Explain USTA's Timed Match Rule

[Tennis_Fever]

Hello, I am looking for help in trying to understand USTA's timed match rule. I played a timed match this past Saturday that went the following way: we started on time (10 AM), had a 10 minute warm-up,(as per the rules), so the match play started at 10:10 PM. My opponent won the first set 6-2, and I was serving at 5-5 in the second set when the opposing team captain came out onto the court, and instructed us to finish our current game, which stopped the match at 11:50 at 6-5 with 10 minutes still remaining. I understand in theory why this is a rule, but timed matches are effectively only 1 hour and 40 minutes of matchplay given this rule. This is a far cry from a 2 hour match or an untimed match, which is how the sport is actually designed. Why charge players for 2 hours of court time if they are going to be cut off with 10 minutes left? I do not understand this rule whatsoever.

 

[schmke]

Each section/district may have their own rules about how they do timed matches, and the rules vary. For Western Michigan, it appears the rules may have been followed.

See http://s3.amazonaws.com/ustaassets/assets/590/15/2017_llr_final.pdf but they basically state that 10 minutes prior to the end of the 2 hour slot time is called for each court and the current game is finished. There are then provisions for dealing with incomplete matches that are ties. So the last 10 minutes is there to allow for finishing the current game and doing whatever is necessary to break the tie (play a set tie-break).