Etiquette & Rules of Play – Renfrew Tennis Club

RENFREW TENNIS CLUB

BASIC TENNIS ETIQUETTE AND PROCEDURES FOR PLAY

Good sportsmanship:

Always shake hands or tap racquets with your opponents at the end of a game, whether you win or lose.
Treat your opponents and your partner with respect and accept defeat gracefully.
Always focus on the positives; be patient and courteous to other members.

Court Etiquette:

If you need to walk past a court to get to your court, wait for the point to finish and ask if you can go, rather than just walking behind their court without permission.
If your ball goes on another court, wait for a break in play and politely ask for it or retrieve it yourself.
Do not delay play unreasonably. Play to the server’s pace.
If a ball rolls onto your court, call “let” immediately and replay the point. If this happens between the first and second serve, offer the server first serve.
You cannot call a let after the ball is struck and a point lost or won.
Do not chew gum on the courts.
Wear non-marking shoes to prevent damage to the courts.
A player should avoid grunting and making other loud noises which may bother not only opponents but also players on the adjacent court.
Speak softly and turn off your cellphone ringer whenever possible

Court Bookings:

Courts should be booked in advance when possible. Website – https://app.univerusrec.com/renfrewpub/account/index.asp
Players must vacate the court for the booking time reserved.

Non-members or Guests:

Hourly court rental for the Town of Renfrew must be paid in advance ($8.00/hour/person)
Members should collect a $5.00 court fee for any RTC function. g. Fun tournaments, morning group, clinics, etc.

Basic Procedures for Play

Warm up:

Warm up should be limited to 5 minutes for doubles and singles league play if starting just on time or late
Warm up time in non-competitive games can be flexible amongst the players
Hit the ball back to your opponent at a moderate pace warming up various strokes. You are not trying to win the warm up!

Serving:

Servers should always call out the score before each serve. If you forget the score, go back to the last score you all agree upon. If you cannot agree, spin the racquet and use their recollection of the winner for the score.
Service calls in doubles – The receiver’s partner should call the service line, and the receiver should call the sideline and the center service line. Either partner may call a ball that he/she clearly sees.
Service calls by the serving team – Neither the server nor his/her partner shall make a fault call on the first service even if they think it is out because the receiver may be giving the server the benefit of the doubt.
Receiver readiness – The receiver should make no effort to return a serve when he/she is not ready. If a player attempts to return a serve, it is presumed that he/she is ready.
Delays during service – When there is a delay between the first and second serves the server gets one serve if he/she was the cause of the delay. The server gets two serves if the delay was caused by the receiver or if there was outside interference.
Service let calls. Any player can call a service let.
Players are not allowed to stand in the receiving court during service. Additionally, a receiver’s partner shall not move in or around the receiving box, or cause a distraction.
Rectifying mistakes – The general rule is that errors are rectified as soon as they are discovered but not during play, and points remain. If a server serves from the wrong court, the point stands and he/she serves the next point from the proper court. If in doubles, the wrong person serves, the game stands and his/her partner serves the next game from his/her side. If discovered during the game, the partner whose turn it is to serve, takes over.
In doubles you change servers after each game . The receiver in doubles must remain on his side for a complete set, and then can be changed. At the end of a set a teams’ serve rotation may be changed.
A foot fault occurs when the server’s foot touches the baseline or steps right into the court on the serve before the ball is contacted. Obvious foot faults may and should be called.

Making Calls :

Players should make calls on his/her side of the net promptly.
A ball landing on the line is good.
If a ball can’t be called out with certainty, it is good.
Respect your opponent’s line call whether you agree with it or not. It is theirs to make.
In doubles, the receiver usually calls the side line while his partner calls the service line. However, either player may call a ball they see out.
The call of a player looking down a line is much more likely to be accurate than that of a player looking across a line. When you are looking across a line, don’t call a ball out unless you can clearly see part of the court between where the ball hits and the line.
It is difficult for a player who stands on one baseline to question a call on a ball that landed near the other baseline.
If a player and his/her partner disagree about whether the ball was out, they shall call it good.
Spectators are never to make calls.
A point may be replayed if both sides agree.
A ball is in play until the ball is called out or bounced twice or landed outside the court area or hit something outside the court area. The rare exception to this rule in doubles: a ball that hits the post & lands in is considered good.
You cannot catch a ball & call it out even though it might be going to hit the fence. It has contacted your body while in play and you lose that point.

