Basics Of Tennis Explained

By Owen Jones

On the face of it, tennis is a pretty simple game – you have to take it in turns to hit a ball and make it land inside a group of lines. It is also fairly cheap to play – when you have a ball and a racquet, you can play in a T-shirt and shorts or skirt. None of this stuff is especially costly, unless you go for famous names.

The rules are few and simple as well. However, there are some rules and an understanding of these rules will allow you to gain more enjoyment from the game whether you propose playing it or just watching it.

Most top tennis matches are played by two people: one in each team. However, in amateur games many people like to play in doubles, which involves having two players on either team. Mixed doubles means men and women playing together – one man and one woman per team.

If players would like to play tennis all they have to take to the tennis court are a tennis racquet every and two tennis balls between them. White clothing is the most generally accepted uniform for playing tennis in, but you may wear pretty much what you like otherwise – short or long trousers, short or long skirt, short or long sleeved shirt.

Trainers and short white socks or no socks is the normal footwear. You might choose to wear a sunshade too if the sun is bright or you may harm your sight if you look into the sun when tracking the ball. The problem with sunglasses or a sunshade is holding them in place, because tennis is a very vigorous game.

Tennis courts are a regulation size being the same everywhere in the world. The court is separated in half by a net set at a regulation height. The outside line parallel to the net is the base line and is the position where most players await a service. Serving has to be done between the base line and the inner parallel line of the service box.

Services are made from the left to the right and from the right to the left in turn so as not to benefit left or right handed players. Along side the court running at 90 degrees to the net a narrow rectangle. These boxes are only valid areas of play in doubles matches. If the ball lands in there during a singles match, the ball is called ‘out’ (of play).

The game is started with a service. A player serves the ball into the opponent’s service box on the opposite side to where he or she is standing. The ball must bounce in that service box or the service must be restarted and the opponent gets a point. The ball is then hit back and forth until a fault is made.

A complete game is made up of a number of sets and service alternates between teams for each set. The scoring is fairly simple, but the numbers used are unusual.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on quite a few subjects, but is currently concerned with the ebook Lawn Tennis Explained. Click a link to visit our website Playing Tennis.

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