Court Etiquette

Below are some court etiquette guidelines that must be observed in order to play at the Floreat Park Tennis Club:

• Talk quietly when standing near tennis courts that are in use.
• Never walk behind a court when a point is still in play. Wait until the point is over and then cross as fast as possible.
• To see who serves first, spin your racket or toss a coin. If you win the toss, the choice is yours. You may serve first, or you may choose to receive first or to pick which end of the court you want to start playing on. As a third choice you may make your opponent choose first.
• When sending balls back to a neighboring court, roll them on to the back of the court. Never send them back while play is in progress.
• Retrieve balls for your partner and your opponent. All balls on your side of the net are your responsibility, to pick up and, where appropriate, return directly to the server.
• Call your own lines and let your opponent hear the call. If the ball is good say nothing and play on.
• Always respect the line calls of your opponent.
• If there is a disagreement, offer a let. In other words, replay the point, even if it was a second service.
• The receiver should not return the first service if it is an obvious fault – let it go by or ground it.
• To avoid controversy over the score, the server should announce the game score before starting a game and the point score prior to serving for each point.
• In doubles, when returning service, the partner of the receiver should generally call the service line for him/her. The receiver should generally call the centre and side service lines. The call needs to be loud enough to stop their opponents/partner playing.
• If a ball comes onto the court during play and interferes with the match, a player may call let and the point is replayed. The player calling must call immediately they see the ball and only if it is a definite interference on the point being played.