LAWN TENNIS QUERY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue VI, 10 February 1894, Page 126

LAWN TENNIS QUERY.

The Hon. Sec. of the New Plymouth Tennis Club, Mr J. E. Wilson, has written, asking ‘ whether a person when serving should have both feet upon the ground ? one upon the base line and the other beyond it?’ lam pleased to have the opportunity of tnswering this very pertinent query, not on’y for the benefit of my New Plymouth correspondent, but also for the enlightenment of most of our local players. Rule 7of the All England Lawn Tennis Association reads as follows:—‘The server shall stand with one foot beyond that is further from the net than the base line, and with the other foot upon the base line, and shall deliver the service from the right and left courts alternately, beginning from the right.’ This rule is perpetually disregarded, and one may often see players serving with both feet within or perhaps with both feet beyond the bise-line. Others lift up one foot. This is a fault, as according to a decision of the Field given Jnly 30th, 1881, ‘ If the server lifts one foot before the ball served has left his racquet it is a fault.’ If one foot is lifted up in the act of serving it cannot be either on or beyond the base line, as indicated by the rule, as it is in the air. Moreover, if one foot may be lifted, so might both, and thus destroy the whole idea of the correct service. I may mention that the decision quoted is given on the authority of Messrs W. and E. Renshaw, B. C. Eveleigh, N. L. Jackson, and R D. Sears. I shall be pleased at all times to answer any queries of like nature.