How to Play Tennis
Tennis is one of the most popular games around the world. You can play it for fun, for exercise, and even as a professional. Here, I am going to tell you exactly how to play tennis, and I will also give you an idea about the basic rules of tennis that is played professionally around the globe.
Tennis Scoring
First of all, tennis can be played between 2 players, which is called a singles match, or even between 2 pairs of players, which is known as a doubles match. A tennis match consists of sets, each set consists of games, and each game has its own points. Each time a player wins a rally, he or she gets 15 points, then 15 more, which make it 30, then 10 more, which make it 40, and then winning the next point gets you the game. The first player to win 6 games in a set (with a difference of at least 2 games) wins the set. If both players are tied at 6 games each, then there is a tie breaker, in which the first player to win 7 points (with a difference of at least 2 points) wins the set. A match can consist of a best of 3 or best of 5 sets. Usually, only major tournaments have a best of 5 sets, otherwise best of 3 is the norm.
Tennis Rules
The court is divided into 2 halves by a net. A toss decides who serves and who gets which side of the court to start with. The server starts by serving from the baseline of the right side of the court. The next serve is done from the baseline of the left side of the court. In this way, the serve side rotates. He has to serve to the opposite half, with the ball bouncing in the service box on that side. Any serve hitting the net or bouncing outside that box is a fault, and has to be served again. 2 consecutive faulty serves loses the point. In doubles, both opponents receive the serve once each on an alternating basis. Points can be won by serving an ace, which is a serve that the opponent cannot even get his racquet onto, or a serve that cannot be returned. Points are also won if a player hits a shot that cannot be returned by the opponent, or if the opponent hits a shot that lands in the net or outside the court.
Tennis Shots
The main tennis shots are the serve, backhand, forehand, topspin, slice, volley, half volley, drop shot, overhead smash, and the lob. Shot selection is very important and helps gain the upper hand in a rally to win the point. Besides the shot selection, deciding to hit down the line or cross-court also plays a big roll in winning a point.
Tennis is played on difference surfaces like grass (e.g. Wimbledon), clay (e.g. Roland Garros), and hard court (e.g. US and Australian Open). These 4 tournaments are the major ones held yearly, and a must-watch for every tennis enthusiast. And if you want to learn how the pros do it, you need to watch current players like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, Serena & Venus Williams, playing, or even see some old videos of previous greats like Steffi Graf, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Boris Becker.
