Wet ball - let?

I played a tournament yesterday. I am a spin-oriented player. I open up mostly by FH loop.

Earlier on the day things went as expected. The stadium was packed, people sweat more and more later in the day. I was playing a guy who served either no spin or side spin from his BH. I lost quite a few FH loops. I didn't pay much attention at the start until, I tried to FH loop his no spin serve. The ball went straight down to the side of my table. The ball left a wet mark on my rubber. I wiped it. Kept going.

Then the same thing happened repeatedly. My shot just went straight to net. I realized he might have a very sweaty hand. Since then I brought my jacket, I wiped my rubber after every point. The player and his friend just rolled their eyes. But I couldn't care enough. I kept wiping my rubber.

If my shot went down, with a wet mark on my rubber, can I ask for a let? I didn't ask for a let coz I wasn't sure. And his friend (umpire) and him grew impatient with my wiping.

SofaChamp said:

Weird that they became inpatient with you making sure your rubber was dry... all sounds a bit strange to me.

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I don’t know if it is a norm or not as I never experienced so much sweat on the ball.

I checked the ball and my rubber, wiped the ball and rubber, wiped my hands before serving. I did this before every serve. If I am your opponent do you respect that in your country?


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SofaChamp said:

This might have been one of those times were talking about the issue might have helped (it also might have made things worse... you never know... )

Like already said, it is the responsibility of both players to keep the ball and their rubbers dry. If a rally is affected by a wet ball, that rally should be a let.

However, the other issue here is that you are not supposed to use your towel (or jacket) to dry your hands after every point but rather only every 6 points. In a properly umpired match (I've heard they do take place occasionally even with amateur players involved) you should ask the umpire before drying something (bat, ball, table) that has had some sweat fall on it.

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Ok, interesting. At least I have learned something here. However, if I didn’t dry my rubber and ball after every point I could’ve lost. The ball didn’t seem soaking wet, not wet enough to affect flat hitting, but severely affected looping.