Anything Close to the Line is Out

I'm warming up before my tennis match with an unfamiliar opponent. He gets out the line sweeper to clean the lines of our tennis court. I tell him,"I don't know why you're wasting your time." He smiles at me, and keeps cleaning the lines. I again say to him, "I don't know why you're wasting your time, anything close to those lines, and I'm going to call the ball out." He looks back at me, still smiling. He's thinking that I'm joking, that somehow I'm not telling the truth. But I'm completely honest. I don't know this guy. He doesn't get any favors from me. Anything close to the line is out. A bad call can psychologically devastate a tennis player. It can create a distraction, a mental challenge, a break in concentration. I know that morally, this is reprehensible, but this is also New York City tennis.