Max

How to Play the Game of Tennis

Summary: I have played tennis for almost 11 years and know the game extremely well. I will explain the basic rules for playing and some other background information on the sport.

1)

The rules: The rules of tennis are very simple and easy to understand. First the boundaries. On the right of this box is a singles tennis court, when I say singles I mean when one player plays another. In a doubles game there would be one alley on each side which would give the two players more room to move. The game starts out when one of the players serves. They must serve on one side and hit it diagonally into the opposite side box. When you start playing the ball can only bounce one time on each side. Also when serving the server gets two tries to make it in the box, so if he or she misses the first one he or she gets another chance.

 

2)

Scoring for game: The scoring in tennis is a bit complex. The first thing you must know is that the server's score always gets called out first, this way you know whose score is whose. In order to win a game you must get 4 points unless you are tied after winning 3. The first and second point in a game are both worth 15 (example: If the server has scored two points and the returner has scored 1 the score would be 30-15). After 2 points have been scored and it is called as 30 the next point is worth 10 and goes to 40.(Example: If the server has 3 points and the returner has 2 then the score would be 40- 30). Here's the tricky part, if the score is tied 40-40 it is called deuce and in order to win the game you must win two points in a row.

Scoring for set: Just like the points, games are called out with the server's score first. In order to win a game you must get a minimum of 6 games and you have to win by 2 games (example: a score of 6-4 or 6-3 would get you a set). But let's say the score is 6-6. This would lead to a tie break game. In a tie break who ever gets to a minimum of seven points first and is winning by 2 would win the set (example: a score of 8-7 wouldn't win, you would keep going until someone had a two point lead). The odd thing is that you score the points 1, 2, 3, 4... not the 15, 30, 40... way in a tie break.

Scoring for match: The scoring for a match really depends on if you're male or female and what kind of tournament it is. In a regular every day tournament the scoring would be best out of 3 sets. This means whoever won 2 games first would win the match. In 3 out of the 4 grand slam tournaments it's different. In the Australian, French and US opens, for the men, it's best out of 5 sets and for the women it's best out of 3. There is one special grand slam tournament, Wimbledon. It's still the same best out of 5 for men and best out of 3 for women, but if the score is tied 2 sets to 2 sets for the men or 1 set to 1 set for the women you wouldn't play a tie breaker in the last game. This means you would keep playing until someone had a two game advantage. This is funny because some 5th sets at Wimbledon have gone to 22-20 or around that.

3)

Techniques: In tennis there are different techniques that one can play, but I'm just going to stick with the essential ones. In order to play there are 5 main strokes one must know how to do, forehand, backhand, over head, volley and serve. The forehand and backhand are done after the ball has bounced one time on your side. A volley is hit when the opponent hits it hard at you in the air. An over head is when the person lofts it to you and you can smack it and a serve is when you hit the ball overhand to start the point.

Tennis player image found on: http://userpages.umbc.edu/~tchang2/index1.html