Cindy- I fully agree that in other situations that a hindrance would actually ahve to be called. But in this situation the person admitted they were calling the ball out. Once you start calling the ball out then the ball has been called out if the opponent hears you. Once again- if you don't think this then let me know what would take?
What does it mean to "Start calling the ball out"? I say there is no such thing. Either you call a ball out by lifting a finger or saying "Out" or "No" with intent to call it out, or you do not.
Now. Let's imagine that you are calling the service line and you get halfway through the process of calling a ball out. For instance, you make an utterance ("Ooooouu") or lift your non-dominant hand but not raising your finger. In your head, you are thinking, "That ball is out. Wait, no, it clipped the back of the line."
In that instance, you need not surrender the point for changing your mind. The reason is that *you did not make an out call at all.* That you planned to make an out call but changed your mind in the nick of time does not require you to give the point to your opponent.
As I said, you would still have a problem with hindrance if the opponents thought your sound or gesture was an out call.
No is final? Naaaah is playable? Ouuuuuu? Ahhhh? For me it is absolutely simple- If you speak up to call it out and the other team hears you then the right thing under the code is to admit that you were calling it out, concede the point, and be more careful about calling lines the next time.
You should "admit you were calling it out?" That is not what the Code says. The Code says, "A player
who calls a ball out shall reverse the call if the
player becomes uncertain or realizes that the ball was good."
That means you must make an actual call. Not only that, the Code seems to cover situations where the reversal happens after the call, not uncertainty over whether to make a call at all.
So. If you make an audible or visual out call and then reverse it, point to opponent. If you made a sound or started to gesture but changed your mind, you can hope like heck that the opponents didn't hear you. If they did hear you and stop playing, you hindered them and it is point to opponent. If they did not hear you or decided to keep playing, game on.
I think all of this makes perfect sense. I have played matches where an opponent made a sound or took one hand off the racket to make a call but thought better of it. The onus was on me to decide whether they were making a call. Usually, I just play on, which means I wasn't hindered. They didn't make a call, I wasn't hindered, play on.
What has never happened is the opponent starts waving her hands and says, "I was starting to call that ball out but I decided not to call it out, so you can have the point."