Lawn tennis, once the "Sport of Kings," has evolved into an affordable game, thanks to efforts by the International Tennis Federation, Tennis Industry Association and U.S. Tennis Association to make the sport more accessible to the masses. You can start playing the game with a pair of sneakers, a racket and some balls, outfitting yourself more extensively as you get more interested in the sport.
Rackets
Tennis rackets come in many different makes and models, offered in three categories: Game Improvement rackets for beginners; Tweener rackets for intermediates; and Player's rackets for advanced players. While the more expensive models cost greater than $200 to buy, grip and string, you can find dependable rackets, often made by the same Chinese manufacturer who makes many of the name-brand rackets, at big box retailers for as little as $10.
Balls
Tennis balls come in cans of three or four, and you can find them in grocery stores, large retailers and tennis specialty shops for around $2 to $3 per can. They are least expensive in the U.S. because of the attempts of the large discount retailers to lure affluent tennis players, who need to buy balls more frequently, into their stores.
Strings
You don't hit the ball with the racket, you hit it with the strings, and this important fact has led to the development of myriad string technologies, techniques and certified racket stringers. You can buy rackets pre-strung, or you can talk with a racket stringer to see what type of string and what tension will work best in your racket, based on your style of play.
Accessories
If you play regularly, you'll want a tennis bag to carry items like balls, sweat bands, elbow braces, hats, sunglasses, extra grip wrap to keep handles dry, vibration dampeners to give the racket a better feel by absorbing string vibration, and non-tennis items like your purse or wallet, car keys, cell phone and dry shirts. You can buy replacement grips if you live in a warm climate and sweat soaks into your handle on a regular basis, or overgrips---made from a thinner material to keep handle grips dry---if you don't sweat too much or too often.
Shoes
Shoes made specifically for tennis feature construction that addresses your side-to-side movements, which running shoes don't need. Tennis shoes do not have black soles, which leave marks on the court. Many tennis facilities do not allow black-soled shoes on the court, due to these marks.
Court Accessories
Tennis facilities provide a variety of court equipment, such as a net, net strap, garbage can attached to the net or fence, score board, umpires chair, water coolers, squeegees for drying courts, windscreens for fences, ball machines, backboards, brushes and line-clearing tools for maintaining clay courts, and ball baskets.
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