Take the Rules Quiz!
Paul Kovac	See if you can Stump the Ump... E-mail questions to Paul Kovac - your friendly on-line USATT umpire. Please note: Questions which have answers that are easily found by consulting the rules may not merit a reply.

Q: What is the proper response in a situation when a player’s service is illegal but it does not appear to affect his/her opponent’s play?

- submitted by Roy Seguine

A: Illegal service at any level should not be tolerated, and more experienced players should remind the less experienced ones of the illegality of their action. In umpired matches, the umpire has no power to ignore an infringement of the service law on the grounds that it does not appear to give the server any advantage, and there is no justification for overlooking a first offence in the hope that it was a temporary lapse. The offence may be repeated at a critical stage of the match, and a player penalized then could justly protest that he had been given no earlier indication that the action was illegal.

- answered by Paul Kovac - your friendly on-line USATT umpire