In either singles or doubles, you serve and can feel the ball is going long; and, according to what you see, it does go long. But your opponent plays the ball.
Yes, you SHOULD be ready to play the next shot; but you are not… and you lose the point. Can you ask your opponent to check the mark to see if he was too generous on his call and then serve a second serve? I do not know.
I think that if your opponent returns the ball in play that you can ask him to look at the mark and if it is out replay the point. At least that is the way we always seem to do it!!
In tennis, players are meant to collaborate, if need be, on calls. So, if you believe the serve was out, you have 2 choices: (i) play the ball (accept it as good) or (ii) not play the ball, in which case, you ask your opponent to reconsider his call, explaining that you saw the ball out. Unfortunately, some of us play the ball half-heartedly (because we don’t really believe tha ball was out). Here, you can – during play – interrupt and request your opponent to reconsider the call. Technically, I believe if you do this you it is interference and if the opponent does not agree to reconsidee the call, would lose the point. Again, players are meant to collaborate (the most obvious example, is if a player cannot see a ball and requests his opponent to help with the call if they can.
I watched a good city tournament match between Victor Monteiro (Bay Colony Pro) against a real good college player. The match went 3 sets with Victor losing. But one thing that was unusual was the number serves that were clearly long and Victor’s opponent returned. Never questioning the call unless the return was bad. His focus was on the return and a good return was worth more than an out call and a second serve return. I thought egregious gamesmanship for sure and admired his focus on the return. Victor never challenged the calls and played on. I don’t know what I would have done.
Yeah Geo, The rule is ” You must call any ball you see clearly out, Against yourself… EXCept a first serve… So just Be Prepared to play a serve if he plays it…