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I had a strange situation on court and I don't know who wins this point.

  • Player 1 hits a ball with a ton of backspin which lands on players 2 side of the net.
  • The backspin causes the ball to bounce back over the net to player 1's side without player 2 touching it. Normally, this would be player 1's point.
  • The twist is, player 1 was very close to the net and when it bounced back to his side, the ball hit his body before hitting the ground.

Does the fact that it hit player 1 change who wins the point?
Or is it still player 1's point since player 2 never touched the ball?

1 Answer 1

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Player 2 wins the point.

In ITF tennis rules:

Rule 24. Player Loses Point
The point is lost if: ...
i) The ball in play touches the player or anything that the player is wearing or carrying, except the racket.

and

Rule 25. A good return

It is a good return if: ...

b) After the ball in play has hit the ground within the correct court and has spun or been blown back over the net, the player reaches over the net and plays the ball into the correct court, provided that the player does not break Rule 24.

So when player 1 hits a ball with backspin and the ball touches players 2 court side and then bounces back over the net to players 1 court side the ball is still in play and player 2 is supposed to play it.
However, if player 1 touches it before player 2 can, he prevents player 2 from playing the point and it does not matter if the player 2 could not reach the ball anymore. The ball was in play and player 1 touches it means that he loses the point.

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