Moral Dilemma

[rasajadad]

I was playing a quarterfinal match last weekend. The situation is as follows: The guy is being a big jerk all match. Instead of lobbing balls to me, he would crack a forehand at me as hard as he could. He was also "talking to himself" out loud, about me. Anyway, I wasn't liking him much. To his credit he called a fair match line-wise. So here we are in the third set (he won the first in a tie-breaker, I won the 2nd, 6-4.) He is serving at 2-4 and I break him for 5-2. Instead of changing ends, he comes up to the net and says nice match and shakes my hand.

The question- What would you do?

 

[vandre]

as much as it sucks, i would say that the score is 5-2 and that the match isn't over. if the guy then throws a fit (i can't imagine anyone would) and refuses to resume play then hey, you can lead a horse to water...

yeah, the guy sounded kinda jerky, but the only person whose actions you can control is you. and if you do the right thing, then you might win, you might lose but you'll always be able to sleep at night

 

[blakesq]

Cracking a hard forehand at you instead of feeding you lobs is not a jerk move, its called TENNIS. Talking about your opponent loud enough so the opponent can hear MIGHT be a jerk move. If the guy is saying stuff to himself like "Come on, you can beat this guy!", then I don't think it is a jerk move.

 

[bleach]

I hope that you corrected him on the score! Otherwise you were the cheater! No dilemma there. It's one thing for both of you to not know the score and ending a match before it should be over, but since you know the correct score, you should say so.

The test for your moral diemma would be if he was leading 5-2 and came to shake your hand, would you correct him or let it go?

Also, since when does not lobbing and only driving the ball make you a jerk? If the forehand driven right at you was causing you a problem (apparently is was) then it was the correct shot for him to hit. Are you suggesting that he should have hit you lobs to make it easier on you?

 

[blakesq]

Oh, and the correct thing to do was to tell the guy that the score was only 5-2. Of course, he can still choose to "retire".

 

[Nuke]

Well, if he's serving the odd games (you were about to change sides after his serve) and he think's you've won 6-2, you point out that that score is impossible after his service game. If he thinks the score was 6-1, then you guys were not calling the game score at the start of your games.

 

[Raiden.Kaminari]

I agree with both Bleach and Blakesq ...

The player trying to hit passing shots or shots through you rather than lobbing is fair play. Some players actually don't have lobs.

Shaking hands at 5-2 would mean you cheated. I would do the following:

1. Try to correct the score
2. Confirm that he is conceding the match at 5-2
3. If 1 and 2 fail, accept the hand shake and the match.

Also, when opponents are talking to themselves about me, I accept it as a compliment :grin:

 

[JLyon]

Cracking a hard forehand at you instead of feeding you lobs is not a jerk move, its called TENNIS. Talking about your opponent loud enough so the opponent can hear MIGHT be a jerk move. If the guy is saying stuff to himself like "Come on, you can beat this guy!", then I don't think it is a jerk move.

I am pretty sure he is talking about after the point is over and the balls are hit back to him for the next point. If so that guy is a jerk and should be thrown out of the tournament.

 

[blakesq]

I wonder if the original poster (OP) meant that BETWEEN points the opponent was cracking hard forehands at the OP, rather than hitting the ball softly to him. If that is the case, then that is a jerk move, and the OP should have asked the guy to slow down the balls.

 

[blakesq]

I would normally agree Jlyon, except a lot of people just don't know the many unwritten rules of ettiquete (sp?). The opponent may have thought its ok to practice his forehands in between points. So, i think the original poster should have asked the opponent to slow the balls down between points, before the opponent is kicked out of the tourny.

I am pretty sure he is talking about after the point is over and the balls are hit back to him for the next point. If so that guy is a jerk and should be thrown out of the tournament.

 

[fridrix]

Relax. The handshake could also mean he was retiring. Or you could have been mistaken on the score yourself. It's time to chill out with a margarita, replaying your most brilliant moments in your mind, champ.

 

[kylebarendrick]

I assumed that the lobbing/forehand comment was referring to the warm-up before the match.

 

[Cruzer]

I was playing a quarterfinal match last weekend. The situation is as follows: The guy is being a big jerk all match. Instead of lobbing balls to me, he would crack a forehand at me as hard as he could.

You could "accidently" hit balls into the corner farthest away from him when returning the balls for his serve and let him chase them or just dribble the over the net and let the balls slowly roll toward him. He may have been trying some intimidation tactic by firing the balls at you on your serve. No problem with trying to get into his head.

