I was playing in a local tournament over the weekend and I made it to the final. I was very nervous because a lot of people were watching and I even heard people making wagers before the match started and I was the heavy underdog according to the country club betting odds. I was around +250 to win, my opponent was a seasoned veteran who played some D1 tennis back in college and had a serve and volley like no other. All that aside I was very nervous to lose and let down not only myself, but my family and the people of the country club that liked the odds and bet on me to win. With that being said there were 20-30 people lined up around the court boozed up and rowdy cheering us on. It was an out of body experience, at one point I was watching us play from like an airplane view with the crowd just hooting and hollering it was a great experience.
Until the tiebreak happened. It was the first set and I actually luckily hit a net cord winner that forced a tiebreaker (apologized) and the crowd went berserk. One guy ran on the court and ripped his shirt off and shotgunned a beer because he was so happy. This just added to my nerves.
There was a sports book set up court side where the gallery could place live bets and people were throwing down quite a lot of cash on me especially during the beginning of the tiebreak when I stormed up to an early 3-0 lead. He outclassed me for a few points and I was down a set point. He was serving for the set and I guess my nerves got to me and on his ball toss I audibly let out a bit of a fart, it was a loud one and he actually framed his serve into the crowd and then ran to the net and to the chair umpire and said that I caused a hindrance by ripping one during his serve. I tried to play it off like it was my shoe squeaking on the court but the crowd started ratting me out and saying it smelled like shit so the chair umpire got out of the stand to smell the area and could smell it and decided that I did indeed shit my pants and ruled a point penalty and I lost the set.
After that I got bageled in the 2nd set and lost the championship. I was too embarrassed to really even stay on the court after I farted so I kinda just lost on purpose.
My question is should that be a point penalty for accidentally nervous farting during someone’s ball toss for their serve?
TLDR; I farted during a pivotal moment during a tiebreak and the chair umpire ruled it a point penalty and I went on to lose the match. Is that the correct ruling?
What cost you the match isn’t the hindrance call but the embarrassment from the fart. You could’ve owned up to it , forced some confidence, dug your heels in and fought like hell in the second set. But you basically just gave up. This is not a champion’s mindset. You deserved to lose.