Do You Know the Rules?

Queen City Tennis League Rules
Adopted August 5, 2007
USTA Rules and Code of Conduct (Sportsmanship) apply.
Please visit our website at www.queencitytennis.com for current league rules.
Also, see "The Code" below.

"The Code"

"The Code" or the rules, we as tennis players, live by. These are the rules developed by USTA and the rules we use for local play, in addition to our own Queen City Rules.

The principles set forth in The Code apply in all unofficated matches.
As tennis players and team captains, we should all familiarize ourselves with The Code and all the principles it addresses.

The first principle of The Code is Courtesy.
Tennis is a game that requires cooperation and courtesy from all participants. Make tennis a fun game by praising your opponents' good shots and by not conducting loud postmortems after points; complaining about shots like lobs and drop shots; embarrassing a weak opponent by being overly gracious or condescending; losing your temper, using vile language, throwing your racket, or slamming a ball in anger; or sulking when you are losing.

Part of courtesy also involves knowing that all points played in good faith stand. For example, if after losing a point, a player discovers that the net was four inches too high, the point stands. If a point is played from the wrong court, there is no replay. If during a point, a player realizes that a mistake was made at the beginning (for example, service from the wrong court), the player shall continue playing the point. Corrective action may be taken only after a point has been completed. Corrective action means serving from the correct side even if that is the same side last served to.

The Warm-up: Warm-up is not practice. A player should provide the opponent a five minute warm-up (ten minutes if there are no ball persons). (Queen City allows 15 minutes) If a player refuses to warm-up the opponent, the player forfeits the right to a warm-up. Some players confuse warm-up and practice. A player should make a special effort to hit shots directly to the opponent. (If partners want to warm each other up while their opponents are warming up, they may do so.)

Warm-up serves: Take all your warm-up serves before the first serve of the match. Courtesy dictates that you not practice your service return when your opponent practices serving. If a player has completed the player's warm-up serves, the player shall return warm-up serves directly to the opponent.