I had two friends that played tennis on Saturday. They were playing in the finals of their league's playoff. They were in the 3rd set down 4-1. On the point, which they lost to make it 4-1, their opponent when down as he injured his lower calf. He basically wasn't going to be able to play. So my friends knowing that they were down felt they didn't deserve the winner's trophy. They felt the other team did even with the opponent's injury. Despite the rules, they took the loss so their opponents who truly had the lead and were playing like the eventual champions deserved to be declared the winner. As they told me, they felt it was the right thing to do despite the rules.

So they have received mixed messages. There are people that are congratulating them for their sportsmanship and others that are criticizing them for being crazy and stupid for doing what they did since they should have claimed the win through a default.

My question is what has happened to sportsmanship? What would you have done? After all, it was a match where the winner a trophy not thousands or millions of dollars.

I can see both sides of that scenario, Tenplayer. By no means did your friends have to do that. It's a great gesture on their part to have done it though. Almost too kind in competition, which might be why some people were outraged and thought they were crazy and stupid. I would probably have given them the trophy. And then my man would have told me I was crazy for giving them the trophy.

We all get wound up about cheaters and quitters and tennis parents (one distinction between tennis parents: there are the ones who actually taught their children how to play, and the ones that didn't). But what I've witnessed and experienced at public courts and USTA tournaments can be just as out of control. When I play matches I'm nice to a fault. If I'm not absolutely sure a ball is out, I'll say it's in, even when it looked out.

In the last year or two I've also played at least a couple (straight ) guys who have changed the score in their favor mid-match (through "forgetting" it I guess), or who constantly foot faulted (according to friends watching) etc. Since it's just a game of tennis, if I lose in those kind of circumstances they can have the kind of victory they wanted. And if I win, it's sweeter still.

A freelance (I think) contributor to Tennis magazine named Douglas Robson wrote a really good piece this past year about a match/line dispute he had with"Sister" Andrea Jaeger as a teen or preteen player. If I have time later I'll try to dig it up.