The Clubhouse--the location of the missing warmup partner.
This one came up at a USTA tournament lately...
In a men's USTA tournament doubles match, one of the players on team A refused to warm up with team B and would not come out of the clubhouse until the 5 minute warm-up was completed. Team B reluctantly warmed up with one player from team A and then his teammate came out when the warm up was complete.
In the Friend at Court (page 37) the rule says: A player should provide the opponent a warm-up of five to ten minutes. If a player declines to warm up the opponent, the player forfeits the right to a wram-up, and the opponent may warm up with another person."
Here are some questions about this scenario:
* Why did the desk person send the players out when team A was not complete? In this case, the desk person knew the player from team A would not warm up his opponents since this is regular procedure in a tournament.
* Why did team B consent to warm up with just one player from the other team? They should have warmed up with each other and told the player from team A to find someone to warm him up--or better yet, get his partner to come out.
* Was this an act of unsportsmanlike conduct?
We'd be interested in hearing your answers...
6 comments:
Sounds like some snobby country club 3.0 players thinking they are better than they are.
Unsportsmanlike? Yes, but the opposing team could have warm-up themselves and left the other team out to dry.
Regardless Tournament Director or Referee could have put it to rest.
I think it was definitely an act of unsportsmanlike conduct. If the member of Team A doesn't want to warm up, so be it. His loss. I know who I would be hitting to for the first few games!
Seems that the forfeiture of the benefit of the warm up is the penalty, the player who refused to warm up has no way to complain if his opponents are better prepared than he after a proper warm up. Does the offender have a physical malady that would limit his time on court? If he turns into a pumpkin after 65 minutes in the sun, that would present a problem. In this situation: Poor form for sure, codeable?? maybe not. The opponents warmed up and were ready to play without him.
Definitely, unsportmanlike and team B should have warmed up with each other and left team A out of the warmup. If one player from Team A didn't want to warm up they have to know they are making the decision for their partner as well. I hope Team B won the toss and chose to receive!!!
Definitely, unsportmanlike and team B should have warmed up with each other and left team A out of the warmup. If one player from Team A didn't want to warm up they have to know they are making the decision for their partner as well. I hope Team B won the toss and chose to receive!!!
I was one of the players on team B and we never should have warmed up with the player on team A. We thought we were being nice and doing the "right thing." The "right thing" would have been for his partner to get his rear out of the clubhouse and come warm up with his opponents but we later learned that he does this all the time. I would suggest that any future opponents refuse to warm up with them and the tournament director and the referee need to intervene. The whole scene was ridiculous.
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