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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Talent Pond Tennis Championship - LIVE!
Talent Pond Tennis Tournament 2010 Championship Match - LIVE! Welcome to the Championship Match of the 2010 Talent Pond Tennis Tournament! Tonight we've got longtime tennis commentator (mostly from his couch) and former table tennis grand slam winner (suburban rec room league) Jeff  giving you his unique brand of commentary on the match that's about to take place. Joining him will be the lovely and talented Brooke  who became a household name with her record-setting twenty consecutive appearances at the U.S. Open (as a ball girl), and was famously ejected from Wimbledon after using the linespeople as target practice during the warm-up to her one and only qualifying match at a Grand Slam.Jeff and Brooke will be commenting throughout the match, but please feel free to weigh in with your own comments, observations and thoughts on the match as it's going on! NOTE: The commentators will be publishing their text in bold, so please refrain from using bold in your own comments, so viewers can differentiate between official commentary and that of the fans and viewers.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the game of tennis, below is a general overview and a glossary of common terms. We're going to try to apply these in a literary sense, so you're all part of a grand experiment to see if we can pull this off! GENERAL OBJECTIVE: The general objective of tennis is to win points by hitting the ball inside the lines on your opponent's side of the court, across the net. If your opponent cannot return the ball within the lines of your court, or if the ball bounces twice on their side, you win a point. GENERAL STRUCTURE OF A TENNIS MATCH: Tennis is a game scored in points, games, and sets. Traditionally, a tennis match is the best of three sets. For select top level tournaments, such as Grand Slams (and this one!), a match is the best of five sets. A set is won by the first player to win a minimum of six individual games, and a maximum of seven. TENNIS SCORING: A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving, and is won by the first player (or players) to have won at least four points by two points or more over their opponent. Points in tennis games advance using the following terminology: 0, 15, 30, 40. Score calling is unique to the sport of tennis in that each point has a corresponding call that is synonymous with that point value. Awarded Points = Corresponding call 0 = love 1 = 15 2 = 30 3 = 40 4+ = game In scoring an individual standard game of tennis, the server's score is always called first and the receiver's score second. If the score is 40-40, the next point would give you the "Advantage" (Adv-40) (since you have to win by two points), and the point after that would win the game. Sometimes, as many as ten or twenty points can be played before someone finally gets that second point to push them past "Advantage" and into the win for the game. Tennis scoring rests on the premise that serving is advantageous over receiving, hence it is only possible to win a set or match by breaking the opponent's service game at least once, before a tiebreak is required. If you win a game where you're serving, you've "held serve." If you win a game on your opponent's serve, it's called a "break (of serve)." In tennis, scoring in tie situations in which both players have won the same number of points also varies. If each player has won three points, the score is described as "deuce" rather than "40-all". From this point on, whenever the score is tied, it is described as "deuce" regardless of how many points have been played. Similarly, whenever the score differs by one, it is described as "advantage" (for the player with the additional point) until they either win the next point and win the game (two point lead), or they lose the next point, and the score is tied once again at "deuce." Point score = Corresponding call 0-0 = love-love 1-1 = 15-all (15-15) 2-2 = 30-all (30-30) 3-3 = deuce 4-4 = deuce 9-9 = deuce 9-8 = advantage 11-12 = advantage Tennis sets advance one game at a time, until you reach a minimum of six games won (or a maximum of seven)... and you have to win by at least two games over your opponent (except in a tiebreaker). Therefore, a perfect set (also called a "bagel") in one in which you win all six games in a row, for a set score of 6-0... meaning you held all three of your services games, and broke your opponent in all three of theirs. If the set score reaches 6-5, winning the next game will give you a 7-5 victory and win you the set; losing the next game will make it a 6-6 set score and a require tiebreaker, which is the first person to at least seven points, with a two-point lead. Thus, the shortest tie-breaker set would ultimately be 7-6 (7-0) - where you won every point of the tiebreaker, and no upper limit... some sets in professional tennis have gone as high as 7-6 (26-24), or 7-6 (21-19) until someone got that elusive second point lead. I know all of this can be very confusing, so let's distill this down to the very