How To Mentally Deal With Bad Line Calls And Other Forms Of Cheating

It's game point for you to go up 5-3 on your opponents' serve.  The score is 30-40.  You rip the return up the line, and you celebrate as it lands inside both lines for the clean winner!  Except...your opponent gives you the forefinger and graciously calls it out.  Deuce.

For the uninitiated, or for the mentally weak, this act of poor sportsmanship can seal your fate for the rest of the game, the set, and possibly the match.  It is difficult to overcome if you treat the act as a negative rather than a positive.

Wait a second - a positive?  What the heck are you talking about?  The guy(gal) just cheated me on game point of all points, and totally jobbed me.  You must be joking....right???!!!

Yes, it's a positive.  I will get to that in just a minute.

First, treating it as a negative and letting it crush you - thinking you have now lost the match despite the fact that you are up 5-3 and it's DEUCE., is absolute insanity.  If you allow it to destroy you, you deserve to lose; not because he (she) cheated you, but because you handled the action incredibly poorly, and let it make you play worse.  You made the call the focus of your attention, rather than your tactics and play going forward.  Your opponent, by virtue of the call, can't MAKE you play bad, only you have the power to make that happen.

So, back to your bewilderment.  The cheating is a positive.  Remember, you have the power to frame your opponent's every word, action, and body language any way you wish.  You can choose for it to be positive or negative.  Now, let me explain why it is a positive.

It is a very simple theory really.  Why did your opponent cheat?  Were they cheating on points that made no difference to the final score?  Did they primarily do it on game points?  Deuce points?  The bottom line is this, people cheat because they feel they cannot win playing "fairly."  They are looking for some sort of edge against you, in this case a mental one.  They know they cannot beat you with their play - if they did, there would be no need to cheat.  They are hoping you disintegrate in reaction to the cheating, but you don't have to give it to them.

Since cheating is a result of lack of confidence in one's abilities to win fairly, you should take EXTRA confidence from the fact they have chosen to resort to cheating.  It means you and your play are in THEIR head.  They are no longer focused on the tactics of the match, but on something unrelated to the match.  So you are in control of things. Treat the cheating as such.

Once you choose to view the cheating in this way, not only do you now move forward with confidence that what you're doing and how you're playing is truly working and putting them under pressure, but you can literally completely forget about the incident to begin with.  If you have to aim 6 inches more inside the lines, fine- make the adjustment.  Just understand what is truly going on in your opponent's mind.  They are helpless, looking for the "last gasp" of hope to try to win this match. 

If you are a junior playing in a tournament, it is my recommendation NOT to ask your opponent the infamous question "Are you sure?" Invariably this is answered with "It was out," and you end up experiencing a match with a ton of contention.  Your opponent begins questioning all your calls, and the match lasts an extra hour because both of you are irritated at the other.  This is the mentally weak approach.  Rather than asking "Are you sure?," (if you are a parent of a kid in tournaments, you know how annoying this can become) Abide by this tried and true principle.  On the first instance of cheating on a line call, let it go.  Maybe you were wrong.  On the second, go get a linesman.  Better to do this and focus on tennis rather than turning the match into the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Remember parents, you cannot go get an official for your son or daughter, this is considered "Parental Interference," and is punishable with an immediate default and no points for the event.  Now you have the official, and because you read the previous paragraphs, you know your opponent thinks he can't beat you playing fairly.  Looks like you're in the drivers seat mentally and tactically in this match.  Finish him (her) off.   

Adults in tournaments or those whose teams reach the regional, sectional, or national level, should abide by the same philosophy outlined in the above junior section.  The player who says "Are you sure?" is generally going to end up irritated and losing their focus.  So don't ask it.

If it is a league match, there are no linesman.  So you have to keep in mind til the conclusion that your opponent is only cheating because they don't feel they can win playing fairly.  Don't go for the lines, and know you have the mental edge. Don't give them any snide comments like "I thought the lines were in this year." Snide comments show your opponent that their tactic is getting to you.  It will also encourage them to cheat more.

Any form of cheating, including the player who changes the score and forces the ref to send the set back to a previously agreed upon score, is still coming from the same place of low self confidence.  The opponent only changes the score if they think they are going to lose without it.  Although it stinks to have the score switched on you, go with the official's decision and remember you are winning in the mind of your opponent. 

And now my last point.  When you question a call, give a snide remark, or get irritated, you show your opponent that their tactic of cheating is working and it actually gives them positive reinforcement.  This means they will only continue to cheat.  If, on the other hand you do none of it, no questioning, no remarks, no irritation, and only calmly get an official, or just focus on your game that is clearly working, your opponent will get no positive reinforcement, primarily because they will still be losing.  This will shortly end the cheating.  I've seen it work in both cases.

So remember, when your opponent cheats, he (she) is doing it because your game is working and they feel they must resort to the cheating in order to have a prayer to beat you.  Swell with confidence, you are in control!!!