We are anxious to play The Polar Brrr...."nothing but doubles" tourney

I can hardly wait to get my tennis paws on those Hot Pink Rally for the Cure tennis balls this weekend.

BECOMING A TENNIS OFFICIAL...

 Do you know anyone interested in becoming a USTA Certified Tennis Official?  Certification classes are now going on in various locations if you or some other tennis enthusiast you know may be interested in a decent paying part-time job.  Plus, you get to see lots of good tennis up close and personal.  For more information, click the link below or you can always email me with questions at Vickietennisnut@austin.rr.com;  Women officials are definitely a minority...we need more of you :-)  Teens are welcome as well.  They are restricted in that they cannot officiate their age division or above.  So if they are 16, they'd officiate 14 and under divisions and no adults.  We girls might spat at them if they called a foot fault on us :-)  We wouldn't do that, would we?

                              BECOME A USTA TENNIS OFFICIAL

Welcome to 2012....

Happy New Year to all you tennis players out in the Austin and surrounding area tennis community.  I look forward to seeing you on the court and having some good hitting and giggling along the way.  Happy New Year to all.

RACKET FALLING OUT OF HAND...WHAT'S THE REAL RULE?

Here is the scenario:  During a doubles match, Team A's partner stumbles on court, the racket falls out of her hand and she falls to the court (unharmed thank goodness).  Her partner is in front of her and doesn't see this happening so she returns the ball to TEAM B.   What should TEAM B have done?  

According to the Rules of Tennis, TEAM B would be wise to play the point to completion and then immediately direct attention to the welfare of their fallen opponent.  I know this sounds uncaring but this is the REAL RULE.

While there are several different rules about rackets falling or flying out of a player’s hand, there is not one that specifically addresses the exact scenario as it happened today.  These types of rulings are taught in our Officials Certification Class each year.

Anyway, there are a few rules that could help you with the situation:

1. If you have a 2011 Friend at Court (FAC), you can read the following rule on page 17, USTA Comment 24.8;  What happens if a player stretches to hit a ball, the racket falls to the ground, and the ball goes into the court for a winner?  Answer:  The player wins the point “unless” the racket was not in the player’s hand at the instant that the ball was struck. (In other words, you can’t throw your racket at a ball, hit the ball, have it land in the proper court and win the point.  You must have control of your racket when striking the ball.)  However, you could hit the ball, drop the racket and the point continue to it’s natural end to decide the point.
2. CASE 2:  After the server has served a first service, the racket falls out of the server’s hand and touches the net after the ball has bounced outside the correct service court.  Is this a service fault or does the server lose the point?  ANSWER:  This is a service fault because when the racket touched the net, the ball was no longer in play.  While Case 2 doesn’t exactly state the situation today, it does infer that the ball is “considered” in play because the ball was ruled a fault, and did not state a call of LET. 
3. Also on page 15;  #24 G and J;  G states;  Player loses the point if;  The player or the racket, whether in the player’s hand or not, or anything which the player is wearing or carrying touches the net, net posts....at any time while the ball is in play.  (This rule infers that even if the racket is not in your hand, it is still considered a ball in play). J states:  Player loses the point if:  The ball in play touches the racket when the player is not holding it.  (Once again, the ball is considered in play even though it is not in control by the opponent.)

I wish I could point all of you to the exact scenario in the 300+ page Friend at Court (FAC), but I don’t believe there is one exactly as it happened.  If I run across it., I'll be sure to post it here.

Even with all this said, whatever decisions league players make and agree on during the course of their match is the way to go I think.  This prevents issues with other tennis loving players and friends that we will play with and/or against at some time in the future.  Keep it friendly and keep it FUN.  That is really what it is all about........

Questions?  Email me at Vickietennisnut@austin.rr.com;

WOMEN OFFICIALS NEEDED....

FOOT FAULT

Do you know the RULES OF TENNIS

Can you handle a player's anger

Are you a Wonder Woman (Strong)


LOVE TENNIS?  Perhaps you might give some thought to becoming a tennis official. No you do not have to act or look like Wonder Woman to be a good tennis official.  Listed below are a few of the qualities of a good tennis official:  Did I mention that this is a paid profession?

• Knows the rules of tennis
• Handles stressful situations well
• Cool under pressure
• Confident
• Can respond calmly to someone yelling at you
• GREAT at multi-tasking
• Able to make unbiased calls that might go against friends or teammates
• Want to be up close to some of the BEST TENNIS IN TOWN
• You consider yourself to be a FAIR person
• Accepts that mistakes are inevitable and learns from them
• Can call foot faults 
• Overrules obvious line call errors

If you've ever considered becoming a USTA certified official, please email me at Vickietennisnut@austin.rr.com;  WE NEED MORE WOMEN!!  Men are welcome too and men are easier to recruit. Not sure if it's because the uniform doesn't appeal to females or if it's more of a testosterone thing.  Either way, if you think you can handle the pressure and are interested, we'd love to have you join us. 

