ball was there all along.

If you were on the court next to me calling "ball on" my response would be "thanks for looking out for us but please refrain from doing that in the future, it's more distracting than helpful"

If you refrain from alerting others, then you are putting them at risk.

Imagine this scenario: You are playing singles. You have hit an approach shot and come to the net. At about this time, a long serve from an adjacent court hits their back fence (behind you), bounces off at an angle, and is rolling towards your service line. You don't see any of this happening since it's all behind you. Your opponent may not have noticed (perhaps he is too busy hustling to chase down your approach shot to notice). Or, perhaps he did notice, but did not want to call a let because (1) he thinks you would think he's trying to get the point replayed just because he's in a bad spot, or (2) he has a topspin lob all lined up and doesn't want to stop the point. He lobs, you back up for the overhead, step on the ball, and break your ankle.

This is not at all a far-fetched scenario.

Basically, you are putting a huge amount of faith in your opponent to both notice the ball, and then to make the let call.

 

[Douggo]

I really don't see why it's a huge inconvenience to play a let. Unless somebody has a sitter, play a let. Why would somebody want to play out the point so badly that they'd accept even the smallest risk of injury to do it?

 

[Spokewench]

I object. I know what's happening on my court, please don't interrupt my game.

I always knew you were a freak and had eyes in the back of your head!

 

[Bedrock]

Following rules is the most appropriate thing to do during USTA event.
If it is not a tournament match there is no reason to enforce USTA rules.
Stop scaring people with a rolling ball

 

[tennis tom]

Don't call let's or "ball on", (what an irritating term), for other's courts, (unless it's a really hot chick, who isn't a tournament player, know any better and you are trying to chat her up and ingratiate yourself with her). They have opponents with eyes like yours and can see just as well as you can. This is a good reason to be nice to your opponents. I "play" with a few rec players, who never look back at long serves to see if they are rolling back behind them. I'll warn them the first time, but if I learn that's their habit, I don't warn them anymore. I don't know if they are being stupid or macho or both, probably both. If they step on it and get injured I DON'T CARE! If for some reason they think I should have warned them, I will just say, "Sorry, couldn't see it, net was in the way." Survival of the fittest, Darwinism at it's finest. The good news is a fractured ankle heals stronger then new in a few weeks, it's sprains that can take up to a year until you can't remember which side it was on.