Lawn Tennis Rules & Regulations

Lawn tennis is the sport of tennis played on a grass court. The grass is maintained at 19 mm to keep the surface soft while allowing the ball to still bounce. The sport was established in England and has been etched in history with the popularity of the Wimbledon Championships. The rules have been standardized by the International Tennis Federation, which regulates rules for worldwide tennis.

  1. Tennis Rules

    • Tennis is played by two or four people on a court that is 78 feet long and 27 feet wide (36 feet wide for doubles). The net is 36 inches in the center of the court and 42 inches at the net posts. Players must serve a ball from the right side of the court into the diagonal service box over the net. The tennis ball must bounce on the return of serve, but once the ball is in play, competitors may allow the ball to bounce once or hit it in the air. The serve may be overhand or underhand but must be tossed at least 6 inches prior to being struck and can not bounce prior to being hit. A player has two attempts to get the serve in, otherwise they lose the point (double fault).

    Scoring

    • Players alternate sides of serving and win the game when they have won four points by a margin of at least two. Traditional scoring is called "ad scoring" and is counted as: love, 15, 30, 40. Deuce represents both sides having 40 where players will still need to win by a margin of two, thus the score goes into an "ad" to the side that is ahead with deuce bringing it back to a level game. To win a set, 6 games need to be won by a margin of two. At 6-6 a tiebreaker is normally played where the first player to win 7 points wins.

    Boundaries

    • The court is divided into a series of lines that mark the boundaries of the inside of the court. If a ball lands within the boundaries it is in play. If the ball hits the white line (titanium paste referred to as chalk), it is also still in play. If it is a singls match, a match between two people, the boundaries are narrower, not including the alley, which are the two long rectangles down the sides of the court. These alleys extend the court by 6 feet, 3 on each side, and are used when there are four players on the court, called a doubles match.