Tennis has many rules that cover playing the game, the equipment, court construction and more. Some rules can be used to help players gain an advantage or avoid a disadvantage. Knowing which rules give you an edge can help you outfox even the smartest opponent.
Coin Toss
Players toss a coin or spin a racket to determine who will serve or receive first. The winner of the toss has four options to help plan strategy: She can serve, receive, choose a side on which to start or defer to the opponent and make her choose. If you do not have a strong serve, you may wish to let your opponent serve first. If your opponent wins the toss and chooses to serve, you can choose the side that favors you. If you are playing doubles and one of your opponents serves right-handed, and one serves left-handed, deferring to them allows you to choose sides, forcing both to serve into the sun, or have their weaker player serve first in order to avoid serving into the sun.
Reasonable Pace
Points must start within 20 seconds of the previous point ending; however, the receiver must play to the reasonable pace of the server, which is considered 10 to 12 seconds. If the receiver is tired and the server is not, the server should try to start the next point sooner than later to prevent the receiver from catching his breath. If the server wishes to take the full 20 seconds because he is tired, the receiver may enforce the rule which states that players may not use the time in between points to regain condition.
Substitutions
In TeamTennis, players may substitute in for each other. A team may try to start one of their team matches with a weaker player to see if he can beat the opponent, substituting a stronger opponent if he can't. Once a player has left the match, he may not return.
Call Challenge
In professional tennis, players may challenge a call made by a linesperson. The call is reviewed by an electronic tracking system, which verifies whether the ball was in or out. If the challenged call was correct, the player loses one of her three challenges for that set. If the challenging player wins the challenge and the call is overruled, she does not lose a challenge. Players must decide whether or not to use a challenge based on how many challenges they have left, what the game score is (and how likely they are to win that game) and what the set score is.
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