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From: cccallan@ucdavis.UUCP (Allan McKillop)
Newsgroups: net.sport
Subject: Re: tennis pro behavior
Message-ID: <128@ucdavis.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 01:00:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucdavis.128
Posted: Tue Oct  8 01:00:24 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Oct-85 06:38:52 EDT
References: <2464@ut-ngp.UTEXAS>
Distribution: net
Organization: University of California, Davis
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> 
>  I think one possible solution to the McEnroe Syndrome might be to give point
> penalties instead of monetary fines.
> Another tactic might be to give players a certain amount of time before
> serving, say, 1 minute or so. One problem here is that many of the problems
> are somewhat fuzzily defined; we're talking about penalizing players for 
> "bad" or "unsportsmanlike" behavior.

There are already such rules (supposedly) enforced on the pro tour.
If a player does a no-no (in the eyes of the umpire), he/she first
gets a warning, then next time, a point penalty, then a game penalty
the the offending player is defaulted on his/her 4th outburst.  So
the groundwork is there, but why hasn't it worked?  As has been already
said, who pays the umpires?  The tournament promoters, and do they want
their #1 star attraction bounced out in the first round because of his
bad behavior?  No way.  Until there comes a time when the umpires are
paid by people other than the tournament directors, tennis is going to
continue to have these problems.

My major gripe about the rules as they stand is the "30 seconds between
points" rule.  I think I could count the number of times I have actually
seen this rule ENFORCED (not just threatened) on one hand, but the pro
players constantly take more the the allotted time.  The reason?  Umpires
(in their infinite wisdom) have decided that bouncing a tennis ball just
before you start to serve is part of a point.  Thus, Jimmy Connors can 
take 30 seconds and then bounce the ball for another 30 seconds, and never
be penalized.

I don't think that the rules is the problem in pro-tennis, the enforcement
of the rules is.

-- 

Allan McKillop
(...ucbvax!ucdavis!deneb!cccallan)

"Where there's a will, there's a relative..."