When can I impose a penalty, and how is it applied to the score?

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Accepted Answer

Certainty: impose a penalty only when you've seen, heard or otherwise observed enough to determine with reasonable certainty that a violation happened. The Referee may also act on a report from a court monitor or official, or on the player's own admission (USTA Reg. IV.D.6). Who: the Chair Umpire in a chaired match; Roving Umpires in matches without a chair umpire. Timing: an official on court must impose the penalty before the next point starts. An official arriving from off court has reasonable time to get there, and any points played in between stand (Reg. IV.D.15). Scoring: a point penalty is scored as if the player lost the next point. A penalty imposed between games or before the match applies to the first point of the next game (Reg. IV.D.13, IV.D.14). Penalties count as played for serving order, ends and ball changes. Tiebreaks: a game penalty during a set tiebreak loses the set; during a match tiebreak, it loses the match (Table 14). Doubles: a penalty on one partner counts against the team. The opponent can't decline a penalty (Reg. IV.D.16). If both sides equally cause a delay, penalize the server (Reg. IV.D.11).