During warm up, we were about to practice serves. Clear sky, sun in your eyes on one side. One of the players of the other team came over to our side to practice serving into the sun while his partner stayed on other side and hit serves. I say this is legal my friend said no that why you choose sides after you spin racket. Whats the rule?
Warm up for doubles.
- Thread starter KOFS
- Start date
Purestriker
Legend
When did you spin the racket to select sides?
Before warmup
Purestriker
Legend
I don't know of any rule other than once you start play you can't go to the other side of the court unless it is a changeover. I don't know why the opponent did it anyway, just practice the toss a few times once you are over there. Its not like we are on a shot clock.
esgee48
G.O.A.T.
The guy did it to check out the sun. Probably because he will be serving from that side. There’s no rule against it before play starts. He could have asked to practice on your side, and you can’t refuse.
We do that sometimes when the Sun is really bad. But it is done during warmups. Say they warmed up when overcast, then Sun comes out. Need to recalibrate.
We do that sometimes when the Sun is really bad. But it is done during warmups. Say they warmed up when overcast, then Sun comes out. Need to recalibrate.
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
I don’t think it would be allowed in an officiated match. But, no one would protest in social tennis even though it seems like a bit of a jerk move. I bet the guy was not too pleasant to play against.
NTRP_3.75_Patrick_Rafter
Rookie
He's a weirdo for doing that but it would be almost just as weird to make an issue of it. You did the right thing coming here and venting.
FuzzyYellowBalls
Legend
Sure, it's legal, I'm a lefty, if I have a righty partner, I don't even practice serves on the sun side, I either am already on the non-sun side and practice there by chance or if I am not, I wait and do my serves after I can go over to the non sun side. No sense in practicing when I won't ever have to look into the sun.
ichaseballs
Hall of Fame
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
I don‘t understand how this works when you say you practice your serves after you go over to the non-sun side if you start on the other side first. The way we play tennis is that we call the toss, the teams choose serve/return/side etc., we switch to the side picked, warmup including our serves and then start the match. How is it possible to practice serves on both sides of the court in an official match?
Even in social play, I’ve rarely (if ever?) seen someone make a request to warmup serves from the opposite side of the court once they finish warmup on one side. I’m a lefty too and if I end up warming up serves on the sun side even though I plan to serve on the other side during the match, it is not a big deal. I’m not going to ask my opponents to wait after the warmup while I run over and practice serves from the other side.
Am I missing something in how you do it?
FuzzyYellowBalls
Legend
No , you're not missing anything. I just tell the opponents I'm not serving into the sun today so no reason to warmup staring at it and 100% they oblige.
I believe you, but I play way too much tennis all over and I can't remember the last time someone spun for serves and sides before just randomly warming up, mildly interesting.
