From Behind the Fence
By Jon Messick, President, CTA Board of Directors

I have always thought that long distance runners and tennis players were a strange bunch. With distance runners it’s quite obvious….enjoying a training routine of 75 or 80 miles a week while considering a race of five or six miles an easy day is not really very normal.
But for tennis players the craziness is a bit more subtle. We readily accept the notion that our opponent is the judge of the accuracy of our shots…an honor system that very few athletes in other sports can comprehend.
We also warm up directly with our opponent, making sure that he or she is ready to play. Who else does that in other sports?
And we embrace a complicated, non-sensical scoring method that we see as simple and straight forward. We all know that if two players have won one point each in a game that the score is either 15-all, 5-all, fives, fifteens, double nickels, etc. And we all know what little deuce and big deuce is, right? We accept the fact that a 12-point tiebreaker means the first one to seven wins and a 10-point tiebreaker means the first one to 10 wins. And we will play a “do-over” (let) if the ball hits the net on a serve but not any other time. We also want a “do-over” if we are bothered by something but we don’t want it if it doesn’t bother both of us. Makes good sense.
And we are generally a cheap bunch. We have paid about two bucks for a can of balls for our whole lives and we expect it to continue that way. Some of us prefer to turn in some old balls that have been in our bag for a while and keep the tournament balls after a match. You know who you are! We created a market for Shoe-Goo to make the old sneaks last forever. We used to try to get our racquet strings patched instead of a whole new string job. And how about those who, when asked, “How long have those strings been in your racquet?” reply, “Well, let’s see, I bought the racquet about three years ago….”
We will pay a $25 entry fee to get a $5 t-shirt. Seems frivolous until you understand that we will wear that t-shirt for at least five years.
Although we have our quirks and cheap moments, we enjoy a sport that keeps us healthy and active our entire life. We have a responsibility to preserve those aspects of the game that make it unique. We also have a responsibility to keep the game alive with our financial support.
Please continue to respect the rules and traditions of our game and slap some new strings in that racquet once in a while.