The worst experience when playing a game either for fun or competition is when you play a cheap cheat. I guess there’s two kind of cheats when trying to catogorise them.

One, is the type of guy who makes a bad call everytime the ball lands close to the line. The other type likes to distract your focus and breaks your rhythm. For me, the first type of cheat will do almost anything to prove the ball is out on his side of the court, of course. There’s nothing you can do about it. I swear, unless you want to walk out of the match!

The second type of cheaters are very smart indeed. Because they do it "legally". For example, when your game is picking up and you happen to get your rhythm before he does, he’ll slow down by retying his shoelaces just before you get ready to serve, "picking up" small stones from the court surface and things like that. If you’re a patient gamer like me, you’ll know that he is REALLY trying to distract you.

A sporting person would do their best to avoid "contoversies" like these just to make the win fair and square. During a game or a match, I would just play my game and would not let anything distract me or my opponent. I would like my opponent and I to compete with 100 percent skill and performance that we have. That would really give me satisfaction, win or lose. Another type of "legal" cheat is the type of opponent who shout, grunt or scream when they make a weak shot and we were going for the kill. Believe me, I have encountered incidents like this. They would keep making noises long after the make the weak shot until we get distracted and make a mistake. Tell me I’m wrong….or have you met them?

I remember once when I played in the Australian "C" doubles final when a bird perched on the net. The umpire didn’t do anything when the bird first took a rest there. I was serving and the second time the bird came back seconds after it flew off, I decided to chase it off. At least there was a light moment for eveyone, but I swear I did what should be done. I was about to serve at the time. I didn’t want the game to stop half way with a "let". It might distract me or my opponent. I don’t know what I’m trying to prove here, but I think if we can avoid distraction, lets not let things distract our opponent first. I hate to be called a cheat!

Okay, enough of my bragging. Read on the following article I found on the internet by a professional sports photograper. It is about cheaters and distractors.

One of the most memorable things I have seen at a major tennis tournament was at the French Open in 1994. Roland Garros is unbeatable for photographers and at the back of all three main courts there are bunkers for snappers. Apart from a Frenchman, from one of the photo agencies, I believe I was the only photographer in the Court 1 bunker when Pat Rafter was playing Thomas Muster. Muster was querying a lot of calls (which were clearly in) by circling the supposed mark the ball had left on the court. He kept getting the umpire out of his chair and was generally trying to upset Rafter's rhythm and put him off his game. Some way into the match, Rafter decided he'd had enough of Muster's petty mind-games. He smacked a first serve ace right down the center, ran in behind the serve, leapt over the net and then drew a huge circle around where the ball had landed. He then gave Muster a look that didn't need explaining. The French photographer turned to me, elated, and asked: 'Did you get it?' Oh I got it all right. But I think he was talking about the photograph.
There is an unhealthy trend in junior tennis, that suggests anything is permissible on court if it gets you the point. Over the years I have seen it too many times to count and it horrifies me when coaches encourage cheating by declining to nip it in the bud. Most often this is because they don't want to lose their 'star' pupil, though the reality usually is that if the youngster stoops to scavenge, they probably haven't got a head for heights anyway. And many courtside parents turn a blind, partisan eye when their child trades in another piece of childhood humanity for an unearned point.
Like the vast majority of his fellow professionals, Rafter is living proof that players don't have to behave like petty swindlers to win big points and matches. To all those who should know better, remember that cheating is nothing less than point-theft.
Refined skill, determination, fitness and controlled fight will conquer a cheat in more ways than one and this guy won't give you an on-court inch: if you are going to beat him, you just need to be better and tougher. You could try stealing a point or two in a number of ways, but I wouldn't advise it ...especially if you have to share the same locker room!