"THE HELL WITH FOOTFAULTS… LET’S TACKLE THE BASICS FIRST"

By Charles E. Vasoll

The heading is a quotation from an e-mail that I received from Jim McCready, Racquets Sports Director at the Spring Brook Country Club in Morristown, New Jersey. He was referring to a situation that he ran into in the New Jersey League Classic in December. He indicated that, in his first round match, the first set came to a tiebreaker and after the set was decided, there was confusion about who started serving the next set and from which end of the court.

I must admit that I have also had a lot of trouble remembering exactly how the rule book spelled out the proper sequence of this serve and where it started so I can empathize with the New Jersey players who were not familiar with this basic procedure. All of the players, about 20 in total, according to Jim McCready, indicated that the teams switched ends, regardless of the score of the tiebreaker or where it started. He could not convince them otherwise.

Jim is a long time racquets professional and his resume also includes a stint as Executive Director of the APTA and many hours sitting in the Chair as an umpire. Despite these credentials, he was unable to convince his opponents of the correct procedure for the second set after a tiebreaker. What is equally, or more, disturbing, he reported that no Official Rules booklet could be located in the paddle hut.

The instruction in the rulebook is just one sentence. It reads "The team receiving service for the first point of the tiebreaker shall begin serving the next set from the opposite end from which it received the first point." That seems simple enough, but in the heat of the moment, it just does not come naturally for some unknown reason. Let’s see if we can make it simpler to follow.

Who serves? That should not be a problem. A tiebreaker is like an odd number in games for a set score. The team that served first in the tiebreaker receives in the next set.

From where? First, I suggest that you forget the tiebreaker score, which could be odd or even. That may only serve to confuse the situation. Ask instead, from which end was the first service of the tiebreaker made. Then go there to start the second set.

Try: Receive First / Serve Second from First Service End or RF/SS/FSE.

And you thought you were confused before!

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