Tennis is one of the most popular individual sports in the world. In tennis, the player uses a racquet to hit a ball over a net into the opponent’s court. The ball must be kept in play and can only bounce one time on the court surface and the opponent must strike the ball back over the net. It is a sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles).
Tennis court
History
An early version of Tennis started in the 16th century in France where players would yell “tenez” when starting a game giving the game the name, Tennis. Later the game was refined in England in the 19th century as lawn tennis which resembled the sport played today. The world’s oldest tennis tournament, the Wimbledon Championships were first played in London in 1877. The comprehensive rules promulgated in 1924 by the International Lawn Tennis Federation, now known as the International Tennis Federation, have remained largely stable, one of the major changes being the addition of the tie-back system. The Davis Cup, an annual competition between men’s national teams, dates to 1900. The analogous competition for women’s national teams, the Fed Cup, was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963. There are four top tournaments called the Grand Slam Tournaments, these are Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open, and the French Open.
Rules
The following are the rules regarding equipment, balls, court, lines and scoring:
1. Equipment
(i) Racquets: Tennis racquet must adhere to the following guidelines —
- The hitting area, composed of the strings, must be flat and generally uniform.
- The frame of the hitting area may not be more than 29 inches in length and 12.5 inches in width.
- The entire racquet must be of a fixed shape, size, weight, and weight distribution. There may not be any energy source built into the racquet.
- The racquet must not provide any kind of communication, instruction or advice to the player during the match.
(ii) Balls: Tennis balls are of hollow rubber with a felt coating. Traditionally white, the predominant colour was gradually changed to optic yellow in the latter part of the 20th century to ensure better visibility.
(iii) Court
- Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually grass or clay, a hard court of concrete and/or asphalt and occasionally carpet (indoor). The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and 27 feet (8.23 m) wide for singles matches and 36 ft (10.97 m) for doubles’ matches.
- Additional clear space around the court is required for players so as to reach over run balls.
- A net is stretched across the full width of the court, parallel with the baselines, dividing it into two equal ends. The net is 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) high at the posts and 3 feet (91.4 cm) high in the center.
(iv) Lines
- The lines that delineate the width of the court are called the baseline (farthest back) and the service line (middle of the court).
- The short mark in the center of each baseline is referred to as either the hash mark or the center mark.
- The outermost lines that make up the length are called the doubles’ sidelines. These are the boundaries used when doubles is being played.
- The lines to the inside of the doubles’ sidelines are the singles’ sidelines and used as boundaries in singles’ play. The area between a doubles’ sideline and the nearest singles’ sideline is called the doubles’ alley, which is considered playable in doubles’ play.
- The line that runs across the center of a player’s side of the court is called the service line because the serve must be delivered into the area between the service line and the net on the receiving side.
- All the lines are required to be 2 inches (51 mm) in width. The baseline can be up to 4 inches (100 mm) wide if so desired.
(v) Scoring
- The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated as the server, and the opposing player is the receiver.
- A tennis match is determined through the best of 3 or 5 sets. Women play 3 set matches, while men play 5 set matches. For men, the first player to win three sets wins the match, and for women, the first player to win two sets wins the match.
- A set consists of games, and a game, in turn, consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving.
- A game is won by the first player to have won at least four points in total and at least two points more than the opponent.
- The running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis: scores from zero to three points are described as “love”, “15”, “30”, and “40” respectively
- If at least three points have been scored by each player, making the player’s score equal at 40 a piece, the score is not called out as “40-40”, but rather as “deuce”.
- If at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than the opponent, the score of the game is “advantage” for the player in the lead.
- A game point occurs in tennis whenever the player who is in the lead in the game needs only one more point to win the game. The terminology is extended to sets (set point), matches (match point), and even championships (championship point).
- A break point occurs if the receiver, not the sever, has a chance to win the game with the next point. Break points are of particular importance because serving is generally considered advantageous, with the server being expected to win games in which they are serving.
- A receiver who has one (score of 30–40), two (score of 15–40) or three (score of love-40) consecutive chances to win the game has break point, double break point or triple break point, respectively.
- If the leading player wins that game, the player wins the set 7–5. If the trailing player wins the game, a tie-break is played. A tie-break, played under a separate set of rules, allows one player to win one more game and thus the set, to give a final set score of 7–6.
- In tournament play, the chair umpire announces the winner of the set and the overall score.
2. Grip
A grip is a way of holding the racquet in order to hit shots during a match. There are three types of grip.
i. Forehand: the tennis forehand is a stroke in which the inner side of the palm of the dominant hand that is holding the racket faces forward. The forehand stroke is made by swinging the racket across one’s body in the direction of where one wants to land the ball.
ii. Backhand: The backhand is a tennis stroke in which one swings the racquet around one’s body with the back of the hand preceding the palm.
iii. The Serve (Service): A serve in tennis is a shot to start a pint. A player will hit the ball with racquet so it will fall into the diagonally opposite service box without being stopped by the net.
There are three types of serve —
a) Flat Serve
b) Slice Serve
c) Kick Serve
