Tennis is a great fun game and can be played at various levels, from the highly competitive to the fun social time with a few friends. If your looking for fun and fitness, tennis is a game where you can work on both as well as improve your co-ordination skills.
Tennis rules are not at all difficult and you will need minimum and in-expensive equipment to participate. All you need to play is a racquet, a tennis ball, a court (that has a net) and someone to play against. The court is almost 24 metres long and you will be exhausted in a very short time if you try to run to the other end to return your own shot. If you can’t find someone to play against, try practising your skills by hitting the tennis ball against a wall.
Here are the rules of tennis in a simple form that will give you an overview of how to play a game. For a more detailed and complete set of official game rules please follow this link to the downloadable pdf file. Tennis rules
Basic rules
Toss a coin (heads or tails) or your racquet (logo up or down), to find out who serves first. The server starts on the right hand side of the court and serves the ball, on the full, over the net to your side of the court. The ball must land in your service area which is diagonally across from the server. If it doesn’t, a fault is called and the server is allowed to have another attempt. If on the second serve, a fault is called again – a double fault, the server will lose a point.
If the serve is successful, the receiver needs to return the ball within their opponents court area. The ball will then go back and forth – a rally, until someone makes a mistake.
Points are scored from 15 to 30 to 40 to game. If both players are 40, it is called a deuce and the next point won is ‘advantage’. If the ‘advantage’ player wins the next point, they win that game. If not, it goes back to deuce and so on and so forth.
The one server serves for the duration of a game. Then the other player serves. The first player to 6 games and being 2 games in front of their opponent wins the set. Sometimes, if the game is tight, it will go to a tie break, and as soon as someone gets 2 points ahead, they win the set.
If you can get three friends together, you can play ‘doubles’. The rules are very similar, but you have a little more court space.
Procedures for matches played without a chair umpire
1. Each player is primarily responsible for line calls on their side of the net. If in doubt, the player must give the benefit of any doubt to his/her opponent, in particular regarding line calls.
2. All “out” or “fault” calls should be made promptly after the ball has bounced and must be loud enough for the opponent to hear.
3. If a player incorrectly calls a ball “out” and then realises that the ball was good, the point should be replayed, unless it was a point winning shot or unless that player made an incorrect “out” call earlier in the match. In these circumstances, the player who called “out” loses the point.
4. A service “Let” may be called by either player/team.
5. Foot faults may only be called by an official standing on court or by a chair umpire. Players may be requested to correct their foot faulting problem by a Referee or Court Supervisor, who will require the player to make an effort during the match to rectify the problem. The receiver may not call a foot fault against the server.
6. To avoid controversy over the score, the server should announce the game score before starting a game and the point score prior to serving for each point, and must be loud enough for his/her opponent to hear.
7. Where a ball interrupts play, either by rolling/bouncing onto the court, and/or creating a visible interruption behind the court a let should be played. Either player can call a let in these circumstances provided they do so in a timely manner. Where this is between a 1st and 2nd serve, a second serve only should be played.
8. When ball persons are not available, all balls on your side of the net are your responsibility to pick up and return directly to the server or be rolled back to the server.
Detailed procedures for matches played without a chair umpire
Etiquette
1. Players are expected at all times to shake hands with their opponent(s) at the completion of a match.
2. Do not enlist the aid of spectators, including parents, coaches in making line calls, or attempting to determine the score or other on-court matters.
3. Wait until a point is over before walking behind a court where a match is in progress.
4. To retrieve a ball from another court or to return a ball to another court, wait until the players have completed a point.
5. Do not stall, sulk, complain or practice gamesmanship.
6. In doubles, when returning service, the partner of the receiver should generally call the service line. The receiver should generally call the centre and side service lines. The call needs to be loud enough to stop their opponents/partner playing.