Principles

PRINCIPLES to Remember…
Excerpts from the USTA Official Rules of Tennis and the USTA Code

Courtesy. Tennis is a game that requires cooperation and courtesy from all participants. Make tennis a fun game by praising your opponents’ good shots. Please, DO NOT:
• conducting loud postmortems after points;
• complaining about shots like lobs and drop shots;
• embarrassing a weak opponent by being overly gracious or condescending;
• losing your temper, using vile language, throwing your racket, slamming a ball in anger, or sulking when you are losing.

ELIMINATING & HANDLING SCORING DISPUTES…
Disputes over the score shall be resolved by using one of the following methods, which are listed in order of preference:
• Count all points and games agreed upon by the players and replay only the disputed points or games;
• Play from a score mutually agreeable to all players;
• Spin a racket or toss a coin.The #1 Method of Eliminating Scoring Disputes is… The Server shall announce the game score before the first point of the game and the point score before each subsequent point of the game.

Warm-up is not practice. A player should provide the opponent a 5 minute warm-up (ten minutes if there are no ball persons). If a player refuses to warm-up the opponent, the player forfeits the right to a warm-up. Some players confuse warm-up and practice. A player should make a special effort to hit shots directly to the opponent. (If Doubles Partners want to warm each other up while their opponents are warming up, they may do so.) Warm-up serves. Take all your warm-up serves before the first serve of the match. Courtesy dictates that you not practice your service return when your opponent practices serving. If a player has completed the player’s warm-up serves, the player shall return warm-up serves directly to the opponent.