Lawn Tennis Rules

The sport of tennis is meant for those who are ready to spend a great deal of time and effort training and for those who aim to become professional players. This demanding sport requires extremely high level of fitness.

For beginners these forms the guidelines proves to be helpful at the time of implementing whatever they know about playing tennis properly. Whether it is a doubles or singles match also has bearing on the rules invoked and applied. It also affects the playing area of the tennis court in use.

The tennis court is 78 feet in length and 36 feet in width. Dividing the court in two halves makes it 39 feet x 36 feet. There are 4.5 feet wide strips along the length of a tennis court. These strips are used only for the doubles/mixed doubles games. It means, the dimensions of playing area for singles matches is 39 feet x 27 feet (36 feet for doubles).

Understanding the rules for tennis is quite easy and not at all difficult in comparison to playing this demanding sport.

The server has to serve from behind the baseline. The ball, after serving, should fall in the service box, on the opponents side, that is diagonally opposite from the server's position. A service is considered wrong if it falls outside this box.

The situation in which a player commits two faults one after the other is referred to as double fault; a point is awarded to the opponent in case a double fault is committed. A correct service leads to a rally i.e. exchange of shots.

In a single's game a shot is considered valid if it falls within the tennis court which excludes the 4.5 feet strips that runs along the length of the court. However, these strips are part of the tennis court in case of a doubles game.

A tennis match is played in a 'best of 3 sets' or 'best of 5 sets' format. The men's matches are generally played in a 'best of 5 sets' format, while the other format is used for women.

To win a single set, one has to win at least 6 games. However, the difference of games won by the winner and loser of a given set should at least be 2. It means that a set cannot be won at '6-5'; upon reaching a situation in which both players win 6 games each, the tie-breaker is employed.

It is necessary to score minimum of 7 points in order to win a tiebreaker. Again a difference of 2 points is needed for winning the tiebreaker.

A game is won by winning 4 points. Winning the first point takes a player's score to 15. The score of 15 is followed by 30, 40 and game. The scoring pattern is a bit weird in a sense that it doesn't incorporate the pattern of 1, 2, 3 and game. If the score is at 40-40, it is a tie which is referred to as 'deuce'.

In order to win a game after the deuce, one has to score a point referred to as 'Advantage' to the winner of the shot. The player who gains the 'advantage' can win the game on the very next point. If the opponent scores a point while one has reached/gained advantage, the scores are reset to 'deuce'.

Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament played on grass. The rules for last i.e. the 5th set played in a Wimbledon match are different from those employed in other tournaments. There is no tiebreaker used if the score for the 5th set stands at 6-6 games.

It means that if the difference of 2 games (4-6 or 6-4) in the 5th set is not attained, the set can continue as long as it takes. There are many other aspects of the sport of tennis which makes it interesting to play and watch. Understanding the basic rules should help you enjoy the game in a better manner.