basics... the more sets (and the closer the number of games in those sets), the closer the match. A "perfect game" of tennis with no challenge would be a 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 victory in three sets, meaning your opponent didn't win a single set, or even a single game in any of those sets. A real nail-biter match would be a 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) victory, meaning you lost the first two sets in a tiebreaker, then won the next three sets, also in a tiebreaker. Make sense? If not, contact Jeff  and he'll do his best to explain it better... but hopefully this will give you an idea of how tennis works. Again, you don't need to know all the rules of professional tennis; this is just some information to help make sense of anything discussed in the commentary. Now, some tennis terminology: Ace: A serve where the tennis ball is served in and not touched by the receiver. Backhand: Hitting the ball with the back of the racquet hand. Often hit by a right-handed player when the ball is on their left side, and vice versa. Ball Boy / Ball Girl: A boy or girl off to the side of the court, responsible for tossing tennis balls to the players when they're ready to serve, and retrieving them when they go out of play on the court. Baseline: The line at the farthest ends of the court (away from the net) that indicates the boundary of play. Change-over: The rest time between certain games, when the players change ends of the court. Code Violation: When a player commits a violation of tennis rules, such as uttering an obscenity, hitting a ball into the stands intentionally, or abusing their racquet. Crosscourt: Hitting the ball diagonally from one corner of the corner toward the opposite corner. Deuce: A score of 40-40 in a game. If someone has the Advantage and loses the next point, the score goes "back to deuce" (i.e. returns from Adv-40 to 40-40). Double Fault: A serve that goes into the next, clips the net, or doesn't land in the court is called a "fault." A double fault (two faults) on the same serve result in losing the point to one's opponent. Down The Line: Hitting a ball straight along the sideline of the opponent's side of the court. Drop Shot: A play in which the ball is hit lightly enough to go just barely over the net, designed to catch a player who is away from the net off guard. First Serve / Second Serve: The first (or second) of a player's two chances to get the ball in the court before a double fault is called. First Serves are generally faster and higher risk, while Second Serves are usually slower and safer to avoid a double fault. Forced Error: When a player hits a difficult shot, but misses. Forehand: Hitting the ball with the front of the racquet hand. Often hit by a right-handed player when the ball is on their right side, and vice versa. Game Point: The last point of a game before one player has the opportunity to win the game. Groundstroke: A forehand or backhand that is executed after the ball bounces once in the court. Let: When a ball from a serve touches the net, but lands inbounds. The serve is void and the server gets to retake the serve (no fault). Line Judge: A person designated to observe the passage of tennis balls over a particular boundary line. Line judges defer to the chair umpire, but cannot be overruled by players. There is typically a line judge for each boundary line on the court. Love: A score of zero. Thus, a score of 40-0 is read "Forty-love," a score of 0-15 is "Love-fifteen." Match Point: The last point of a match, where one player has the opportunity to win the match. In a championship, it's also called "Championship Point." Net Point: A point won or lost on approaching the net, as opposed to won or lost by hitting from the baseline. Out: Any ball that lands outside the area of play. Passing Shot: A shot that passes by (but not over) an opponent close to the net. Rally: A series of return hits between players. Some points involve multi-hit rallies, until one player misses. Serve and Volley: A strategy to serve and immediately move forward and make a volley to hopefully hit a winner. Set Point: The last point of a set, where one player has the opportunity to win the set. Smash: A ball hit with the racquet over one's head, typically downward into the opponent's court (like spiking a volleyball). T: Where the center line and service line meet, to for a "T." Umpire: The final authority on the rules of a match. Usually sits in an elevated chair on the sidelines to observe the ball in play. Unforced Error: An error in service or a returning shot that cannot be attributed to any factor other than poor judgment or execution by the player. Volley: A forehand or backhand shot executed before the ball bounces in the court. Winner: A forcing shot that cannot be reached by the opponent and wins the point We'll try to keep the commentary as simple as possible, but feel free to refer to the above terms if one comes up in the commentary and you need a refresher.
In & Out Submission Settings:  Self Deletion: Allowed Direct Follow Ups: Allowed Post Limiting: Not Limited |
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