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[bob_minton03]

How do you protect organizers and fellow players from opponents who may fake injuries during a tournament?

We all strive to organize tournaments that are fair to all players, but i think they are some players that  may fake an injury.

Player A may say, "i'm out of breath, masakit ang ganito ganyan...injury timeout. but the truth is gusto lang magpahinga...
then he ends up winning the match or eventually the tournament. which in my opinion, medyo unfair.

your opinion guys?

[hifromhenry]

great point to raise, and very interesting topic.  the injury timeouts are open for abuse and i believe players are indeed abusing them, whether intentionally or not. 

with the present system, there's no motivation for players to avoid calling timeouts.  how about imposing a 'cost' for calling an injury timeout?  say, the first one is free, but the 2nd one will cost the player some points, maybe a game, in exchange for getting treatment and rest.

i boxing and mma, contestants can't willingly call for timeouts.  imagine if a player got rocked with a solid punch, then immediately calls a timeout so he can rest.  that would be crazy.  why should tennis be so different?

[smiley]

in all ITF sanctioned tournament, there should be a medical therapist and a psychotherapist. Their role is to really validate if its an injury or just cramping. Some Pro players themselves find ways to call timeouts or do time delays bounded by the rules. And some abuse it just to break opponents' rhythm to win games/ matches. Di cla sports(manship)

[racketwiz]

No question that there are players who engage in gamesmanship by exploiting injury timeout rules.  They all have Shuzo Matsuoka to thank for the change in injury timeout rules.

The atp provides tournament doctors, physical therapists (trainers) and massage therapists to attend to player injuries.  I’m not aware that psychotherapists are involved in on-court injury treatments    Perhaps Marat Safin could have called on them during his famous meltdowns.

Ultimately, it is, upon the advice of attending medical personnel, the chair umpire’s call to make.  Woulda, coulda, shoulda.  Many of us may not like how pro players are getting away with it, but that’s an issue for the ATP.  I suppose it’s not bothering them enough to make a drastic change.

For club tournaments, dual meets and the like who don’t have the atp’s medical resources, it would be helpful if the rules for injury timeouts are made clear to participants before the start of the tournament.  Make the rule simple:

Each player is allowed one 5-min injury timeout per match, after which the injured player must decide whether he would continue in or retire from the match.

[smiley]

no psychotherapist should stand by during tourneys, unless there are baliw's on court  .... physiotherapist pala ang kailangan! thanks for the correction!

[racketwiz]

With injury timeout gamesmanship reaching epidemic proportions (according to Johnny Mac), maybe psychotherapists are needed to help weed out the bogus injury claims from the real ones.