Overview of Tennis

Tennis is one of the most popular sports worldwide, and it is played at hundreds of professional tournaments every season. If you want to get into tennis, keep reading to learn all about it, ranging from its long history to the sport’s most important rules and regulations.

What Is Tennis?

Tennis is a sport in which players take turns hitting a small, felt-covered ball over a net using hand-held racquets. If a player hits the ball correctly and it lands within the legal boundaries of the court, their opponent must hit the ball back over the net before it can bounce twice or go out of bounds. These back-and-forth sessions are called rallies. A rally lasts until one player is unable to legally hit the ball back. Players can also make mistakes, or unforced errors, that result in the rally ending.

The five main disciplines of tennis are men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Singles tennis involves individual players competing against one another and doubles tennis involves two pairs facing each other. Tournaments are always gendered except with mixed doubles, with teams made up of one men’s player and one women’s player.

History of Tennis

The origins of tennis trace all the way back to the 12th century when a version of it was played with bare hands or gloves. Rackets were finally introduced during the 16th century, and then lawn tennis became the most popular form of the sport in England and parts of Western Europe from the 17th century until around the mid-19th century.

Modern outdoor tennis as we know it was invented in the late 19th century by Welsh inventor and British Army officer Walter Wingfield. He took a medieval form of the sport and added new elements like playing on a grass court and hitting rubber balls. The first Wimbledon tournament was played in 1877, and the other three most major tennis tournaments (known as Grand Slams) were added over the next three decades.

Tennis Courts

A regulation tennis court is in the shape of a rectangle that is 78 feet (23.77 meters) long and 36 feet wide. The full width is used only for doubles matches and singles players must play within a width of 27 feet. The court is split in half on the long side by the net, which runs parallel to the 36-foot baselines at either end of the court. This net is three feet (91.4 centimeters) high but dips down a little in the middle. 

The three main types of tennis court are grass, clay, and hard court. Each type of court is divided up by a set of white boundary lines made of paint or chalk. The side boundaries of the court are formed by the singles and doubles sidelines, and the baselines are the rear boundary on either end of the court. The baselines run parallel to the net that divides the court in half. There are also service lines that combine to create the boundaries of the service boxes, which is where the ball must land after every serve (the hit that starts each point).

Tennis Equipment

The two most important pieces of tennis equipment are naturally tennis rackets and tennis balls. Rackets come in a variety of colors, sizes, and string types, but the basic idea remains the same: a player uses one or both hands to hold the racket by its handle and hits the ball with the strings that stretch across the head of the racket.

Regulation tennis balls are pressurized rubber balls that are covered in a yellow-green felt so that they are soft to the touch but bounce high when they make contact with the court. Although the dress code may vary from tournament to tournament, tennis players will typically wear tennis shoes, an athletic polo or T-shirt, and shorts or a skirt while moving across the court. All tennis equipment rules must be strictly followed in order for players to compete.

Tennis Rules

Listed below are some of the most basic rules in tennis:

• Tennis matches must start with a coin toss, or racquet spin in more unofficial matches, to decide which player or team goes first
• Every point must start with a serve that starts behind the baseline and ends in the serving box diagonal to your opponent’s side
• Each player will get two attempts at a service game before a double fault is called and the point is given to the opposing player or team
• During doubles matches, players must follow the service order so that each player gets their respective turn
• Players and teams must switch sides after the first game and every two games after that.
• Each hit after the first legal serve is called a return, and the ball must bounce at least once after a serve before a player can legally return it
• Gameplay must continue until one player or team cannot return the ball or until one player commits a fault
• Balls that land inside of or on a boundary line are considered in, and balls that land outside of the boundary lines are considered out
• Players cannot engage in any kind of unsportsmanlike conduct before, during, or after gameplay

How Does Scoring Work in Tennis?

Tennis players score points by either hitting the ball over the net without their opponent legally hitting it back or if their opponent commits an unforced error. Any play that hits the ball outside of the court’s boundaries at any time during the duration of a point, the opposing player or team gets the point.

Points

In tennis, scoring begins with both players or teams at 0. Winning one point moves a player or team up to 15, a second point moves them to 30, and a third point moves them up to 40. If the players or teams are not tied, the next point wins the game. In tennis, the word “Love” is used in place of “zero”. For example, if the server has won three points in the game and their opponent hasn’t won any, the score is “40-Love”. If the game ends in a 40-40 tie, this is called “deuce.” In this situation, a player or team must win two consecutive points to win the game.

Advantage Scoring

Most tennis matches use an advantage scoring system to decide games tied at 40-40. The first point scored after a deuce has the player or team scored being given “the advantage.” If the advantage player or team scores again, they win the game. However, if the other player or team scores after their opponent is given the advantage, the score returns to deuce. Advantage scoring must continue until one side wins the game with two consecutive points.

Game, Set, Match

Every professional tennis match is made up of games and sets. A player or team must score four or more points to win a single game. Then they must win six games (or win via a tiebreaker game) to win a set. Most tennis matches are played in a best-of-three sets format. The player or team that is the first to win two sets is declared the match’s winner. The one major exception is that all Grand Slam men’s singles matches use a best-of-five format where the player that is the first to win three sets is the match winner.

Types of Shots in Tennis

There are six main types of shots in tennis, including:

• Forehand
• Backhand
• Groundstroke
• Volley
• Lob
• Serve

A forehand is a shot where the palm of a player’s dominant hand faces forward while holding their racket. A backhand involves a player swinging their racket around their body with the back of their dominant hand facing out. Whether holding the Racquet with one hand or two, all other types of tennis shots can be performed forehand or backhand.

Groundstrokes refer to any shot made by a player after the ball has bounced on the court. Volleys refer to any shot where the player hits the ball before it has a chance to bounce, typically occurring closer to the net. A lob is a high, arcing defensive shot that is popularly used for various strategic reasons. 

A serve is typically an overhead shot made from behind the baseline to open up each point and rally of a tennis match. Legal serves must be hit into the service box on the opposite side of the court, which is located diagonally from where each server begins.