To the Editor:
Not only is it inconsiderate and a lack of proper court etiquette, but it is also dangerous to cut through a tennis court during an active match. Every time I have played tennis at Saddlebrook Recreation Center, this occurs, even though we have made repeated polite attempts to ask these people to walk around to the pickleball entrance. Players not expecting to encounter a trespasser on the court could accidentally run into them or hit them with a backswing.
I regularly play at five other recreation centers in The Villages and do not encounter this rudeness anywhere else. Sometimes it is older adults and sometimes it is twenty-somethings like today. When I asked a young woman if she could please walk around, she smiled and continued to walk through our court. Not only that, but she also came back and did it again 10 minutes later!
There are solutions. Signage could help. An additional entrance could be added for those too lazy to walk around or they could park near an entrance. Grandparents could teach their family members proper court etiquette. One of the tennis entrances could be chained closed. Finally, repeat offenders could lose their privilege to play on those courts.
On a final note, I play pickleball too and would not even think of walking through either a tennis or pickleball court during a match. It’s not just etiquette, it is common courtesy.
Laurelyn Irving
Village of La Reynalda
