Silence reigns on the tennis court as you begin to serve. You bounce the tennis ball, one, two, three, confidently call the score, 40-30, and serve the ball from the ad (left) side of the court to your opponent. The point is long, with neither player willing to make a mistake. The ball is kept deep in the court, and you hit from corner to corner to try and tire out your opponent. She brings you up to the net with a short ball, hoping that you will not have enough time to prepare yourself for a good shot. You plant your feet at the net and slice the ball at an angle Serena Williams herself would be proud of. The ball hits on the line. I won, you think to yourself. But as you look over to your opponent, you see her pointer finger raised in the air and a clear call, “out!” The people watching in the stands gasp, holding their breath for the fight that is soon to occur. You argue over the point. Are you sure? That was clearly in! Your opponent is unwilling to yield on this point and claims she called it out. She may have called it, but it was not out, you angrily think to yourself, but there is really nothing you can do to change her mind. Reluctantly, you call the score, deuce, and put all your effort into your next serve. This match has been difficult from the start, and keeping the point advantage is now temporarily out of reach.
Sports integrity is important, especially in tennis. No one is there to tell you when the ball is in or outside of the court; the players on the court have to make these judgments themselves. Realistically, there will be some calls that people get wrong genuinely by accident. I know I have done this before, and it is always best to give your opponent the benefit of the doubt on the first bad call. But oftentimes, players misuse this power to give themselves more points. What is unique and difficult about tennis is that we do not have a referee out on the court with us at all times making calls and settling arguments. It is the responsibility of all players on the court to know the score at all times and settle call disputes. Sometimes when arguments get too heated, the coaches will come out and try to settle the argument in a way that is fair to both players. Occasionally, a line judge may be called. This only happens when someone thinks the other player is repeatedly making bad calls on purpose. Calling a line judge involves a coach from each of the teams coming out on the tennis court during the match to verify if calls questioned are fair or not. While this is an extreme measure, it is sometimes necessary to promote a fair match.
As a team, I feel like Dover tennis does a good job maintaining our integrity on and off the court. There are very few times I have seen one of our players pick a fight or cause a problem with another player in a match. Granted, arguments do happen on the court, but our team always handles them in a way that is respectful to the other players without letting them take advantage of us. Olivia Spraggins, a senior on the Dover Girls’ Tennis team thinks she is “a fair person, but it doesn’t mean other people are. I think [tennis is] a lot about honesty and staying true to what you believe.” I couldn’t agree more. Although a lack of officials on the tennis court may seem unfavorable in some instances, this gives players an opportunity to develop their integrity on and off the court.
