Tennis Court Regulations

Tennis is a popular racket game played around the world. It is played between two players (singles) or teams made up of two players apiece (doubles). The physical object of the game is to hit a tennis ball with a racket over the net so that it lands in bounds and hits the ground twice before the player or players on the other side can return it. Tennis is played on a variety of surfaces on a court that is intersected by a tennis net.

  1. Dimensions

    • A standard tennis court is a rectangle that is 78 feet long and 27 feet wide for singles and 36 feet wide for doubles.

    The net

    • The net cuts through the court making each side 39 feet wide. The net should be 3 1/2 feet high and extend to a post on each side of the court, with the center being 3 feet high. The fabric of the net should be sturdy enough that a ball can not go through it, and the cord along the top should be tight enough that a ball can bounce off of it.

    The court

    • The long sides of a tennis court rectangle are the sidelines and the short sides are the baselines. The space between the sidelines for singles and doubles are the tramlines. Service areas are made up of lines that run parallel on each side of the net. Those lines are 21 feet from the net. The service areas are split in half by a line, creating two service boxes on each side of the net.

    Surfaces

    • Tennis courts are typically made of one of four surfaces. The first and most prevalent in the United States is hardcourt, which is an asphalt or concrete surface. Another surface is grass, which is cut low, creating a softer surface that hardcourt. Clay is also used to surface tennis courts. Red clay, made from crushed brick, is a popular surface in Europe and South America. Green clay is made of natural clay and is used in the Eastern and Southern parts of the United States.

    Interesting Facts

    • In the 16th century, Henry VIII, the English king constructed a court in the Hampton Court Palace. In 1625, the court was rebuilt. In 1875, members of the All England Croquet Club decided to make one of the croquet lawns into a tennis court. Three years later, the Wimbledon tournament was played for the first time. In 1994, the first indoor grass tennis court was unveiled at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Germany.