2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports

A tennis net
A tennis net


Manner of play

For individual terms see: Tennis terminology

The court

The dimensions of a tennis court, in feet.
The dimensions of a tennis court, in feet.

Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually grass, clay, or a hardcourt of concrete and/or asphalt. The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and its width is 27 feet (8.23 m) for singles matches and 36 feet (10.97 m) for doubles matches. Additional clear space around the court is required in order for players to reach overrun 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 (914 mm) high in the centre.

The Lines

Each of the lines that make up the width of the court are called the baseline. 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 both called the doubles sideline. These are the boundaries used when doubles is being played. The area between the doubles sideline and the lines next to them is called the doubles alley, which is considered out in singles play. These lines next to the doubles sideline are the singles sidelines, and used as boundaries in singles play. The line that runs across the center of a player's side of the court is called the service line; despite its name this is not where a player legally stands when making a serve. The line dividing the service line in two is called the center line or center service line. The boxes this centre line creates are called the service boxes; depending on a player's position, they will have to hit the ball into one of these when serving. A ball is out only if none of it has hit the line upon its first bounce.

Types of Courts

There are four main types of courts. Depending on the materials used for the court surfaces, each surface provides a difference in the speed and bounce of the ball, which in turn can affect the level of play of the individual players. The four most common types of courts are:

  • Clay court - (green clay (mainly in the U.S.), red clay)
  • Grass court
  • Hardcourt - (cement, Rebound Ace, coated ashphalt)
  • Indoor (most commonly wood, cement, or carpet)


Clay courts are considered relatively "slow." This means that a ball first loses speed as it hits the course clay surface because of increased friction and then bounces relatively high. The slowness of the court makes it more difficult for a player to hit an unreturnable shot (a "winner") because the opponent has more time to reach and return the ball. The best clay court players generally use western grips to impart heavy topspin on the ball when playing on clay. Clay courts are often constructed from pulverized brick and may include other soil composites such as shale or stone. On clay courts, line calls are easily reviewable because the ball generally leaves a visible mark.

Hardcourts are generally considered to be faster than clay courts. Depending on how a hardcourt is constructed, including the surface layers of the court, a hardcourt can be relatively slow or fast. A fast hardcourt is characterised by low bounces, where fast-serving and hard-hitting players hold an advantage. There are many different types of hardcourts. The ones used at Grand Slam tournaments ( Rebound Ace and DecoTurf) consist of layers of different compounds on top of an asphalt base.

Grass is a fast surface and was the surface used at three of the Grand Slam tournaments until the Australian Open and the U.S. Open changed to hardcourts. Grass keeps the ball low and quick and generally favours players with short backswings, slice shots (where the ball slides off the grass), and eastern or continental grips. Low bounces keep rallies short, which gives hard-serving and hard-hitting players an advantage. Grass courts add an additional variable with bounces depending on how healthy the grass is and how recently it has been mown.

For the Grand Slam tournaments, four different surfaces are used. The Australian Open uses Rebound Ace, a synthetic type of hardcourt consisting of polyurethane rubber, fibreglass, and other materials on top of an asphalt base. The French Open is played on red clay. Wimbledon is played on grass. The U.S. Open is played on DecoTurf, a hardcourt composed of layers of acrylic, rubber, silica, and other materials on top of an asphalt base.

Play of a single point


For each point, the server starts behind his baseline, between the centre mark and the sideline. The receiver may start anywhere on his side of the net, provided he is behind the baseline. When the receiver is ready, the server will serve.





Matches consist of an odd number of sets, the match winner being the player who wins more than half of the sets. The match ends as soon as this winning condition is met. Some matches may consist of five sets (the winner being the first to win three sets), while most matches are three sets (the winner being the first to win two sets).

A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating between games, ending when the count of games won meets certain criteria. Typically, a player wins a set when he wins at least six games and at least two games more than his opponent. It has become common, however, to play a "twelve-point tiebreak" or "tiebreaker" when each player has won six games. A tiebreaker, 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. (See Tennis score for a description of both tie-break scoring and its history.)

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving, and is won by the first player to have won at least four points and at least two points more than his opponent. The running score of each game is described in a manner particular to tennis: scores of zero to three points are described as "love" or "zero," "fifteen," "thirty," and "forty" respectively. When at least three points have been scored by each side and the players have the same number of points, the score is "deuce". When at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is "advantage" for the winning player. During informal games, "advantage" can also be called "ad in" or "ad out", depending on whether the serving player or receiving player, respectively, is ahead. (See Tennis score for further explanation of how to score a game.)

