All of the time every tournament my son plays he is 9. We are not tennis players thought it would get better now playing u12 and it is worse. We have been told by other players at our club as you get older and more competitive gets worse. I am disappointed such a great sport minus the cheating. I have heard both sides of the argument for cheating the one I dont think I can buy is that winners find a way to overcome cheating? Coming from a competitive basketball background if there no refs it would be the wild west - I was a great kid but wanted to win even if that meant throwing some elbows with refs there (wait until they are not looking right?). If our potential national tennis athletes didn't have to deal with cheating would't there just be more winners. Actual winners in the long run people that actually are top 10 players in a country not players that cheated their way there. Sports develops enough character with officials hard work, perseverance, discipline, sportsmanship, mental toughness, physical toughness, etc. What purpose does cheating actually serve? Do adult tennis experts in the field think tennis is so much better or different from other sports that it requires this extra level of challenge for our tennis athletes? I guess? Let's hope my son agrees I don't discuss this with him because in my mind no excuses for loosing a match life goes on. I could see how a young athlete could become discouraged and how do we know the # of kids we have lost in this wonderful sport due to this - really silly in this day in age I think.
Tennis Mom
Ps reminds me of why is violence in the game of hockey? Why?