Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-11
TENNIS RULES DISRECARDED
Best Players Pay Too Little Attention
to Them.
CONTESTANTS RECOVER STRENGTH
Number Of Championship Matches
Wight Ne Changed ~ Little
Techniealities Were Not
Overlooked.

NEW YORK, oct. lO.-"It is high time
that the rules, or, as more formally
termed, laws. OF lawn tennis be over
hauled. revised, amended. or at least had
something done with them to bring them
before the players remarked a follower
OF the game recently. He was watching
the progress Of an important champion
ship match In which the wisdom Of the
rule makers was set at naught every few
minutes. This was not done with wanton
intention by the competitors. Each was
q good and worthy sportsman. having won
some distinction at the game, but the care
lessness which allows the sport of lawn
tennis 70 proceed on it's way
by such a thing as proper observance Of
rules made them and the club where they
contested careless alike as to the funda-
msntalE. This sort of thing happens daily
upon a hundred courts and in important
tournaments" remarked the nearer OF the
first exclamation and in answer to II. He
is an athlete who has won distinction in
several branches OF sport. including lawn
tennis. to which he has devoted consider
able time and thought.
''The rules OF lawn tennis are least I'm
derstood by its followers Of any rules COW
ering any branch of sport. There appears
10 nave kOl0 ~ AA1 NA
two things constitute the necessary rules
get The ball over the net and inside the
court lines. II you fail in this, or in re-
turning the ball after a good fair stroke,
you lose the point, II may appear silly to
say so. but these are the kindergarten
ideas which many OF them have as TO the
rules OF the game. II hey have any other
view they do not reveal Il by observance"
OF course, with the rules question COM
ing 10 the fore, the foot-fault led off with
a blast of trumpets. There was good rea-
son for this in the present instance, for
one of the competitors was one and occa-
sionally two strides in court on every serv-
ice. II threw the discussion back to the
national championship at Newport this
year, at which Il was revealed that Ray
mond d. Little, captain of the interna-
tionaI team of this year and 1905, made It
evident to all beholders that he was I'M
familiar with what actually constituted
IA foot-fault. This was in the national
challenge match of the doubles, at which
DR.. r. r. Hawk penalized Little, who then
and there stopped the match while he
appealed to DIR. James Dwight as referee.
II was a most unusual proceeding, and
Dr. Hawks ruling was upheld. But that
was not the whole point, as was indicated
ny. the man WHO hHbW "a hhhSo NV
was in violation when he interpolated q
protest into a competition by stopping 1t.
Even for the tying of shoe strings, pro-
curing a new racquet for one broken, or
any OF the hundred unavoidable accidental
delays which may occur and not within
the control of the contestants, the rule
stands that positively not more than two
minutes may be allowed between points.
The rule adequately states that Il is TO
he strictly construed. so that a player may
not get time to recover his strength and
wind. It was pointed out that by this
protest, which was particularly in-timed,
Little consumed fifteen minutes. and
thereby Frederick b. Alexander and Har-
old II. Hackett. both of whom donned
sweaters while awaiting the result of the
foot-fault controversy. could have legiti-
mately claimed the match without further
play because of the delay.
The. discussion of this little point in the
rules which had been lost sight of be-
cause Of the dead letter of observance
brought up the general abuse of the seven
minute rest clause, which provides for a
rest after the third set. The time Is
stretched from ten to twenty minutes, and
the umplres appear to think that It is OF
small consequence no matter what the
rules say.
Another vexed question In the rules
which is almost az misunderstood as the
''foot-fault" Is that which circumscribe
the players volleying the ball before II
crosses the net. The reason for the mis-
apprehension is that there seems to have
crept in the idea that no part of the per
son may cross the line Of the net. There
is considerable vexation over this rule
which TO many minds makes two state
ments. each at variance with the other
and its misunderstanding has led to un-
earned penalties. Actually all that the
rule states is that the ball must not be
volleyed or hit before it has crossed the
net. The racquet OF the player may fol.
low on the stroke across the net, and SC
may his arm, or even his head and shoul.
ders, II he leans when he is close to the
barrier. But the player must not touch