Picture the scene: under a perfect blue sky, a perfect green tennis court awaits, split by gleaming white lines that match the sharp creases of your box-fresh white shorts… and, how do you score again?
Tennis is fantastic fun and fantastically simple at heart. When you start though, the scoring system can feel like it was designed by malicious surrealists. It was probably medieval French courtiers in reality. This guide will help you through from first serve to match point as sweetly and smoothly as strawberries and cream.
Reading between the lines
As you stroll down to your court, you should see a regular rectangle divided in two by a net, which should be 3 feet high at its centre point if you want to check.
If your court is marked out with a pair of lines on its longest sides that create a tramline effect, then it is suitable for singles and doubles play. Singles players can simply ignore the outer set of lines, and doubles players should play to the widest lines, except for when they are serving, when the court uses the singles lines. A centre line divides the service boxes into left and right, and should also be marked on the baseline, behind which you stand to serve.
The lines are considered part of the court in tennis, so a ball that lands on a line is “in” – hence all that fuss about chalk dust at Wimbledon.
Make your point
Tennis is a series of single-point battles that end when one player – or a pair in doubles – fail to play a legal return, meaning the opponent's score.
A legal shot must cross to your opponent’s side without bouncing on your side and it must bounce – or hit or be hit by your opponent – in their side of the court.
Fail to fulfil those criteria and you lose the point.
You also lose if you deliberately hit the ball twice (an accidental double hit means you play the point again). Hitting the ball with any part of your body, or with your racket when it isn’t in your hand also loses you the point. Running into the net costs you a point, as does playing the ball on your opponent’s side of the net - unless it has been blown or spun there after landing on your side. In doubles, hitting the ball after your partner also loses you a point.
The ball may legally strike the net as long as it crosses it eventually (with the exception of a serve). A shot under the net cord and between the net support and the net itself is legal, as is a shot around the net post, at any height, as long as it bounces legally in your opponent’s side of the court.
Service matters
The game starts with a serve. Who goes first is usually decided on a coin toss or the spin of a racket. You can score whether you have the serve or not in tennis, unlike in many racket sports.
You must serve with both feet behind the baseline and on the correct side of the court – start on your right-hand side, and serve diagonally into the opposite service box over both the net and the centre line.
You don’t have to toss the ball in the air for the serve to be legal, so feel free to go underhand if you’re having trouble, but it’s good manners to tell your opponent you’re going to.
If your serve hits the net cord (but no other part of court equipment) but is otherwise legal, then you get another bite of the cherry, and the chance to shout, “let!” at the top of your voice.
A legal serve starts a point, two illegal serves costs the server that point.
Points, games, sets and matches
Tennis is played in points: Four points win a game, six games win a set, and two or three sets win a match. You can decide how long you want your game to be but most matches are played as best-of-three or five set contests.
Service stays with one side for the duration of each of those four-point games, which – thanks tennis! – use a numerical sequence and French words that have no relation to actual values.
The sequence is:
0 points = love 1 point = 15 2 points = 30 3 points = 40 4 points = game
And that’s it!
Thanks again to tennis history you must win a game by at least two points, so if the two sides are drawn at 40 – 40 then “deuce” is called. The winner of the next point is awarded “advantage”, and can then win the game by taking the next point or be brought back to deuce if their opponent scores. There is no limit in the rules to the number of times players can tie at deuce.
All set?
At the end of a game, serve switches sides, and after the first, third, fifth and any subsequent odd-numbered games players should change ends too.
Each set is won by the first player to win six games with a lead of at least two games.
In all sets but the final set if the score reaches a 6 – 6 tie (rather than the highest possible 7 – 5 win) it triggers a tie-break.
In the final possible set (the third of three or the fifth of five, not just the last set of the match) there is no tie-break and the set continues until one player has made the two-game lead required to win: the world record in a professional game is the 70–68 “endless game” at Wimbledon 2010.
All tied and match point
A tie-break is won by the first player to score 7 points. The 15s, 30s, and 40s are dropped for simple numbers. The term “deuce” isn’t used, but the concept of the two-clear-point win remains.
The first serve is taken by the player who would have served next had the set continued. They serve first, their opponent serves the next two points, and then they swap after every two points. Ends are changed after every sixth point.
Again, there is no upper limit on the scoring needed to get that two-clear-point win. The world record is a 25 – 23 tiebreaker. The set is awarded 7 – 6 to the tie-break winner, with the tiebreak total added in brackets after that.
Sets make matches, and matches are played to a pre-arranged total as a best-of three or best-of-five contests. So, at 40 – love and 5 – 3 up in the final set you do finally get to call, “match point” and smash down that winning ace!
Extras
Doubles tennis is great fun, particularly on holiday, and you can apply all the rules above with the exception of the serve, which is taken by alternating players in each pair – so you serve every four games. The order that the serve is receivedmust also stay the same until the end of a set when you can change the service order and service reception order for the next set if you like.
Tennis has a long history of fair play and decorum that has made major scandals out of any rule stretching at pro level. Without an umpire and line judges, the players themselves are the only law on where balls bounced, whether a net cord was struck and so on. Traditionally, you make decisions on your side of the net and are expected to police your own behaviour too.
The server should keep track of the score and announce it at the start and finish of every point. Any disputed calls are probably best played again. And remember, it might be one of the greatest games but it is only a game!
Join us this summer for a game with one of our tennis holidays. Our Alana Beachclub offers six tennis courts, while Buca offers seven courts and a premium tennis package, which you can book. We’ll see you on the court!
