Tennis Court Etiquette

This fellow is excited to be playing the valley’s fastest rising sport, but he’d better get his gear organized and, “Get ready for lesson No. 1 in tennis… a lesson in court manners.” 

Bench Warming

Get ready for lesson No. 1 in tennis, Imperial Valley’s fastest rising sport. Lesson No. 1 is not, as you might expect, a discourse on strokes for forehand, backhand and service. It is, instead, a lesson in court manners. “Court manners,” in case you have followed me this far, is one of the requisites for a successful tennis players. Court manners will not win points for you in playing games, it fact it might lose a few. But tennis is a gentleman’s game, gentlewoman’s too, and it is therefore necessary that you act the part. 

Rule No. 1 

Rule No. 1 specifically states that you should not run across, in back of or down the sidelines when other players are in action on the court. Loud talking, skating, riding of bicycles is outlawed in rule No. 2. Batting of tennis balls against a backboard when someone is trying to play tennis on an adjacent court is declared unconstitutional in rule No. 3. 

There are at least a dozen rules covering court courtesy among players but those rules are carefully considered by all players I have watched on valley tennis courts. But the three rules, mentioned first, are violated at least two hundred times per day at the high school courts in El Centro. Children, who are just learning the game, run across courts on which you are playing until you think you must be playing on Main Street’s sidewalk. 

You continually trip over someone in back of you, who is probably batting a tennis ball against a fence, or putting a child on his bicycle, so he can circle the court on which you are playing. Then, just as you are about to serve somebody will yell, “Hey you… throw that ball over here.” The result is a double fault service. By this time, you are ready to crown someone with your racket or just pick up your balls and go home. Either is preferable to listening to and dodging court manners’ violations. 

A Resolution 

Most of the violators are high school and grammar school children who are just learning to play the game. But even they should realize that rights of others on the tennis courts should be considered. We favor advancement of tennis in the valley, but new players can be molded to the game without running the old players off the courts in despair. Again we advise some New Years’ Resolutions. Let courtesy on the tennis courts head the list. – By Burdette Kinne Post-Press Sports Editor, 1938

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