Tennis Ethics part 2

(unpublished letter to editor of NYT)

To the Editor: Paul Kedrosky's
"Challenge, Anyone?" (Sept. 21) is wrong-headed on two counts. First, he exaggerates the error rate of the linesmen. That challenges are wrong more than two-thirds of the time and that there is no occasion for a challenge even on most close calls, means that the calls are preponderantly right. The challenge system is the helpful backup it was meant to be, a concession to the impossibility of getting every call right when one is trying to gauge within a millimeter or two the exact landing point of a ball traveling over a hundred miles an hour. Second, worse, he holds up a player like Francisco Verdasco, who sees the ball well and does not abuse the system, for not challenging more often. Kedrosky views this as a missed opportunity not only to gain a conjectural additional key point per match but to disrupt the opponent's rhythm or "take a short breather," one disallowed by the rules. In urging players to see challenges as an opportunity for bad faith, he puts gamesmanship ahead of the game and undermines the recovering culture of tennis.