TENNIS

Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket strung with a cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent’s court .The object of the game is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player unable to return the ball validly will not gain a points, while the opposite player will.

Playable at all levels of society and at all ages, tennis can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The original forms of tennis developed in France during the late Middle Ages. The modern form of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis. It had close connections to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport today called real tennis.

The rules of modern tennis have changed little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that until 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point-challenge system, which allows a player to contest the line call of a point, a system known as Hawk-Eye. The Sony-owned Hawk-Eye system was developed in the United Kingdom by Paul Hawkins. 

Tennis is played by millions of recreational players and is a popular worldwide spectator sport. The four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the majors) are especially popular and are considered the highest level of competition for the sport. These tournaments are the Australian Open, played on hardcourts; the French Open, played on red clay courts; Wimbledon, played on grass courts; and the US Open, also played on hardcourts. Additionally, tennis was one of the original Olympic sports, and has been consistently competed in the Summer Olympic Games since 1988.

For tie-breaks, the calls are simply the number of points won by each player:

History

The tennis scoring system is a standard widespread method for scoring tennis matches, including pick-up games. Some tennis matches are played as part of a tournament, which may have various categories, such as singles and doubles. The great majority are organised as a single-elimination tournament, with competitors being eliminated after a single loss, and the overall winner being the last competitor without a loss. Optimally, such tournaments have a number of competitors equal to a power of two in order to fully fill out a single elimination bracket. In many professional and top-level amateur events, the brackets are seeded according to a recognised ranking system, in order to keep the best players in the field from facing each other until as late in the tournament as possible; additionally, if byes are necessary because of a less-than-full bracket, those byes in the first round are usually given to the highest-seeded competitors.

A tennis match is composed of points, games, and sets. A set consists of a number of games (a minimum of six), which in turn each consist of points. A set is won by the first side to win six games, with a margin of at least two games over the other side (e.g. 6–4 or 7–5). If the set is tied at six games each, a tie-break is usually played to decide the set. A match is won when a player or a doubles team has won the majority of the prescribed number of sets. Matches employ either a best-of-three (first to two sets wins) or best-of-five (first to three sets wins) set format. The best-of-five set format is usually only used in the men’s singles matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

Game score

Description

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving. A game is won by the first side to win at least four points and have a margin of two points or more over their opponent. Normally, the server’s score is always called first and the receiver’s score second. Score calling in tennis is unusual in that (except in tie-breaks) each point has a corresponding call that is different from its point value. The current point score is announced orally before each point by the umpire, or by the server if there is no umpire.

For instance, if the server has won three points so far in the game, and the non-server has won one, the score is “40–15”.

When both sides have won the same number of points within a given game—i.e., when each side has won one, or two, points—the score is described as “15–all” and “30–all”, respectively. However, if each player has won three points, the score is called as “deuce”, not “40–all”. From that point on in the game, whenever the score is tied, it is described as “deuce” regardless of how many points have been played.

However, if the score is called in French (for example at the French Open), the first occurrence of “40–all” in a single game may be called as such (“40–A”, “quarante–A”, or “quarante partout”). Thereafter, “deuce” (“égalité” in French) is used for all other occurrences when the score returns to “40–all” within the same game.

In standard play, scoring beyond a “deuce” score, in which the players have scored three points each, requires that one player must get two points ahead in order to win the game. This type of tennis scoring is known as “advantage scoring” (or “adv”). The side that wins the next point after deuce is said to have the advantage. If they lose the next point, the score is again deuce, since the score is tied. If the side with the advantage wins the next point, that side has won the game, since they have a lead of two points. When the server is the player with the advantage, the score may be called as “advantage in”. When the server’s opponent has the advantage, the score may be called as “advantage out”. These phrases are sometimes shortened to “ad in” or “van in” (or “my ad”) and “ad out” (or “your ad”). Alternatively, the players’ names are used: in professional tournaments the umpire announces the score in this format (e.g., “advantage Nadal” or “advantage Williams“).

  ITF

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there are 211 national and six regional associations that make up the ITF’s membership.

The ITF’s governance responsibilities include maintaining and enforcing the rules of tennis, regulating international team competitions, promoting the game, and preserving the sport’s integrity via anti-doping and anti-corruption programs. The ITF partners with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to govern professional tennis.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass-roots to the professional levels. The association was created to standardize rules and regulations and to promote and develop the growth of tennis in the United States.

The USTA runs the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center which hosts the US Open every year.

The USTA has leagues in most places for adults skill levels between beginner and pro. The USTA also hosts tournaments across the country every weekend for club players or professionals.

In the USTA rule book (but not the ITF rules), there is the following comment: “ ’Zero’, ‘one’, ‘two’, and ‘three’ may be substituted for ‘Love’, ’15’, ’30’, and ’40’. This is particularly appropriate for matches with an inexperienced player or in which one player does not understand English.”