William Coffey Answers an Officitaing Question

June 4, 2007

Cheryl Christoffersen of Oakville, Ontario presented Tennis Canada with an inquiry regarding the rules of tennis, William Coffey, manager of officiating development for Tennis Canada, provided her with the answer.

Question:

We recently played our local high school tennis tournament and the games were 8 game pro sets, with sudden death after deuce. Despite the protests of all the coaches, the convenor said the server woud choose the side/player to serve to in the point after deuce. This is contrary to the way I have always seen this done. Is there a rule regarding who decides who receives in the sudden death point after deuce?

Answer:

According to the International Tennis Federation’s Rules of Tennis, which is the standard reference for both professional and amateur tennis in all countries, when no-ad scoring is used (what you refer to as sudden death after deuce), the RECEIVER shall choose whether to receive the service of the deciding point from the right half or the left half of the court.

In doubles, the players of the receiving team shall decide which of them shall receive the serve, but they cannot change their original receiving positions in order to receive the serve.

In mixed doubles, however, the player of the same gender as the server shall receive the deciding point (e.g., if the female is serving, she will serve to the female on the other team). Again, the players of the receiving team cannot change their original receiving positions to receive the deciding point.