A game point occurs in tennis whenever the player who is in the lead in the game (the smallest unit of play) 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). For example, if the player who is serving has a score of 40-love, he has a triple game point (triple set point, etc.).

A break point occurs if the receiver, not the server, has a game point. It is of importance in professional tennis, since service breaks happen less frequently with professional players. It may happen that the player who is in the lead in the game has more than one chance to score the winning point, even if his opponent should take the next point(s). For example, if the player who is serving has a score of 15-40, the receiver has a double break point. Should the player in the lead take any one of the next two points, he wins the game.

For two years before the Open Era, in 1955 and 1956, the United States Pro Championship in Cleveland, Ohio was played by the Van Alen Streamlined Scoring System (VASSS) rules, created by James Van Alen, who later invented the tie-breaker. The scoring was the same as that in table tennis, with sets played to 21 points and players alternating 5 services, with no second service. The rules were partially created in order to limit the effectiveness of the powerful service of the reigning professional champion, Pancho Gonzales. Even with the new rules, however, Gonzales beat Pancho Segura in the finals of both tournaments. Even though the 1955 match went to 5 sets, with Gonzales barely holding on to win the last one 21-19, apparently it took only 47 minutes to play. The fans attending the matches preferred the traditional rules, however, and in 1957 the tournament reverted to the old method of scoring.










As of November 16, 2006, the top three boys in the world are: 1. Thiemo De Bakker, the Netherlands; 2. Martin Klizak, Slovakia; 3. Dusan Lodja, the Czech Republic. As of November 16, 2006, the top three girls in the world are: 1. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia; 2. Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark; 3. Ksenia Milevskaya, Belarus.


Grassroots and early development


Other rules of play used in American college tennis

As of 1999, in Division I tennis at the college level, a let service is considered playable. This rule change was made to prevent receivers from falsely claiming a valid service to be a let, which is a call that cannot be overruled. Thus, a service that hits the net before landing in the service box is a playable shot, and must be returned by the receiver. Otherwise, the receiver loses the point.

Other rules of play used in American high school tennis

During high school tennis team matches players may have to follow a few different rules:

Pro set: Instead of playing best out of three sets, players may play one pro set. A pro set is first to 8 games instead of 6. All other rules apply.

Super tie-break: This is played sometimes after players split sets (Each wins one set). It decides who wins instead of a third set. This is played like a regular tie-break but the winner must attain ten points instead of seven.

No-ad: The players play through the match without any ads. When the game is at deuce the receiving player has the option to choose what side of court (either the deuce side or the ad side) they want to receive the serve for the final game-deciding point. The first player or doubles team to four points wins the game.






  • Flat Serve
  • Topspin Serve (Sometimes called a "Kick/Kicker" serve. Often confused with the "American Twist" serve, since both types of serves are called "Kick/Kicker" serves.)
  • American Twist/Twist Serve (Also, sometimes called a "Kick/Kicker" serve, which can confuse people, since "Topspin" serves are also called the same thing. Furthermore, this serve is often confused with the "Topspin-Slice" serve.)
  • Slice/Slider/Sidespin Serve
  • Topspin-Slice Serve (Often mistakenly identified as the American Twist/Twist. The serves are very different from one another.)
  • Reverse Slice/Reverse Slider/Reverse Sidespin Serve
  • Reverse Twist/Reverse American Twist Serve
  • Reverse Topspin-Slice Serve




Players may use the continental, western, or eastern grips during play. Different grips generally are used for different types of spin and shots.





Other shots



Tournaments are often organized by gender and number of players. Common tournament configurations include men's singles, women's singles, doubles (where two players of the same sex play on each side), and mixed doubles (with a member of each sex per side). Tournaments may be arranged for specific age groups, with upper age limits for youth and lower age limits for senior players. There are also tournaments for handicapped players. In the four grand slams, the draw (the maximum number of players allowed in a particular category of the tournament) is 128 people.

Players may also be matched by their skill level. According to how well a person does in sanctioned play, he or she is given a rating (examples from the U.S. system called the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP): 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, etc.) which is adjusted periodically to maintain competitive matches.


