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 within a set 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 particularly costly, unless you go for well-known names.
The rules are few and easy as well. However, there are some rules and a knowledge of these rules will allow you to gain more enjoyment from the game whether you propose playing it or merely watching it.
Most top tennis matches are played by two people: one in each team. However, in amateur games lots of people like to play in doubles, which means 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 standard footwear. You may decide on to wear a sunshade as well if the sun is strong or you may injure your eyesight if you look into the sun while tracking the ball. The difficulty with sunglasses or a sunshade is keeping them in position, because tennis is a very active game.
Tennis courts are a regulation size being the same everywhere in the world. The court is divided in half by a net set at a regulation height. The outside line parallel to the net is the base line and is the place 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 given from the left to the right and from the right to the left in turn so as not to advantage 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 deemed ‘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 receives a point. The ball is then hit back and forth until a fault is created.
A complete game is made up of a number of sets and service alternates between teams for each set. The scoring is fairly easy, but the numbers used are bizarre.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on quite a few topics, but is currently involved with the ebook Lawn Tennis Explained. Click a link to visit our website Playing Tennis.