Most high school sports are governed by the National Federation of High School Sports. High school tennis, on the other hand, has its rules determined by the United States Tennis Association, or USTA. This allows players to be prepared for the college and pro game as soon as they graduate from high school without any need to adjust to new rules.
Objective
In tennis, the main objective is to hit a green tennis ball over the net to your opponent's side of the court. There are numerous ways to score points. These include hitting the ball in the court so that your opponent is unable to hit it, forcing your opponent to hit the ball out of bounds and forcing your opponent to hit the net.
Serve
On a serve, the player must stand behind the out-of-bounds line, also known as the service line. Take the first serve from the right side of the court, the second serve from left side of the court and then continue to go back and forth.
When you serve, you must hit the ball over the net and it must land on the box on the front, opposite side of the court. If the ball fails to go over the net or does not land in the box, the player receives a fault and is allowed to serve again. If a player gets two faults during the same serve, he double-faults and his opponent receives a point. If the ball hits the net, then goes over and lands in the correct box, it is called a let. The player is then allowed to serve again with no penalty; this does not count as a fault.
After a serve is hit legally into the correct box, the players volley back and forth until the point is won. The ball can be hit at any time during a volley, as it does not have to bounce before a player can hit it. On a serve, however, the ball must bounce before it can be hit.
Players switch sides after the first game of the match, then switch every two games after that.
Scoring
A point is awarded on every volley, regardless of who serves. There are four points in a game: 15, 30, 40 and game. A player must win by two points. If the score is 40-30, the server can win the game by winning the volley. If the score is 40-40, however, the game goes to deuce, which means that a player has to win by two points. In deuce, when a player wins the first point, she has an "advantage." If she wins the second point, she wins the game. If she loses the second point, the game returns to deuce.
Sets
In order to win a set, a player must win six games. A player also must win the set by two games. If both players are tied at five games, a player is able to win 7-5. However, if both players have won six games in the set, they go to a tiebreaker.
High school tennis follows the USTA rules. For a tiebreaker that is not in a tournament, the players switch off serving every volley. Points are awarded in increments of one. The first person to reach seven points wins the tiebreaker and the set. A player must win by two, so the tiebreaker continues until a player has two more points than his opponent.
In a tournament, there is no tiebreaker. Players continue playing games until one has won two more games than the opponent.
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