It's a fairly simple process to become certified.  Certification class is one day (Saturday generally) in January or February of each year.  Our Austin class is scheduled for Feb. 4th, 2012 and is held at USTA Texas conference room.  You take an online certification test (open book) and bring the test answers with you to the February class.  If  you'd like more information, please email me or Mike Flynn, our school's coordinator.  Mike's email address is mikeflynn4@gmail.com; 

Helping Hands Needed for Adult Masters Championships

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2011 Simply the BEST - Texas Adult Masters Championships is to be held at The Courtyard, Lost Creek, and Polo Tennis & Fitness Clubs on Friday, Nov. 11th-Sunday, Nov. 13th.  As in year's past, we are in need of many helping hands, TOURNAMENT VOLUNTEERS, to help us put matches on, take matches off, serve as Texas Hold 'em dealers, deliver player's and staff lunches to various sites, as well as sell tournament souvenirs, stuff tournament give-a-way bags, check in tournament players and the list goes on.  If you can help us in any way, please email me at Vickietennisnut@austin.rr.com;  Your help comes with a free tournament t-shirt, some good food, and fellowship, plus you get to see some really great tennis too.  If you have a preference as to what volunteer function(s) you serve, please note that in your email as well to Vickietennisnut@austin.rr.com;    We appreciate everyone's help in making this our 5th successful year to serve our Tournament Champions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUSTIN SR. WOMEN WIN SECTIONALS - ADVANCE TO NATIONALS

 

Your Austin 4.0 Senior Sectionals WINNER

   The Courtyard Cougars

Best of luck at Nationals in October

 

Click link below for Masters Tournament Selection List

                      2011 Simply the BEST - Texas Selection List

DELIBERATE HINDRANCE = LOSS OF POINT

By now most of you have seen Serena Williams have another emotional melt down during the US Open Women's Final because of a CORRECT call made by the highly regarded Chair Umpire.  The Chair Umpire rules Deliberate Hindrance - Loss of Point;   I've received several questions about this incident.  Because of this, it's our blogging topic of the week.

The RULE STATES:  2011 Friend at Court; Page 49 of THE CODE
#32 Talking During a Point:  A player shall not talk while a ball is moving toward an opponent's side of the court.  If a player's talking interferes with the opponent's ability to play the ball, the player loses the point.  For example:  If a doubles player hits a weak lob and loudly yells at his partner to get back and if the shout is loud enough to distract an opponent, then the opponent may claim the point based on a deliberate hindrance.  If the opponent chooses to hit the lob and misses the shot, the opponent loses the point because the opponent did not make a timely claim of hindrance.

This incident happens on a routine basis to all of us.  I don't know about those of you in Bloggerville, but I've never had the presence of mind to NOT hit what I thought would surely be a winner only to hit the ball into the net or 6 feet beyond the baseline.  No matter how soft or loud the utterance, upon hearing my opponent tell his partner to WATCH OUT or GET BACK, it draws my attention away from my shot and instead directs my attention to looking around to see what I should be watching out for...

In an officiated match, the official should be ruling Deliberate Hindrance - Loss of Point just as this official did correctly at the 2011 US Open.

Then again, there are still those times when my opponents are as quiet  as two little church mice, and I still have the ability to hit the ball 6 feet beyond the baseline. Perhaps that's why I'm not paid to play the sport, but instead I pay to play it :-)

The "MASTERS RACE" IS ON!!!

With Adult Sectionals this coming weekend in San Antonio, we will soon know the final rankings for all our Adult NTRP tournament players in Texas.  These tournament players have been working so hard to improve their ranking to be one of the TOP 8 to receive an invitation to play the Simply the BEST - Texas Adult Masters Championships.  Good luck to everyone playing Adult Sectionals this weekend.  More news to come about The MASTERS once the ranking list is published by USTA Texas.

