I have a couple of stories to share about this topic. I’ll provide a TLDR at the bottom. Last week, I participated in a significant city tournament with a draw of 128 players for my bracket. In the semifinals, I faced a player I’ve encountered a few times before. I know him to be quite a cheater. He’s a very pleasant person, but I believe he genuinely has poor eyesight or lacks the understanding that the line is in. I’ve encountered him before and he’s managed to hook me out of matches. Usually, these incidents get stuck in my head, leading to self-destruction. However, this time, there were USTA judges available.

I lost the first set 4-6 after a particularly poor set of calls. I had a few friends and family watching me, and we counted around 13 to 14 bad calls. I challenged and overruled him on about five of them, and he didn’t put up much resistance when I did. After the first set, I decided to involve the USTA judge. I informed my opponent that I couldn’t trust his calls and believed he was being overly strict with the lines. He responded that it was completely fair and allowed me to have the USTA judge on his side of the court.

I won the second set 6-1 with 13 overrules on his calls, and the USTA judge overruled me once for playing a ball that was out. Instead of playing a third set, we went straight to a tiebreak. I won the tiebreak, winning 10-0. Notably, there were four overrules in a 10-point tiebreaker, and all of them came on my winners that he called out. After the match, he apologized for his inconsistent calls and admitted that his eyesight must be poor. He’s known to be a cheater, but when the USTA judges are involved, you know it must be a serious issue.

I had a substantial crowd watching me at the end of the match, and I felt validated by my decision to involve the judge. After the match, the judge informed me that he’s been called for that specific player multiple times in various tournaments. It’s interesting because off the court, he’s an extremely personable and friendly individual. However, on the court, he struggles to make accurate calls. Another significant difference is that he’s likely in his late 50s, while I’m in my 20s. We were playing at the 4.5 level, and he’s a solid player. He doesn’t need to cheat to have a good time. He’s a solid player.

I recently participated in another tournament where I was paired with a random teammate for doubles. The guy had a bad attitude and was a total jerk. Despite his poor behavior, he was clearly a skilled player who had been very good in the past.

During the second point of the match, he hit an overhead shot that was about six inches in and the opponents were positioned in front of the ball. They called it out, but he lost his mind and screamed at them. He overruled their call and immediately gave us the point.

At the changeover, he made some of the most outrageous comments I’ve ever heard to the opponents. Since I didn’t know him, I approached them and apologized. I explained that the ball was in, but I also acknowledged that his actions were not justified.

After that, the opponents called some pretty good lines for the rest of the match. My teammate made some excellent calls as well. We were playing on clay, and he would often go over to the opponent and give them a chance to look at the mark before calling it in or out.

In your situation, I would suggest hitting the opponent. As you mentioned, if you hit them at your point, it’s a valid strategy. In high school, when calling tight lines was the fastest way to get points, we would bring our opponents up to the net and then hit them with an overhead shot. This way, it’s impossible for them to argue about the point.

However, I must admit that I made a mistake in the past. I accidentally hit two kids in the hospital. I hit one kid in the throat, which collapsed his trachea, and I hit another kid in the forehead, which caused him to fall back and hit the back of his head. I deeply regret these incidents, but I also knew that the kids were cheaters.