the geometry of line calling, unofficiated doubles setting

Tdub

New User
there's a rather large contingent of unofficiated doubles players who don't understand the geometry of line calling, and are therefore unable to give due deference to the players looking down the line where the ball lands, and making line calls, and instead tend to overrule these calls, even though they are in an inferior position to make the line call judgement. They also tend to generally complain about line calling, because they think it really doesn't matter what view you have of the ball landing on the court, that they always have just as good a view as anyone else on the court. The tennis establishment says otherwise. First, the USTA Code in several instances says you should defer to players looking down the line as to line calls, and second, you don't see pro tournament line judges overruling each other, or complaining about each other's line calls. They know they have a superior view compared to other line judges not looking down the line where the ball lands. If it didn't matter where you are on the court in judging a line call, why would pro tourneys employ so many line judges? Wouldn't they just have one or two? If you have been the victim of this situation, what I call crazytennis, you can refuse to go along with the overrule because it lacks a reasonable basis, the same as if the purported overruler wasn't even looking at the ball when it landed. This problem exists because people begin playing tennis without any reference to the rules, and coaches and club proprietors don't teach them or encourage it.
 

nyta2

Legend
This smells like hurtful loss suffered, doesn’t it?
possibly, but i can sympathize with the OP, especially when opponent will egregiously claim they have a better view of my baseline, than i do, when i'm on my baseline... or from across the court, overruling their partner who is on the line, etc...
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
I don’t understand what the OP is talking about. A player makes a call and an opponent cannot overrule it even if they had a better view of it - are you suggesting that opponents should be given the right to overrule a player’s call if they had a better view?

If you are talking about a partner overruling a player’s call in doubles, they are supposed to do so if they feel they saw it 100% in. Just because the player making the call has a better view doesn’t mean they make the accurate call all the time - they might have bad vision, they might be cheating, they might have not seen the ball land properly because they were moving or trying to hit the ball etc. If the partner is further away and not in as good a position and has some doubt about whether the ball was in or out, they should defer to their partner’s call. But if a player 100% saw it in, they should overrule their partner and the point goes to the opponent because the partners disagree - no one knows whether the ball was actually in or out and you stick with the rule and concede the point if there is a disagreement.

I sometimes ask an opponent in singles if they saw the ball in or out while they looked down the line at their shot on a sideline call while I was looking sideways from further away. But I would do it only if I had doubt about what call to make, it was an point-ending winner/error and also if the opponent is known to me as someone who calls lines very fairly in the past. If it is a stranger that I have no history with, I will just call what I saw as there are many players who will call all their close shots as in if you ask them, whether they saw it in or not.
 
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johnmccabe

Hall of Fame
I don’t understand what the OP is talking about. A player makes a call and an opponent cannot overrule it even if they had a better view of it - are you suggesting that opponents should be given the right to overrule a player’s call if they had a better view?

If you are talking about a partner overruling a player’s call in doubles, they are supposed to do so if they feel they saw it 100% in. Just because the player making the call has a better view doesn’t mean they make the accurate call all the time - they might have bad vision, they might be cheating, they might have not seen the ball land properly because they were moving or trying to hit the ball etc. If the partner is further away and not in as good a position and has some doubt about whether the ball was in or out, they should defer to their partner’s call. But if a player 100% saw it in, they should overrule their partner and the point goes to the opponent because the the partners disagree - no one knows whether the ball was actually in or out and you stick with the rule and concede the point if there is a disagreement.

I sometimes ask an opponent in singles if they saw the ball in or out while they looked down the line at their shot on a sideline call while I was looking sideways from further away. But I would do it only if I had doubt about what call to make and also if the opponent is known to me as someone who calls lines very fairly in the past. If it is a stranger that I have no history with, I would not do it as there are many players who will call all their close shots as in if you ask them whether they saw it in or not.
op likes to post about line calls
 

user92626

G.O.A.T.
there's a rather large contingent of unofficiated doubles players who don't understand the geometry of line calling, and are therefore unable to give due deference to the players looking down the line where the ball lands, and making line calls, and instead tend to overrule these calls, even though they are in an inferior position to make the line call judgement. They also tend to generally complain about line calling, because they think it really doesn't matter what view you have of the ball landing on the court, that they always have just as good a view as anyone else on the court. The tennis establishment says otherwise. First, the USTA Code in several instances says you should defer to players looking down the line as to line calls, and second, you don't see pro tournament line judges overruling each other, or complaining about each other's line calls. They know they have a superior view compared to other line judges not looking down the line where the ball lands. If it didn't matter where you are on the court in judging a line call, why would pro tourneys employ so many line judges? Wouldn't they just have one or two? If you have been the victim of this situation, what I call crazytennis, you can refuse to go along with the overrule because it lacks a reasonable basis, the same as if the purported overruler wasn't even looking at the ball when it landed. This problem exists because people begin playing tennis without any reference to the rules, and coaches and club proprietors don't teach them or encourage it.
YOu're just butthurt about a loss. Chair umpire overrules line judges sometimes even though he has much worse view...
 
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