Who Starts?

Before warming up with your opponent, either player or team will spin their racquet and the winner of the spin will have some options to choose from. They can choose one of these 3 options:

• To serve or receive
• The side of the court
• Or defer their choice to their opponent --but the opponent cannot defer back

Once the winner of the toss chooses one of the options above, the opponent has the remaining choice. 

Warm Up

• 5 minute warm up
• Rally baseline to baseline
• Rally baseline to volleyer, swap roles
• Practice serves, catch the opponents serve & serve it back

General Rules to know

• The ball is only allowed a maximum of one bounce, unless its wheelchair tennis then two bounces are allowed.
• If you hit a tennis ball that is in the playing area & the opponent cannot get the ball into play, it is your point.
• When serving you must stand behind your baseline & serve into the diagonal front box (service box).

• If after the serve has landed in, the ball touches the net but still goes in, play on, do not replay.
• Returners must let the serve bounce before hitting it back, otherwise you lose the point.
• If the ball hits a player before touching the floor then it is the opponents point.

• The ball must land within the court lines or on the line for play to continue.
• If the serve hits the net but goes in the correct box its a let & replayed
• Players cannot touch the net or cross onto the opponents side.
• If you swing & miss on your serve it counts as a missed serve.

• If the ball touches the line in anyway, yes it is still in!
• Players cannot catch or hit the ball twice.
• Players are allowed 2 serves per point.

Singles vs Doubles

• The singles court is made up of the front boxes & the back box
• The doubles court includes the tramlines (alleyways)
• The serve must still land in the correct box to start!

Scoring a Game

• 0 points= Love
• 1 point = 15
• 2 points= 30
• 3 points= 40
• Tied score= All
• 40-40 = Deuce
• Server wins deuce point = Ad-In
• Receiver wins deuce point = Ad-Out
• Game

Who wins the game?

In order to win the game, a player must win at least four points. If you are up 40-30, 40-15 or 40-love, and win one more point, you win the game. If the score is tied in a game or set, you use the term “all” when announcing the score. For example, if you and your opponent have both won two points in the game, the score would be 30-all.

What is Deuce?

The only time this is different is when both you and your opponent have won three points each and the score is 40-40. This is called deuce. When the score reaches deuce, one player or team will need to win at least two points in a row to win the game. When the server wins the deuce point, it is called Ad-In, but when they lose the deuce point, it is called Ad-Out. If the team with the advantage (Ad-In or Ad-Out) wins another point, they win the game, or it goes back to deuce.

Changing Ends

Players or teams change ends of the court on odd games. This means that after the first game is complete, they change ends, as well as every two games after that. If you are playing a tiebreak, you change ends after every 6 points played.

Type of Play: Advantage Set

In an advantage set, a player or team needs to win six games, by two clear, to win the set. This means that there is no tiebreak game played at 6-6. The set continues until one player/team wins by two games.

Type of Play: Tiebreak Set

In a tiebreak set, a player or team needs to win six games wins a set. If the score gets to 5-5 (5-all), one player must win the next two games to win the set. However, if the score reaches 6-6 (6-all) in the set, a tiebreak is played, which is first to 7 points by two clear.

Type of Play: Championship Tiebreak

If the score is tied at 1 set all, you may opt to play a Championship Tiebreak to decide the match winner. This tiebreak is the first player to 10 points by 2 clear wins.

Scoring a Tiebreak

In a tiebreak, the next person who was due to serve will start the tiebreak, and serve one point on the deuce side of the court. The following two points will then be served by the opponent starting on the ad side. In doubles, the player on the opposing team due to serve will serve these points.

• Point 1: Player A
• Point 2: Player B
• Point 3: Player B
• Point 4: Player A
• Point 5: Player A
• Point 6: Player B
• Point 7: Player B
• Point 8: Player A
• Point 9: Player A
• …

Players or teams switch ends of the court every six points (e.g. when the score is 4-2), and to score this tiebreak game, you use, “zero” “one”, “two”, “three”, etc. The first player or team to win seven points, by two, wins the tiebreak. This means the score can end up being very high (e.g. 15-13) or as low as 7-0 through 7-5.  Whoever wins the tiebreak game, wins the set by a score of 7-6. 

Serving after a Tiebreak

Since the set is an odd-numbered score (7-6), whichever end of the court the players or teams ended up on when the tiebreak game finished, they will need to switch sides to start the next set. Whoever started serving the tiebreak game will be receiving serve in the first game of the next set. 

Extras

Have you ever been unsure of the rules during your tennis match? The USTA have a handy website where they have covered additional rules of the game and questions that have come up in matches, please visit: www.usta.com/en/home/improve/tennis-rules.html to learn more.

If there are any additional rules or information that you think would be useful to have on this page, please let us know by emailing: parkstennis@elmbridge.gov.uk