Tennis can be traced as far back as the ancient Greek game of sphairistike (Greek: Σφαιριστική). Major Walter Wingfield borrowed the name of this Greek game, in order to name the recreation he patented in 1874. It was soon converted into a three-syllable word rhyming with “pike” and afterwards abbreviated either to sticky or the mock-French stické, before being finally called "lawn tennis", which was a second name patented by Wingfield for the game.

Its establishment as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. In 1856, Alex Ryden, a solicitor, and his friend Batista Pereira, a Portuguese merchant, who both lived in Birmingham, England played a game they named " pelota", after a Spanish ball game. The game was played on a lawn in Edgbaston. In 1872 both men moved to Leamington Spa, and with two doctors from the Warneford Hospital, played pelota on the lawn behind the Manor House Hotel (now residential apartments). Pereira joined with Dr. Frederick Haynes and Dr. A. Wellesley Tomkins to found the first lawn tennis club in the world, and played the game on nearby lawns. In 1874 they formed the Leamington Tennis Club, setting out the original rules of the game. The Courier of 23 July 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall (demolished 1948).

In December 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield devised a similar game for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate at Nantclwyd, Wales. He based the game on the older sport of indoor tennis or real tennis ("royal tennis"), which had been invented in 12th century France and was played by French aristocrats down to the time of the French Revolution.


  • Love may come from l'œuf, the egg, a reference to the egg-shaped zero symbol; however, since "un œuf" is more commonly used, the etymology remains in question.


In 1881 the desire to play tennis competitively led to the establishment of tennis clubs. The first championships at Wimbledon, in London were played in 1877. In 1881 the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association) was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions. The comprehensive I.L.T.F. rules promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-breaker system designed by James Van Alen. U.S. National Men's Singles Championship, now the U.S. Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. The U.S. National Women's Singles Championships were first held in 1887. The Davis Cup, an annual competition between national teams, dates to 1900.

Tennis was for many years predominantly a sport of the English-speaking world, dominated by the United States, Britain and Australia. It was also popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891. Thus Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis. Together these four events are called the Grand Slam (a term borrowed from bridge). Winning the Grand Slam, by capturing these four titles in one calendar year, is the highest ambition of most tennis players.


With the beginning of the Open era, the establishment of an international professional tennis circuit, and revenues from the sale of television rights, tennis has spread all over the world and has lost its upper-class English-speaking image. Since the 1970s great champions have emerged from Germany (Boris Becker and Steffi Graf), Australia ( Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter), the former Czechoslovakia ( Ivan Lendl, Martina Navrátilová, and Hana Mandlíková), Sweden (Björn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander), Brazil ( Gustavo Kuerten), Argentina ( Gabriela Sabatini, Guillermo Vilas and Gastón Gaudio), Russia ( Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Myskina, and Svetlana Kuznetsova), Belgium ( Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne), France ( Amélie Mauresmo, Yannick Noah and Mary Pierce), Spain ( Juan Carlos Ferrero, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Carlos Moya, Conchita Martinez, and Rafael Nadal), Switzerland ( Martina Hingis and Roger Federer) and from many other countries.

In America, the game has seen a seismic shift from a sport that the "country-club set" played to one that is an activity for anyone. Successes by players from across the spectrum, from the working-class Jimmy Connors to great African-American stars such as Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters Venus and Serena, have firmly established tennis as a game for all in the United States. This is perhaps best embodied in the fact that in the 1970s, when popularity of the game was at a peak, the USTA decided to move the U.S. Open from the posh West Side Tennis Club to a public park (the USTA National Tennis Centre, Flushing Meadows Park) that is accessible to anyone with the "greens fees" (currently $17). About the same time, the ruling body's name was also changed from United States Lawn Tennis Association to United States Tennis Association.

In 1954 James Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island. The building contains a large collection of tennis memorabilia as well as a hall of fame honoring prominent members and tennis players from all over the world. Each year, a grass-court tournament is hosted on the grounds that are home to the Tennis Hall of Fame, as well as an induction ceremony honoring new Hall of Fame members.

