Tennis Etiquette - Did You Know All This?

I found this the other day, and thought it would make interesting reading to any player out there, and also..how much of this do you actually know and follow???

Tennis etiquette is based on good sportsmanship and tradition. Players must learn to be competitive but fair to their opponents. Because social players and many tournament players must play their matches with no officials, they must learn to apply the tennis rules themselves in a fair and sportsmanlike manner.

The following items should be used as a guide to this task:

Any ball which cannot be called out with certainty is good. Each player is responsible for making calls on all balls landing on his side of the court. All calls of “out” should be made clearly and instantly. If a player knows that his partner made a bad call the player should overrule him.

Players should refrain from using abusive language or engaging in equipment abuse such as throwing rackets or bashing balls. In many tournaments, the Point-penalty system takes care of this type of behaviour.

The score should be called aloud after each point is scored. Any player may do this although traditionally the server performs the task. When the score is called out, the server’s score is called first.- PLEASE NOTE THIS ONE

The server should have 2 balls at the start of each point.

The receiver should not hit an out-of-bounds first serve.

When the occasion dictates, a player should say “good shot” to his opponent…………I LIKE THIS ONE

Each player should pick up his share of stray balls. When balls from other courts come into a player’s court, they should be returned in a polite manner, but not while a rally is in progress. Players should not run into another court to pick up a stray ball if a rally is in progress.

When players are going onto another court to play, they should wait until the rally is complete on the courts they must pass; then move quickly across before the next rally begins.

During the warm-up, the player should hit the balls to the opponent rather than away from him.- AND NOTE THIS ONE TOO

The players should wear proper tennis attire. As spectators, the fans should remain quiet while the ball is in play and clap and cheer only after the point is completed.

Fans should never become involved in line calling or any other officiating duties.

The players should shake hands after the match.

So there you are – some of them are pretty obvious, but some of them could be learnt by a lot of players out there.I like the one mentioned about calling out the score – I cannot for the life of me, understand how 4 players can play and not call out the score