You are correct to notice the dude's good footwork to avoid the racket, but you fail to notice that the lady used proper leg drive and torso rotation in launching it.
It’s crazy to see you react to this, i’m a current seattle university student and i was was two courts down when this happened. after the clip ends, the girl went to the other end and threw a ball at him. her boyfriend who was her teammate then escorted her off the court. it was wild to watch
The shot she got hit with was not only not too hard, but totally fair and tactically sound. You can see by both her stance in the clip and his footwork that they are decent enough (at least intermediate) players so it's not the first time she's probably experienced this. Generally at our recreational levels, you would apologise as a matter of courtesy especially when not intentional. At Pro levels, like with Lendl as mentioned, intentionality could be more in question because of the precision these players have. Bottom line, I think the woman in clip is reacting from other emotional/anger issues totally separate from the actual shot itself. Not acceptable and bannable behaviour.
This year, I played a doubles match with an opponent who was incredibly annoyed by my playing style. I slowed down the pace and played safely, while he wanted fast rallies and to hit hard. His anger escalated to the point where, during the match, he tried to hit me at head level with full force at the net. I managed to dodge it, stayed calm, and in the end, we won our doubles match, but experiences like that are really frustrating.
Two days ago, I played a doubles match and, while I was at the net, I received a fairly fast moving ball right on my cheek. Needless to say that my opponent who threw the ball was fairly concerned but, even though the ball did hurt me pretty much, I knew it wasn't intentional and I laughed about it right away, reassuring my opponent. Now, in the case of this woman, because she intentionnally threw her racket at the guy with the obvious intent to hurt him, she should not only be banned from the court. She should be SUED for ASSAULT. Period! Aiming an opponent at the net, be it doubles or singles, is OK according to the rules. Doing it with a very obvious intent to hurt the opponent is NOT ok and should warrant at the very least a code violation incurring the loss of a game if not the match itself.
Once I didn't mean to, but I knocked my friend's glasses with a swing volley (He went to the net) he was pretty chill about it and I was concerned for any serious injuries regarding his vision
1) If you don’t want to get hit, don’t stand at the net! 2) To the extent there is “blame” when someone is hit, I find it is generally the fault of the partner playing a poor shot permitting an easy interception.
Bit off topic, but I once got yelled at by my fellow players in doubles for (even sucessfully) poaching at an American HS in ’88. I had come over from Germany for a year and was totally baffled when they got mad at me, didn‘t understand the situation. Then they said to me: ‚Listen, we don‘t this over here, stealing other players shots!“ Needless to say we didnt‘t have a winning record that year 😅
....yeah. I was playing HS tennis doubles in '88 and we poached constantly. Your partner was a moron. It would be one thing if you signaled stay during his serve and then poached, leaving him to have to cover the empty part of the court, but this sounded more like someone who wanted to be a singles superstar on the doubles court.
Might aim at someone's feet. Even if I get hit higher up on the body, I always keep in mind that I'm playing 4.0 level or below. Typically players aren't accurate enough to purposefully hit people in a dangerous spot. Give them the benefit of the doubt.
I remember Federer get angry when I think Birdich hit him with the ball. F did not even shake his hand after the match. F later said at the interview that he does not like this kind of play; he knows that this is common in doubles but we are not in doubles, and he does not want to end up in hospital. It was probably a shot to the head.
I got hit by a smash two weeks ago, right on my forehead. Nobody is to blame except myself, my opponent aimed for an empty space but hit the smash dead center with his racquet (usually hits more towards the tip and it lands lower, I wanted to get it volley). No complaints.
I never understood people getting upset getting hit with the ball. If you dont want to get hit dont stand at the net and go back to the baseline. I dont play squash for this reason, I dont want other people influencing my shots or me influencing theirs because of where you're standing. If by simply coming to the net I now have to try and avoid you or lob you and change my shot and I risk losing the point, that doesnt make sense. If you're playing at the net trying to win a point, I am trying to hit the ball as hard as I can so that I can win. It's your side of the court and you can stand wherever you like. If the ball hits you it's 100% your responsibility.
If you hit a ground stroke at the head or even smash it at a player (say by accident) unless they have no reactions they will (like that lady did!) turn away and be fine. The actual danger at our level is when the player tries to intercept and volley a ball with a bit of pace, they mess it up and it ricochets upwards and hits them in the face. Quite easy to get a nasty ball in the eye as they are obviously looking in that direction.
Many people can't volley but insist on going to the net. They then get angry when they get hit by the ball. They think you owe them an easy ball to volley. The sense of entitlement is very unbecoming.
I’m a 5.0 player ! Sometimes I fill in and play with 3.0 players. I’m not going to smack a 3.0 woman with a hard serve, a hard forehand, a volley or a hard overhead ! That just isn’t done . But ,, If the woman is 4.0 -5.0 player ,, then you better know what you’re doing because I’m going after you with all I’ve got ! If the players are all at the same level (3.0) ,, then the women are fair game !
This is why I don’t play competitive mixed anymore. Both opponents complain that you shouldn’t hit anything other than soft if the woman is up at the net and God forbid if you mishit it aiming towards the guy.
Before the match I tell the opponent that if they hit me when i’m at the net, this is part of the game and i won’t be mad. Equally, if the ball hits them - same thing.
Being at the net in tennis is a choice not a rule. There is nothing against the rules about hitting your opponent with the ball so if you have a problem with that the net is no place for you to be. End of discussion.
As a player inbetween 4.5-5.0 usta level, I was trying to attend many doubles matches for getting socialized, recognised. The matches I joined had usually players in below level. People were mad at me a lot for hitting players close to the net. I don’t understand how come they don’t get they just don’t have to stay at the net everytime and getting hit by other player is part of the game. At some point, I decided to stop attending that much games and leave “tennis yokels” by themselves in their own delusional world.
Heh, 80s tennis. Imagine serving and volleying on an 85mph second serve against Sinner or Alcaraz. The return would be separating your head from your shoulders!
Clearly, this woman had other issues in her life, and this was like the straw, on the camel's back, we have no idea, what's going on in her life, it could be anything, marriage break up, abusive boyfriend, could have been sexually abused, could have lost a child, or have one of her children in hospital, could be suffering from an illness, or sickness, that we don't know about, could have cancer, and receive chemotherapy, and this just made her have a breakdown, but yes, she does deserve to be fully banned, whatever the reason, it's totally unacceptable.
That's a fair comment. That said - zero history, nothing unusual happened earlier in the match ('the guy' is my teammate). She clearly had other things going on in her life that day.
It wasn't. The guy is my teammate, and this was a mixed practice session that was setup. No prior history between the two (didn't know each other). Clearly, there was something else going on in her life / this had very little to do with the tennis.