COMBO DEADLINE....TEAM NUMBERS CLOSE WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 7TH

COMBO DOUBLES LEAGUE TEAM TOURNAMENT
Play with friends at different skills levels!
September 23-25, 2011
2010 Year-end ratings will apply. If no rating, self-rate.
Divisions/Levels: Combined NTRP levels: 5.5, 6.5, 7.5, 8.5, 9.5
Site Locations: Courtyard Tennis Club & Lost Creek Country Club
Registration Opens: August 1, 2011
Initial Roster Due: Sept. 7, 2011 (by 5pm) – and last day to get team number
Roster Size: 6 min – 12 max; one match required for advancement
Registration Closes: September 22, 2011 by 5pm
Men and Women Sectionals: October 14-16, 2011 Waco, Texas; no National event
Special Instructions: Match times may start as early as 6pm Friday night
Each line cannot exceed 1.0 level between partners
Must be USTA member to play
3 doubles team format; round robin play
Regular scoring; Coman tiebreak in lieu of 3rd set
Players may advance to sectionals from ONE city only
If you win in Austin, you cannot play in another city.
Register Your USTA Combo Team:
To Create a Team
· Captains, Go to www.austintennis.org – click on LEAGUES, then CAPTAINS, TEAM
REGISTRATION, fill out TEAM REGISTRATION FORM to acquire team number.
· Players, then go to http://tennislink.usta.com/leagues – Register for your team using your
team number and USTA number.
Visit the CATA website at www.austintennis.org for more valuable information about league play,
tournaments and other tennis events in Austin!In case you haven't heard...COMBO is back Sept. 23-25th.  Form your teams NOW.  CAPTAINS must apply for a TEAM NUMBER by Sept. 7th in order to form your own team. 

WHAT IS THE REAL RULE IN HANDLING SCORING DISPUTES....

How do you handle scoring disputes when there is no USTA certified official handy to mediate.  Follow these three steps in order of preference;

• Count all points and games agreed upon by the players and replay only disputed points or games;
• Play from a  score mutually agreeable to all players;
• Spin a racket or toss a coin (RARELY, if ever used by a USTA official).

• QUESTION:  Is the server required to call the score at the beginning of each game and the point scores as the games go on in matches without officials?  '
• ANSWER:  YES.  This is required by THE CODE #30.  

• QUESTION: The players agree on who won every point except for the 2nd point.  What should you do?
• ANSWER:  You should replay the 2nd point from the AD court.  If the server wins the point, the score becomes 40-15;  if the receiver wins the point, the score becomes 30-30.  The next point would be played from the DEUCE court.

 

• QUESTION:  Same situation as above except it's now the 3rd point is the disputed point.  What do you do then?  
• ANSWER:  Everything is done the same except that the disputed point is played from the DEUCE court.

• QUESTION:  Players agree that they have played six points, but they disagree over the score because they do not agree who won the second point.  In this case the receiver acknowledges that the server called the score after each point and that the receiver did not express disagreement with the score until now.  What should happen?
• ANSWER:  The score as announced by the server should prevail because the receiver did not object.  NOTE:   However, if the receiver denied hearing the score, then an official would have to be called to court to go through the normal 3-step process in order to settle the dispute.  MORAL of this STORY:  Call out the score loudly enough so all may hear it.  This will avoid many unfriendly court disputes. If you are the receiver and you do not hear the score, ask the server what the score is BEFORE the next point is played.   If you don't, you may forfeit the point as the server's stated score will stand.

If you have questions after having read the above information, please don't hesitate to email me at:
Vickietennisnut@austin.rr.com; 

Good luck and good fun to all in your upcoming league season! 

REGISTRATION CLOSES TONIGHT!

TICK, TICK, TICK....this is the sound of REGISTRATION CLOSING for the upcoming Labor Day Open.  Registration time ticks away at 11:59 p.m. tonight!  Click HERE to register.

REGISTER FOR 2011 LABOR DAY OPEN....DEADLINE IS THIS WEDNESAY

                    COME JOIN IN THE 2011 LABOR DAY FUN....

I'm back from the ZOO and Michigan's 70 degree days and back in full swing for Austin tennis!  CATA’s Labor Day Open tournament is just around the corner and we are hoping to see you all there.  Don’t let these high temperatures scare you away.  We will be using the heat rule for this tournament.  This means that you will play a 10-point deciding match tie-break in lieu of playing a full 3^rd set, assuming temps remain what they’ve been for seems like 8 years now.  Some players may not like instituting the heat rule, but they learn to love it when they’re the ones doing the playing in 95 and up temps. 

For those of you that put things off, the deadline for the Labor Day Open has been extended to this Wednesday, August 24^th.  REGISTER now for CATA’s last adult tournament in 2011.  The next tournament CATA hosts is by invitation only, so you’ll want to be in the draws for this year’s Labor Day Open.  Tournament ID number is:  800016011.  For easy access, you can go click here to REGISTER or you can go to the CATA website, www.austintennis.org and click on the slideshow picture of the American Flag.  This will take you to the entry screen (read the paragraph next to the photo).

