Hello. This is my first post, but I have lurked for quite a while. I would appreciate your advice and feedback on how you, as a player, handle persistent bad calls during a USTA league match. I am not discusssing one or two bad calls that may have been made in error, but an abundance of calls by the other team that seem to indicate cheating.
The specifics! My doubles partner and I played a USTA match against one player that has a reputation for making bad calls. We were concerned going into the match about this rep, but as we knew the bad callers partner and had played with the bad callers partner on a social level (but not USTA), we hoped the partner would provide some balance and step in as need be. Unfortunately for us, this was not the case.
By midway through the first set, we had balls they called as out, that we thought were in, but we didn't say anything and let it go. Then, I hit a deep shot right at the feet of the bad caller's partner. The parter was standing inside the baseline. It hits her at her feet. The partner hits it and misses. As her partner is swinging, bad caller calls it out. Her partner shakes her head and says "I think it was in." Bad caller yells, No, no, no it was out. I tell them that as one of them called it in, it's in. Bad caller says, no it was out. She then walks to the baseline and has a discussion with her partner we can not hear. Partner tells us she will replay the point. We tell her no. We do not want to replay the point. She called the ball in. It's in. It's our point. Partner gives it to us, but does not look happy.
For the next few games, any ball even close to the line, even inside of the line, that we hit provokes discussion among the other side. "Wasn't that out?" "It was out?" "Don't you think it was out?" They make a few other calls that are questionable, but we let them go. Tensions are high.
We win the first set in a tie break. First game of next set, my partner is serving and hits a nice, wide serve that drops nicely on the inside of the line. I am standing at net and see the ball drop. Bad caller swings, and as she misses it, she calls it out.
I am shocked. I look at her partner with my shocked face. Her partner shrugs, rolls her eyes and says, "I didn't see it."
I question the bad caller. I tell her it looked clearly in. Bad caller tells me that it's not my call to make. It's her call, she is calling it out and I can't do anything about it. I am furious and tell her that I would be embarrased and ashamed to make the calls she is making. She yells at me that since I keep challenging her this is her point! I tell her it is not her point and she needs to watch her calls. She yells back that the only reason that we won the first set is because we whined so much about her calls.
It was not pretty. In fact, the whole thing was downright awful. At this point, my partner and I just wanted it over. We ended up losing the second set and lose the tie-break. I think it all got into our heads. We couldn't handle the tension, the cheating, the just absolute craziness of it.
I had a mixed match shortly after this match. I regretted losing my temper and asked the guys I was playing with how they would have handled it. They said they would start to call the other teams balls out that were in to even it out. We did not do this. Is this what people do?
I am on my fourth year of playing USTA. I really enjoy it. This was the first match that made me hate it. I want to understand how I could have handled this better so if I encounter a similar situation again I can react differently. Obviously my challenging the bad caller only raised tensions and made things worse for my partner and me. But, my partner and I felt that if we hadn't challenged them at all, we were effectively letting them get away with it.
So I ask, what would you have done? How would you have reacted? Or do you just endure and let it slide?
