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Q: I am a club umpire but recently in our club we have had a number of questions regarding a wet ball during the point. My question is when, if ever is it permissible to call a let on a wet ball. For this purpose let a wet ball mean when, during a point, a player strikes the ball, the ball goes almost directly down and leaves a small round wet spot on the player's paddle. Your response would be greatly apprciated, thank you.

-submitted by Jon O'Donnell

A: The Rule book specifies situations when the rally shall be a let, and a wet ball is not one of them. To my knowledge, the situation you describe has always been a judgment call by the umpire. A player is supposed to keep his/her equipment in good shape, including seeing to it that both the ball and his/her racket are dry, before he/she serves. I believe most umpires, including Your Friendly Umpire, would handle the "wet' situation by these rules of thumb: When a player serves and fails to make a good serve because either his racket or the ball was wet, the receiver makes a point:

• if the receiver fails to make a good return, and the umpire feels that it was the wet ball that affected the outcome of the rally, the rally should be declared a let.
• if, on the other hand, the receiver of a good serve fails to make a good return only because his/her racket was wet, there is no reason why the server should be penalized for it by being denied a point.
• if during the rally the ball or either player's racket becomes wet and, again, the umpire is convinced that this affected the outcome of the rally, the rally should be declared a let.
• if during which the ball breaks or any other disturbance which may affect the outcome of the rally.

In many such situations an observant umpire would interrupt the rally, and call it a let, before its outcome. Since the Rules are written with the understanding that every match has an umpire assigned to it, the only advice I can give you is that you should try to apply the above reasoning to your particular situation.

When a rally is a long one, that is there have been several successful strokes and returns by both players, and the ball or either racket gets wet from either player's sweat, the umpire should interrupt the play and call a let before that rally ends. In this way disputes about wet equipment can be avoided.

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