If you’ve found your way here that means you have some interest or desire to learn how to play tennis. You might be asking yourself, how do you play tennis? Tennis is a great sport and I’m glad to take the time to tell you all about it. If you are a beginner just starting to play tennis, or even just considering it, welcome! I am always happy to see new players in our sport. Learning to play tennis is a fun experience, but first you need to know all about tennis rules and regulations. Continue reading to learn tennis now!
Introduction to the Rules of Tennis and How to Play for Beginners – Scoring
So you’ve seen tennis on TV and heard them using some weird tennis scoring system that involves love. Well don’t worry I’ll go over it with you and you’ll learn how to play tennis in no time. Scoring in tennis is a little weird, but it’s easy to learn. When two players come out on the court they play a match. A match is made up of sets, sets consist of games, and games are a collection of points. Let me clarify what all these things are for the beginners out there.
• Point – This is the basic unit of scoring in tennis. Both players start with zero, or “love” in tennis. At the start of the match whoever begins serving will call the score out as love-love.
• Game – Once you win enough points you get to trade them in for a game! How many
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games do you think players start off with? If you answered zero or love way to go! Make sure that you pay attention or you might end up having this score often.
• Set – Once again when we have enough games we get a set.
• Match – The match is over when you win enough sets. This is almost always going to be two sets, or best out of three. The only time this will change is when you start playing professionally. At that point you can go ahead and send me an email about how to play tennis.
I know you’re dying to ask how many is “enough”?! Well the rules are straightforward but there are some special cases. In general you need 4 points to win a game, but this is where the weird tennis scoring kicks in again. First let me explain what a point consists of.
Here is what a game looks like in terms of points
Points:
0 – Love
1 – 15
2 – 30
3 – 40
4 – Game!
So that isn’t too complicated. If you can win 4 points you win a game, but there is a catch. If you and your opponent both have 3 points for a score of 40-40 (which is called deuce by the way) you need to win two points a row to win the game. For example, it’s deuce and your opponent wins a lucky point by hitting a dirty drop shot. He screams out in a loud obnoxious manner thinking he won the game. He should have read the rules.
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At deuce, if the serving player wins the point it is called “ad-in” which is short for advantage. Similarly if the player that is returning wins the point it is then “ad-out”. If the player with the advantage wins the next point the game goes to him, otherwise we go back to deuce. Phew, that was complicated I’m out of breath. The good news is that once you have the concept of deuce down there isn’t much left to explain.
Sets:
Don’t relax just because you won a game, you still have to win 5 more to win a set! That’s right a set is awarded to the first player to 6 games, but you must win by two games. This means that if the score is tied at 5-5 you cannot win by going up 6-5, you would need to win the next game also for a 7-5 score in the set. If the score ends up being tied at 6-6 you play a special set tiebreak.
Match:
To win the match you need to win two sets. If you and your opponent tie at a set each you still have to play a final deciding set. Once it’s over you can yell “game, set, and match!” but in general this is pretty bad etiquette and you should probably just go shake your opponents hand at the net.
Tiebreak
With all of our newly acquired knowledge the tennis tie breaker rules are a breeze. You play first to 7 points, but win by two. There is no tiebreak for a tiebreak! At 7-6 you still need to get another point to win the tiebreak, otherwise keep playing. Switch sides whenever the tiebreak score adds up to a multiple of 6.
Learning How to Play Tennis: Rules of the Match
Alright now that we can keep score it’s time to describe how to actually play. We’ll follow some simple tennis rules, but some situations can be tricky.
To start the match off spin your racquet and have the opponent call up or down. This is the coin toss of tennis and the winner gets their choice of serving or receiving. The loser of the toss will get to choose the side to start on. Note: up or down might be M or W, P or D, or something else entirely depending on the brand name on the handle of your racquet. Just make sure you have one side and the opponent has the other no cheating!
Players will line up on their respective sides and the server will start the point out by tossing the ball above their head and hitting into the service box on the other side of the court. Let’s make it clear what the server and returner should be doing at this point
Server
• Start just behind the baseline between the right hand center line and the doubles alley. You don’t want your foot to touch the line when you’re serving. Once you finish serving
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then you can move to wherever you want. Alternate to the other side of the center line after every point
• Toss the ball up above your head and a little out in front of you. Hit it to the service box on the other side of the court that is diagonal to you
• You get two serves, if you don’t make the first one in the service box try again. Missing two serves in a row is a double fault
• If the serve hits the net and rolls over into the service box that is a let and you get to do the serve over again.
Returner
• Stand wherever you like. Somewhere around the base line is usually the best choice on the service return. Hint: the server needs to hit it in the service box diagonal to where he is serving from. That means you should line up near the baseline behind that service box
• Let the serve bounce. If it lands inside the service box try to hit it back in the court. The doubles alleys and anything behind the baseline are out, but if you hit it on the baseline or inside doubles line that is a good shot.
That’s the general idea behind a point. Players call their own lines so be nice to your opponent or he might start cheating you. Players rally back and forth until someone misses or hits a winner. A winner is a shot so good that your opponent can’t even try to hit it back. A good strategy is to hit lots of winners and not make any errors. Brilliant I know.
The server continues serving for one whole game. After that the other player will serve. In order to have equal time on both sides of the court we switch sides when the total number of games adds up to be odd. For example if the score is 1-0 just after the first game you switch sides because it is 1+0 = 1. The next switch will be at 3 whether it is 2-1, 2+1=3 or 3-0, 3+0=3. Tennis players are also notorious mathematicians.
That is! Now you’re ready to get started. Almost anyways, we need to make sure you get set up with all the necessary equipment.
Gearing up! Equipment Needed to Play Tennis
We can cover the obvious things. You’re going to need all of the following
• A tennis racquet. When you just start out don’t worry about getting something special. Check out the local sports store and look for an adult or junior racquet
• Tennis balls. More is better, but you can probably get away with a few cans. I like to take a bucket full unless I’m playing a match
• Comfortable tennis clothes. This is optional obviously, but you don’t want to be the guy wearing jeans on a tennis court. This isn’t 1989 and you aren’t Andre Agassi. What to wear to play tennis depends largely on your own preferences. There isn’t a code you have to follow like at Wimbledon.
• Once you start playing more you really need a pair of the best tennis shoes you can possibly find. The tennis court is an unforgiving place for shoes. Save yourself the pain and money and just invest in a good pair of shoes to play tennis in.
• Water and sunscreen. It’s gets hot out there so be prepared.
The last thing you’ll need to get started is a place to play. This isn’t golf so don’t worry you don’t need to take out a second mortgage. Just go to the nearest park and find some courts. Sometimes public facilities aren’t in great condition, but you should be able to find at least one suitable park in your area. Good luck. Now that You’ve learned how to play tennis the rules of the game should be no problem. Be sure to check out some of the other tips and advice for any and all tennis needs. Once you’ve thoroughly covered this guide on “how to play tennis for beginners” you should be thoroughly prepared to take on the tennis world.