Basic Rules of Lawn Tennis

Tennis is a sport that has been adapted to many surfaces for play around the world including clay, hard courts and grass. Lawn tennis refers to tournament play on grass courts. Wimbledon in England is the most popular lawn tennis tournament in the world–but there are other facilities that support the tradition of lawn tennis including the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association (ATLA). The basic rules of tennis apply to lawn tennis.

  1. Court Dimensions

    • Both singles and doubles matches are played on lawn tennis courts. Singles matches, where one player competes against another, is played on a court 27 feet wide and 39 feet long. The entire court length is 78 feet long divided by a net which is 3 feet high in the center. Doubles, where two teams of two players compete against each other, is played on a singles court that has "doubles alleys" added to the sides–making the court wider for two players. Each doubles alley extends from the sideline 4.5 feet. The grass is maintained 1/5 to 1/2 inch high.

    Scoring

    • A lawn tennis match is scored like other tennis matches. A game is won by the first player to win four points by at least two points. The first player to win six games by two games wins the set. Women play the best two out of three sets where men play either the best two out of three or three out of five set matches depending on the tournament.

      Points in a game are named: 0, 15, 30 and 40. Each game starts with the score zero-zero. The first point is "15," the second is "30" and the third is "40." If players reach 40-40, this is called deuce. The player to win the next point is said to have the advantage or "ad." If the player with "ad" wins the next point, the game is won. If the opponent wins the point, the score returns to deuce.

      Teams alternate serving and receiving serve during the match and switch court sides after every odd game. Odd games are the first, third, fifth and seventh games in each set.

    Penalties

    • There are several applicable penalties that players may encounter in tournament tennis. Players are given 25 seconds between each point. If players do not meet this 25 second rule, they may be given a warning for "delay of game." After a warning a point will be taken for another violation, followed by a game then the match for repeated violations. This rule also applies to changeovers where players have 90 seconds to sit, drink water and collect their thoughts. Some referees will be very liberal in the calling of delay of game if it is hot, both players are playing at the same tempo or there isn't protest from an opponent. Other penalties may occur for foul language, racket abuse or unsportsman-like conduct. All penalties follow the same warning, point, game and match order for penalization.