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Tennis is an individual sport played with a racket and a springy ball. The game is played on a court, which can be made of asphalt/concrete, clay, or grass. At the professional levels, there is an umpire calling each point scored. Tennis is notable for its atypical scoring system (points are measured in 15- or 10-point increments, and sometimes not kept at all), but it is a game of precision first and foremost: this precision is even more impressive considering how large a regulation tennis court is.

Teams
Tennis is a completely individual sport, although there are doubles (2v2) leagues. Aside from some differences in serving the ball to begin play, the two versions of the sport have identical rules.

Positions
In doubles, one player typically plays the front half of his team’s court and the other plays the back half. In singles, a player is expected to cover the entire court himself.

Play
Play begins with a serve, where one player tosses the ball up and hits it over the net and onto his opponent’s court. A served ball must land within a specific area of the court called the service box. After that, players begin hitting the ball over the net, but controlling its trajectory such that it lands inside the opponent’s court.

A player can score through several means:
– the ball hits the ground twice before his opponent can return it
– the opponent does not clear the net when returning the ball
– the ball hits the ground and goes out of bounds before the opponent can return it
– the opponent commits too many faults when attempting to serve the ball (this is very rare)

Doubles
Doubles tennis refers to tennis played with teams of 2 instead of individually. Doubles tennis is the same as singles tennis, but with some small rules changes. Firstly, the court is wider because the outer rectangular areas on the long sides (called “lanes”) are considered in bounds instead of out of bounds. Secondly, the back plays always serves.

Normal doubles teams are either only men or only women. There is a category called mixed doubles, which allows teams made of one man and one woman.

How to spectate
Tennis is a very visual game, and because the entire court can be viewed from a single point, the viewer has just as much information as the players and commentators. The most efffective way to win a tennis game is to make the opponent’s returns as difficult as possible. This is done in a variety of way, but typical strategies include:
– putting spin on the ball when returning it such that it bounces unpredictably
– returning the ball to distant sections of the opponent’s court so that he must run longer distances to return it
– returning the ball at varying speeds and angles (fast downward shots compared to a slow lob)
The best players in the world combine these techniques and know how to counter them with only a split second to react.

Furthermore, the surface used to make the court also influences which strategies will be effective. Clay courts make the ball travel slower because, when hitting the court, it loses more speed compared to the other materials. This means controlling strategies are more effective. Asphalt is harder, which means a power player will be able to return the ball at higher speeds.

Grass courts are very rare, because they are expensive to maintain and only last for a short while (the grass court season is only a few weeks long). One of the reasons Wimbledon is distinct among tennis tournaments is that the tournament is played entirely on grass courts. Grass courts have an interesting effect on tennis play: instead of a single flat surface, the court is effectively covered in a cushion of grass, which greatly reduces the ball’s speed and bounce height.

In addition to slowing down games, this means players are encouraged to intercept the ball near the net more often, and the ball is more difficult to return in general. Players much physically move lower when returning the ball because it loses so much bouncing force when making contact with the grass.

Scoring
To make things, brief, tennis’s scoring system resembles no other widely played professional sport. A match between two players is divided into sets, which are subdivided into games. A player must win a game by scoring at least 4 points, and scoring at least 2 points more than his opponent. If both players are tied at 4 points, then numerical scores are abandoned and the umpire instead tracks who has the “advantage” in the score.

Within a game, points are not individual. The first two points in a game are worth 15 points each, then 10. Thus, a player may have: 0, 15, 30, 40 points. After the 40th point comes the game-winning point, provided the player has at least a two-point advantage over his opponent.

A set is not composed of a particular number of games: instead, a player must win at least 6 games and have at least a 2-game lead over his opponent. Thus, the maximum score in a set could be 6-4. Otherwise, the advantage system used in games still applies here – the players continue to play games until one accrues a two-game lead over his or her opponent.

Match scoring counts the number of games and unlike the other forms of scoring, it does use a specific number, which is always odd to ensure a decisive winner. Most tournament matches for men and women are best-of-3 sets, but more prestigious games such as the “Grand Slams” of the US, Australian or French Opens, the men play a best-of-5 match.