So here we are in the third set (he won the first in a tie-breaker, I won the 2nd, 6-4.) He is serving at 2-4 and I break him for 5-2. Instead of changing ends, he comes up to the net and says nice match and shakes my hand.

The question- What would you do?

You should tell him what the real score is and finish the match. You could say "You're not done yet buddy. I still have one win one more game".

 

[bleach]

I assumed that the lobbing/forehand comment was referring to the warm-up before the match.

Could be, but the OP said the player was being a jerk "the whole match", not during warmups.

But if it was in warmups and/or the way he was returning the ball to the server (for the next point) then yes, that is being a jerk.

I played against a guy that did that. He would slam the balls into the corner instead of hitting them to me. This was on a indoor court and sometimes the ball would go behind the drape. We (doubles) got tired of it, so when he was serving I took a ball to the net and just dropped in over. His partner was playing back so he had to walk all the way to the net to get the ball. Man was he mad, but he quit slamming the balls back.

 

[JavierLW]

Could be, but the OP said the player was being a jerk "the whole match", not during warmups.

But if it was in warmups and/or the way he was returning the ball to the server (for the next point) then yes, that is being a jerk.

I played against a guy that did that. He would slam the balls into the corner instead of hitting them to me. This was on a indoor court and sometimes the ball would go behind the drape. We (doubles) got tired of it, so when he was serving I took a ball to the net and just dropped in over. His partner was playing back so he had to walk all the way to the net to get the ball. Man was he mad, but he quit slamming the balls back.

I did something similar to this in singles this year. Not for the same reason though.

In the first set, I was missing a lot of easy put aways, and my opponent was making noises like "oooohhhhh!!!", everytime I missed. Which I felt was sort of immature of him and very disrespectful.

So on one point, after the point was over and it was time to return the ball back to him, it purposely hit it into the net where it rolled about halfway back to me, to that I said "oooohhhhhhh!", (kind of mocking him)

Then I did it again, did the same thing, only it rolled halfway from where I was.

Then I did it again, and again, and again, until I was about a foot from the net, and still I flicked it up and managed to hit the top of the net (making the noise the whole while).

This took quite a while, and he didnt make any more noises after that.

I managed to come back and win the match after losing the first set 0-6, he got really frustrated and pretty much gave up eventually.

 

[Geezer Guy]

I was playing a quarterfinal match last weekend. The situation is as follows: The guy is being a big jerk all match. Instead of lobbing balls to me, he would crack a forehand at me as hard as he could. He was also "talking to himself" out loud, about me. Anyway, I wasn't liking him much. To his credit he called a fair match line-wise. ...

He was a bit of a jerk, but he wasn't a cheat. Your response should be to play fair and honestly yourself. That means not lying about the score.

 

[spot]

wow Javier- that story isn't very flattering to you

 

[JavierLW]

wow Javier- that story isn't very flattering to you

I guess you would have to be there. I will admit my behavior was strange, and kind of out there and probally beyond the realm of what is acceptable behavior on a court.

However, people seem to think it's okay when they make stupid remarks on their own (like making the "oooohhhhhh!!!" noise in the first place when you make a mistake).

So rather than start a huge argument with him I choose to make him see how stupid he looks.

I feel in this case it worked. (he didnt say a word after that which was fine with me) If it was someone else I may of acted diffrently.

 

[tbini87]

I am pretty sure he is talking about after the point is over and the balls are hit back to him for the next point. If so that guy is a jerk and should be thrown out of the tournament.

that is how i read it too... but im sure what he meant.

 

[rasajadad]

Cracking a hard forehand at you instead of feeding you lobs is not a jerk move, its called TENNIS. Talking about your opponent loud enough so the opponent can hear MIGHT be a jerk move. If the guy is saying stuff to himself like "Come on, you can beat this guy!", then I don't think it is a jerk move.

Just to clarify, he was cracking balls at me between points! I don't care what he did during points.

 

[Geezer Guy]

... The question- What would you do?

OK - we've told you what we would do. What did YOU do?

 

[rasajadad]

Geezer- As I have never knowingly taken a point (much less a match) that I wasn't certain was mine, I told him what I thought the score was. Once corrected, we changed ends where I served out the match. 6-7, 6-4, 6-2.

By the way he was a big jerk after the match too!

 

[freelancer]

I would of said, "I thought it was 5-2"... And if he argued with me I'd just take the match. He doesn't sound like he did anything bad enough to steal the match away from him, but I'm also not gonna sit there and aruge with him that he hasn't lost yet.