Tennis is fun, can be highly competitive or social with a few of your friends. It is great for your fitness and co-ordination skills.

The rules of tennis are very simple and all you need to play is a racquet, a tennis ball, a court (with a net) and of course an opponent. If you can't find someone to play against, you can always practise your skills by hitting the tennis ball against a wall.

Understanding Tennis

Ball
A ball is made of two elastic hemispheres joined together and covered by a layer of wool and synthetic threads. Its colour must be yellow or white and its diametre between 6.54 and 7.3 cm. Its weight ranges from 56 to 59.49 gr.

Racket
The first Tennis rackets were wooden and their strings were made of sheep or bovine intestines. Tennis rackets today are made of technologically advanced material such as graphite and their stringed surface is made of synthetic threads. A racket must not exceed 73.66 cm in length and 31.75 cm in width.

Cyclops device
It is used to determine the ball's exact position with respect to the service line, as it lands on the court. Two such devices are used in each court, operated by the service line judge.

Net device
The device is placed on the net. It is used to determine if the ball touches the net during the service. When the ball touches the net, the device sends a signal to a small control panel in the umpire's hand.

Field of play

The court is a 23,77 m x 8,23 m rectangle for singles 23,77 m x 10,97 m rectangle for doubles. In fact the same court is used for both single and double contests and only line marks differ. The court is divided into two halves by a net, which extends at a height of 0.914 m.

There are four types of courts:

The Contest

Toss a coin to find out who serves first.

The server starts on the right hand side of the court and serves the ball, on the full, over the net to your side of the court. The ball must land in your service area which is diagonally across from the server. If it doesn't, a fault is called and the server is allowed to have another attempt. If on the second serve, a fault is called again - a double fault, the server will lose a point.

If the serve is successful, the receiver needs to return the ball within their opponents court area. The ball will then go back and forth - a rally, until someone makes a mistake.

Points are scored from 15 to 30 to 40 to game. If both players are 40, it is called a deuce and the next point won is 'advantage'. If the 'advantage' player wins the next point, they win that game. If not, it goes back to deuce and so on and so forth.

The one server serves for the duration of a game. Then the other player serves. The first player to 6 games and being 2 games in front of their opponent wins the set. Sometimes, if the game is tight, it will go to a tie break, and these are usually very exciting to watch because as soon as someone gets 2 points ahead, they win the set.
If you can get three friends together, you can play 'doubles'. The rules are very similar, but you have a little more court space.

source: http://www.cybersydney.com.au