A “let” is any instance where players replay an entire point during singles or doubles play, except when it is called on a second serve.

Lets should be called:

Waiting too long may not be valid.
by any player on the court
if a noticeable distraction interferes with play; the server receives 2 serves.
when balls, a water bottle or a person from a nearby court comes onto yours. This is treated as an interference and the point is replayed .

Service Let:

The ball hits the net or net cord and subsequently lands in the correct service box
The ball hits the net and contacts the receiver(s) or anything they wear or carry before hitting the ground
However, if the ball contacts the receiver(s), or anything they wear or carry before hitting the ground without touching the net is not a let; it is a fault & therefore an automatic lost point
The ball is served when the receiver is not ready
If the service let occurs on the first serve, players should replay the entire point. However, if it happens on the second serve, the server only receives one additional serve. There is no limit to the number of serve let calls during any given point.
If the let call happens between the servers first or second serve, it’s up to the receiver to determine whether or not the duration of time that passed while clearing the ball or dealing with the disturbance warrants the server starting the point over with a first serve.

Changing ends:

Players change ends when the game total is odd, including at the end of a set.
If you forget to change ends during a game, change ends immediately once recognized and continue the game keeping the score achieved prior to changing.

Net play:

Reaching over the net in tennis is permitted as long as you don’t touch it with your body, clothing or racket, and you don’t touch your opponent or the court on the other side. However, the ball must be contacted on your side of the court first before this occurs.
You cannot jump over the net during a match, or you lose that point and can be disqualified if it is to confront an opponent.

Scoring a Game:

0 points = Love
1 point = 15
2 points = 30
3 points = 40
Tied score = All (e.g. 30 all)
40 – 40 = Deuce
Server wins deuce = Ad-in (Advantage in)
Receiver wins deuce = Ad-out (Advantage out)
When the score reaches deuce, one player or team will need to win at least two points in a row to win the game. If the team with the advantage (Ad-In or Ad-Out) wins another point, they win the game, or it goes back to deuce.

Tie Breaker:

If the score reaches 6-6 (6-all) in the set, a tiebreak game is played.
In a tiebreak game, the next person who was due to serve will start the tiebreak game, and serve one point to the deuce side of the court. The following two points will then be served by the opponent starting on the ad side. In doubles, the player on the opposing team due to serve will serve these points.
Players or teams switch ends of the court every six points (e.g. when the score is 4-2), and to score this tiebreak game, you use, “zero” “one”, “two”, “three”, etc. The first player or team to win seven points, by two, wins the tiebreak. This means the score can end up being very high (e.g. 15-13) or as low as 7-0 through 7-5.
Whoever wins the tiebreak game, wins the set by a score of 7-6.
Since the set is an odd-numbered score (7-6), whichever end of the court the players or teams ended up on when the tiebreak game finished, they will need to switch sides to start the next set. Whoever started serving the tiebreak game will be receiving serve in the first game of the next set.

For more detailed information visit https://www.tennisontario.com/players/get-started/rules-and-regulations

READ ALERT for doubles players. If you want to review or get answers to the most common rule questions in doubles here is a fun way (cartoons) to do it !!! CHECK IT OUT

On your computer , tablet or phone go to usta.com
Click PLAY TENNIS
Scroll & click TENNIS GAME RULES
Scroll down the page until toy see a cartoon & click the learn more to see the cartoons. Each answers a different question.
Click a cartoon to see the cartoon question & then the more underneath to get the answer.
Click the back arrow on your device & select the next cartoon & repeat.
Click the large bold more to see the rest.

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