Great players

Numerous great players played in the days before tennis's Open era, many of whom are unknown by modern sports fans. For a comprehensive list of annual rankings of the great players, as well as additional information about them, from 1913 to the start of the Open era, see World No. 1 Tennis Player Pre-ATP Rankings. Among them, chronologically, are:

  • "Big Bill" Tilden - winner of 21 amateur Grand Slam titles, 7 consecutive Davis Cups, 4 professional Grand Slam titles, the professional doubles title at age 52; was for 7 years the World No. 1 player
  • Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet, René Lacoste - the three best of the " Four Musketeers", won 46 amateur Grand Slam titles amongst them, 6 consecutive Davis Cups, 1 professional Grand Slam title; between them, Lacoste and Cochet were for 5 consecutive years the World No. 1 player
  • Ellsworth Vines - winner of 6 amateur Grand Slam titles, 4 professional Grand Slam titles; was world #1 professional player, 1933-1937; had a tremendous flat, hard forehand and service; was for 3 years the World No. 1 player
  • Fred Perry - won 13 amateur Grand Slam titles including 3 consecutive Wimbledons; was the first to win 4 consecutive Grand Slam titles; won 2 professional Grand Slam titles; was for 5 years the World No. 1 player
  • Don Budge - winner of 14 amateur Grand Slam titles; was the first to win 4 Grand Slam titles in a single year, 4 professional Grand Slam titles; is widely viewed as having had the best backhand of all time before Rosewall; was for 5 years the World No. 1 player
  • Bobby Riggs - winner of 6 amateur Grand Slam titles, 4 professional Grand Slam titles and 7 times a finalist; was for 3 years the World No. 1 player, first as an amateur in 1941 and then as a professional in 1946 and 1947
  • Jack Kramer - won 10 amateur Grand Slam titles and 2 professional Grand Slam titles; was the first great player to play serve-volley on all serves; beat Gonzales badly in the 1949-1950 tour; was for 5 years the World No. 1 player
  • Pancho Segura - winner of 3 professional Grand Slam titles, including 2 victories over Gonzales, and 7 times a finalist; was for 1 year the World No. 1 player; Kramer called Segura's two-handed forehand "the single best shot ever produced in tennis."
  • Pancho Gonzales - winner of 4 amateur Grand Slam titles, 12 professional Grand Slam titles and 6 times a finalist; world #1 amateur in 1949; was still world #6 player in 1969 and #9 American in 1972 at 44; was for 8 consecutive years the World No. 1 player, an unequalled 9 times overall
  • Frank Sedgman - won 22 amateur Grand Slam titles, 3 professional Grand Slam titles and 4 times a finalist; winner of 3 consecutive Davis Cups
  • Ken Rosewall - won 18 Grand Slam titles, first 11 as an amateur, then 7 in the Open era, plus another 18 professional Grand Slam titles and was 5 times a finalist; winner of 3 consecutive Davis Cups; was for 4 years the World No. 1 player
  • Lew Hoad - won 11 amateur Grand Slam titles and 7 times a finalist in the professional Grand Slam; Gonzales said of him: "I think his game was the best game ever. Better than mine."

Other fine players of the pre-Open era include Maurice McLoughlin, "Little Bill" Johnston, Vinnie Richards, Jack Crawford, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Vic Seixas, and Tony Trabert.

Among women, the top pre-Open era players include, among others, Dorothea Douglass Chambers, Suzanne Lenglen, Helen Wills Moody, Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, Kitty McKane Godfree, Helen Hull Jacobs, Dorothy Round Little, Alice Marble, Pauline Betz Addie, Margaret Osborne duPont, Louise Brough Clapp, Doris Hart, Shirley Fry Irvin, Maureen Connolly Brinker, Althea Gibson, Maria Bueno, Ann Haydon Jones, and Darlene Hard. Connolly Brinker was the first female player to win all four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a calendar year ( 1953). Hart was the first player to win all 12 possible singles, doubles, and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles

Among the greatest male players of the Open era, with the number of career Grand Slam singles titles in parentheses, are: Pete Sampras (14), Roy Emerson (12), Rod Laver (11), Björn Borg (11), Roger Federer (9), Jimmy Connors (8), Ivan Lendl (8), Andre Agassi (8), John Newcombe (7), John McEnroe (7), Mats Wilander (7), Boris Becker (6), Stefan Edberg (6), Jim Courier (4), Guillermo Vilas (4), Arthur Ashe (3), Gustavo Kuerten (3), Stan Smith (2), Ilie Năstase (2), Lleyton Hewitt (2), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (2), Patrick Rafter (2), Marat Safin (2), and Rafael Nadal (2)

