TENNIS NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 90, 10 January 1933, Page 12

TENNIS NOTES AND COMMENTS

Championship Tournament at Eastbourne

FOOTFAULTS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

(By

“Vantage.”)

There is probably nothing which has a more unsettling effect on a player’s game than being unexpectedly foot-faulted, and yet, in spite of the fact that a foot-fault, except when the service is fundamentally unsound, is easily avoidable, it continues to happen in even the most important matches. The following notes on footfaults and how to avoid them appeared in “The Dominion” three years ago, but they are still appropriate and worth reprinting, especially the section on the duties of the foot-fault judge. Footfaults are the bugbear of presentday lawn tennis. Ninety-nine per cent, of foot-faults are caused by carelessness, hence they can easily be avoided. Few players footfault from a desire to take an unfair advantage. No one wants to foot-fault and yet a very large number of players transgress at one one time or another. After considerable discussion the International Federation has adopted the following rule to govern and control what is a trifling matter in cases where no appreciable advantage is gained, and a very serious offence when any undue and premature advance up the court enables the server to run in on his service in order to volley the return. How Service is Delivered. —Rule: ‘The service shall be delivered in the.following manner: Immediately before commencing to serve, the server shall stand with both feet at rest behind (i.e., farther from the net than) the baseline, and within the imaginary continuation of the centre mark and sideline. The server shall then project the ball by hand into the air in any direction and strike it with his racket, and the delivery shall be deemed to have been completed at the moment of the. impact of the racket and the ball. A player with the use of only one arm may utilise his racket for the projection. [A player may use an underhand or an orcrhand'service at his discretion.]

Foot-fault Rule. —The server _ shall, throughout the delivery of the service: (a) Not change his position by walking or running. (b) Maintain contact with the ground. (c) Keep both feet behind (i.e., farther from the net than) the baseline. Note: (1) Slight movements of the feet which do not materially affect the location originally taken up by the player arc permissible. (2) One foot may be lifted so long as the other foot maintains continuouslv its original contact with the ground. (3) At no time during the delivery of the service may both feet be off the ground simultaneously. Duties of Foot-fault Judge. The following is extracted from the U.S.L.T.A.’s “Manual of the Tennis Umpires’ Association”: — “The foot-fault judge should sit directly opposite the baseline, changing his position from one court to the other with the service. He must not smoke or talk to the base linesman. “He must make his decisions m a voice that all can hear and must be thoroughly conversant with the foot-fault rule. “He should call a foot-fault only when he is positive that the rule has been ■broken. The player must receive the benefit of any doubt. . “The good.judge will distinguish between technical foot-faults and real footfaults. Technical faults are where the server edges on the line or swings his foot over it when not rushing the net. He should be warned of his particular error by a few words spoken in a low tone, and if he then continues the practice he should be faulted. Real footfaults are where the server is past the line in rushing the net. These should be called without warning. “As an aid to judging foot-faults, the use of a large stiff card (the brim of a stiff straw hat will do) is recommended. Hold the edge of the card between the

eye, close the eye nearest the net, and sight the card so that its outer edge coincides with the baseline. Watch the player’s feet and listen for the sound of the racket hitting the ball. By this method it can be very accurately determined whether or not the player footfaults.”

East Harbour Tourney. R. McL. Ferkins is playing fine tennis at present. He raced through the five rounds of the East Harbour tournament with the loss of only ten games in ten sets. He had no trouble in beating W. D. Sykes 6—l, 6—2, in the semi-final, and lost only three games to Fouhy in the final. If he can keep his form he should be an asset to Wellington in the Wilding Shield matches. E. Fouhy has improved his game and he did well to reach the final of the singles at Eastbourne, although he found Ferkins much too hard a nut to crack. He had a good win, however, over W. Hbllings in the semi-final and earlier had put out R. TV. Lander who unexpectedly beat 11. N. Burns in the first round. Few expected that Miss TL Howe would beat Miss M. Macassey. in the final of the women’s singles, but she played with much more confidence than she usually shows in her matches and thoroughly deserved her ■ win. Miss Howe has excellent strokes, and if she can reproduce the form she showed at Eastbourne there should be decided possibilities ahead of her. Time Lost in Matches. Everyone who has watched tennis matches knows of course that a fair amount of time is lost in stoppages, unavoidable or otherwise. Very few, however, can have any idea as to how much time is actually lost. Mr. Herbert Manchester decided to find out exactly, and he used a stop-watch, on the men s semifinal and final matches of the last American championship. He discovered that merely to change sides, without using a.towel,.at the end of the odd games, required about half a minute, which is as much time as was taken by the shortest games. Many games were finished in a minute, which was about the time taken up by both changing sides and stopping for a towel or a drink. In both of Vines's matches the games required less than a minute and a half each of playing time, while: in the CochetAUison match they consumed more than that. In the Cochet-Allison match the time out amounted to 30 per cent.-; in the Vines-Sutter match 28 per cent.; and in the Vines-Cochet match, 26 per cent. The average amount of time taken for a rally was about 14 seconds.