We hope to see you at the tournament, racket in hand, ready for some more tennis fun in the sun!

TRAGEDY STRIKES WARGO FAMILY...YOUR HELP NEEDED

Thursday, July 28, 2011

About a month ago Janet Wargo’s brother was in a terrible head-on collision in Tennessee.  Scott, Janet's brother survived with massive injuries.  His passenger regrettably did not survive.  Following is Janet’s account of what happened to her brother and his prognosis.

On July 5, at 11:30 am my brother Scott was driving home to Nashville after spending the 4th of July weekend with some friends.  He was driving his 88-year-old friends Mercedes and his friend was in the car.  They were traveling on interstate 24 near Murfreesboro, Tennessee when a woman traveling in the opposite direction lost control of her car, crossed the median and hit Scott head on. It took nearly 2 hours to extract Scott from the car.  He and his friend were airlifted to Vanderbilt trauma center where Scott underwent two separate surgeries and spent 11 days in the hospital.  Scott suffered badly broken bones in both legs. His left femur was repaired with a plate and he also has pins to repair broken bones in his left foot.  It will be 3 or more months before he can bear weight on that leg.  The tibia in his right leg is broken in two places and was repaired with a rod.  The fibula was also broken in two places and is expected to heal on its own.  He will be able to bear weight on that leg sooner since the rod provides better structural support. But plastic surgery was required due to trauma in the area of the tibia break exposing bone, which required muscle to be pulled around the area and a skin graft. It will require a second surgery in a couple of weeks. 

Recovery will take a long time and the final outcome is not known.  With small improvements every day Scott is very hopeful and his spirits are very good.  He is up in the wheelchair about an hour a day.  He still requires 24-hour care and so far, my sister and I have been providing the care. 

The small architect firm Scott works for has suffered through the economic down turn and has gone from 12 employees to 3.  The bookkeeper let the health insurance payments lapse and they were canceled a few months ago so Scott is uninsured.  The firm continues to try and keep their head above water.  

A friend of his built an amazing wheelchair ramp, a neighbor Scott has never met is mowing his grass through the end of the year, a work acquaintance is helping buy groceries, another neighbor is cooking and bringing food, another researched wheelchair transportation for us ... heartwarming.  

All that being said, Karen Sherman and I decided to help Janet’s brother in whatever way we can and we thought you all may want to do the same.   Scott has no idea how long he will be home recovering or even if he will have a job when he's able to work again.  With no insurance, money is what is most needed.  If you feel compelled to help, please consider a donation to help offset costs with groceries and everyday living expenses.   I can’t imagine having my brother so far away and not being able to help him so maybe this will cushion the pain and worry Janet is feeling right now; knowing we are there for her and she is also in our prayers daily.  Whatever amount you would like to donate would be greatly appreciated.  Your donation can be mailed  to Jill Zeitz 3904 Edgerock Drive Austin, 78731.   We plan to give Janet a lump sum check in the next month.  Please pass the word through our friends and tennis playing community.   

Karen and I will sign a card with everyone’s name on it that donated unless you would like to be anonymous.   Please note that on your check.  Also, all donations will be strictly confidential.

Thanks again for helping Janet and her brother.  I know she will never forget our efforts to make life a little less worrisome while Scott concentrates his energy to literally getting back up on his feet.

See you on the courts!!

Jill and Karen

CORRECTING ERRORS...THE ANSWERS

 

QUESTION:  During a standard game in doubles, if there is an error in the order of receiving, is this corrected immediately? 

ANSWER: NO, the order of receiving will remain as altered for the remainder of that game.  For the next game in which they are the receivers in that set, the partners shall then resume the original order of receiving.

QUESTION:  If my doubles partner serves when it should really be my turn and it's already Love-40, do we switch servers immediately or finish the game and go back to the prior rotation for serve?

ANSWER:  Switch servers immediately.  The player who was originally due to serve shall serve as soon as the error is discovered.  However, if a game is completed before the error is discovered the order of service shall remain as altered.

QUESTION:  During a standard game, if a player serves from the wrong half of the court, should this be corrected immediately?  ANSWER:  Yes correct immediately. 

What if the error is discovered after a first serve fault?  ANSWER:  The first serve fault shall stand.  

What if my opponents served a first serve fault and it is then discovered that we should be serving?  ANSWER:  The first serve fault shall NOT stand.   

Do we continue to play out the point or change servers immediately?   ANSWER:  Change servers immediately.  

Does the first serve fault stand?  ANSWER:  Change servers immediately.

QUESTION:  During a standard game, the players are at the wrong ends of the court, what should you do?

Change ends immediately?  ANSWER:  Yes, change ends immediately.