The greatest women players of the Open era, again with the number of career Grand Slam singles titles in parentheses for each, are: Margaret Smith Court (24), Steffi Graf (22), Chris Evert (18), Martina Navrátilová (18), Billie Jean King (12), Monica Seles (9), Serena Williams (7), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (7), Venus Williams (5), Martina Hingis (5), Justine Henin-Hardenne (5), Hana Mandlíková (4), Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (4), Virginia Wade (3), Lindsay Davenport (3), Jennifer Capriati (3), Nancy Richey Gunter (2), Tracy Austin (2), Mary Pierce (2), Amélie Mauresmo (2), and Maria Sharapova (2)

The greatest player of all time

Until the mid-1950s, Bill Tilden was generally considered the greatest player ever, his only rivals being Vines, Budge, and Kramer. For much of the 1950s and 1960s, many thought Gonzales had claimed that title. Since then, first Laver, then more recently Borg, McEnroe, and Sampras, were widely regarded by many of their contemporaries as the greatest ever. Roger Federer is now considered by many observers to have the most "complete" game in modern tennis, with the potential to challenge the achievements of these past greats. Even among experts, however, no consensus exists as to who has been the greatest of all. Kramer, for instance, still believes that Budge was the best ever on a consistent basis, while Vines was the best at the top of his game. Segura opts for Gonzales, and Gonzales himself considered Hoad, at the height of his game, to be the best.

It frequently appears to be the case when trying to decide who is the best of all time that contemporaries over-value the worth of great players of their own time. Each time that a great new player such as Tilden, Vines, Budge, Kramer, or Gonzales came on the scene and dominated it for several years, many observers at that time would then declare him to be the best of all time. A clear example of this occurred in early 1986 when Inside Tennis, a magazine edited in Northern California, devoted parts of four issues to a lengthy article called "Tournament of the Century", an imaginary tournament to determine the greatest of all time. They asked 37 tennis notables such as Kramer, Budge, Perry, and Riggs and observers such as Bud Collins and Allison Danzig to list the 10 greatest players in order. This was probably as prestigious and knowledgeable a group of tennis experts as has ever been assembled. Nevertheless, there appears to be a clear predilection for choosing their near-contemporaries as the best player ever.

Twenty-five players in all were named by the 37 experts in their lists of the 10 best. The magazine then ranked them in descending order by total number of points assigned. The top eight players in overall points, with their number of first-place votes, were: Rod Laver (9), John McEnroe (3), Don Budge (4), Jack Kramer (5), Björn Borg (6), Pancho Gonzales (1), Bill Tilden (6), and Lew Hoad (1). McEnroe was still an active player and Laver, Borg, and Gonzales had only recently retired. In the imaginary tournament Laver beat McEnroe in the finals in 5 sets.

Among the women, Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills Moody vie for the distinction of greatest of all time, along with several modern players: Margaret Smith Court, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Billie Jean King, and Maureen Connolly Brinker.

The great doubles players

Men's doubles is no longer as important to spectator tennis as it was in the first half of the 20th century, when its attraction, particularly in Davis Cup, was nearly equal to that of singles.

The Woodies ( Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde) is the most successful male doubles team in history. They won 61 ATP tournaments (including 11 Grand Slam tournaments) and a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.


  • John Newcombe and Tony Roche
  • R. Norris Williams and Vinnie Richards
  • Bill Talbert and Gardnar Mulloy
  • Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor
  • Adrian Quist and John Bromwich
  • Roy Emerson and Rod Laver
  • Bill Tilden and Vinnie Richards
  • Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet
  • Wilmer Allison and John Van Ryn
  • Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall

Other great teams would include:

  • George Lott and Les Stoefen
  • Bob Lutz and Stan Smith
  • Frew McMillan and Bob Hewitt
  • John McEnroe and Peter Fleming


  • Vinnie Richards
  • Jacques Brugnon

A list of the great female doubles teams would include:

  • Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver
  • Billie Jean King and Rosemary Casals
  • Margaret Osborne duPont and Louise Brough Clapp
  • Doris Hart and Shirley Fry Irvin
  • Alice Marble and Sarah Palfrey Cooke
  • Suzanne Lenglen and Elizabeth Ryan
  • Venus Williams and Serena Williams
  • Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva
  • Maria Bueno and Darlene Hard
  • Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez
  • Nancye Wynne Bolton and Thelma Coyne Long

Retrieved from ""