Rules for South Dakota High School Tennis
Foot faults during regular season
During the season, most coaches will just tell the other coach that their player is foot faulting.
But, if playing against a top school, or top player, the foot faults should be called, since it will affect ranking, and the player should be forced to "fix their serve" before they go on to play college tennis. If a player or coach wants to call a foot fault, the player must first give warning.
- A player must tell the opponent they are foot faulting, and let them know they are going to start "calling it"
- If a player is calling foot faults, the player must call them consistently, in other words don't wait for deuce points to call a foot fault. (SD has no-Ad scoring, so deuce point has game implications).
Example: In one instance here in the state of SD, a player made a first time call of a foot fault on match point, second serve. Hence the player won the match by calling a first time foot fault. This is not a valid call, as the player making the call would have to give at least one warning about the foot faults
- This matches USTA rules. The USTA is about fairness. Waiting until the last point or a deuce point to call a foot fault is not ethical or fair.
Foot faults during state tournament
During state tournament, the officials can call foot faults when the official is inside the fence.
But, there are a limited number of officials, and another match that has a tie- break takes precedence over a foot fault. So if one match is going into tie break, and a player on a different court is foot faulting, the official will go on court for the tie break.
Also, remember sometimes it is hard for an official to get to that court, so it can be difficult to get inside the fence to call foot faults.
Another foot fault issue with officials, at state tournament, sometimes officials will not bother with foot faults because the "foot faulting players" serve is so soft, there is not any problems returning the serve.
- This can be debated, as if it is a "winners bracket" match, the lack of calling foot faults, can give the win to the wrong player.
- But, in South Dakota, it is very difficult to find officials, therefore most coaches appreciate the efforts of the officials.
- Correct calls or bad calls, good coaches do not complain during a match
Line call changes during a tennis point
If an opponent changes a line call while the ball is still in play, a player can call a hindrance.
- The player had to have been put at a disadvantage (due to the line call change)
- The player has to call it before they swing at the ball
For example, if an opponent calls a ball out, but then yells, "never mind, it was good", and then returns a moon ball or soft shot, the point should continue and be played out.
Another example, if an opponent calls a softly hit ball out, then changes the call, but then drills a winner down the line, the player has a valid call of hindrance. At that point, the player that calls the hindrance wins the point, as that player was hindered by the changed line call.
An example that actually happened at a SD state tournament, a coach yelled at the official after the point, because during the point, there was a line call change, but after a continued long rally, his player lost the point.
- But the hindrance has to be called right away, otherwise it was not a hindrance at all (since the rally continued).
- The coach used that excuse to continue yelling later that day, which was definitely poor sportsmanship, and should have been a code issue
- Coaches can get coded for poor sportsmanship, but it rarely happens to a top team
Rain delays in multi team events
If there is a rain delay, the organizer
- Should continue with the current schedule
- If the delay means going inside, or playing the next day, there should be a warm up.
An example that happened here in SD, there was a team that won the state tournament. The next season, that team that was losing to a small public school. The small school girls had really put in a lot of time, and were playing well. Then there was a rain delay.
- During the rain delay, the coach of the state champs changed the schedule.
- That day they played a team that was down that year, winnning 9-0
- The next morning, they played another team that was down, winning 9-0
- Later that morning, they played the small public school, but the coach did not allow a player-player on court warm up.
- So one team was warmed up and the other had to jump into the middle of a 10 game pro set
In this example, there was huge pressure on the coach that won the previous year, but that is no excuse for the poor sportsmanship.
Rain delay rules
If there is a rain delay, the current match has to continue
If there is a delay of more than 15 minutes, (or to the next day) players are allowed a full warm up