The United States Tennis Association (USTA) belongs to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and follows all ITF rules for tennis. Except where the rules indicate an exception, all of these rules apply to both men's and women's tennis. Whether you play singles or doubles tennis at the amateur or professional level, you will have to follow certain basic rules.
Standard Court
The standard tennis court measures 78 feet long for both singles and doubles. The standard singles court measures 27 feet wide, and the standard doubles court measures 36 feet wide.
A net divides the court in half. The net measures 3 feet at the center and 3 1/2 feet at the sides. The court's boundaries include baselines at either end of the court and singles and doubles sidelines along the sides of the court.
A service line runs parallel to the net and 21 feet behind it on each side of the court. The center service lines run perpendicular to the net and divide the spaces between the service line and net into two equal parts. Center marks divide the baselines in half.
Starting Play
If you win the coin toss before the match, you have the opportunity to make one of two choices. You can choose whether to serve or receive first or you can choose which side you want to play on first. Whichever choice you take, your opponent gets the other. If you choose to serve first in the first game, your opponent will serve first in the second game, and you will continue to alternate serves every game. Players change sides after every odd game, and after every six points in a tie-break game.
Serving
You must serve from behind the baseline. On your first serve, you must stand to the right of the center mark. On the second serve, you must stand to the left of the center mark. Continue to serve from alternate sides of the court. You must toss the ball and hit it out of the air to serve. The serve must travel cross-court and land in the service box diagonally opposite the side you served from.
You have two opportunities to serve the ball for each point. If you touch the baseline with either foot during the serve, you commit a fault and lose that serve. If the ball hits the net and falls in-bounds within the service court, the referee will call a "let" and you can replay the serve. If a "let" occurs on the second serve, you do not replay the point. If a fault occurs on the second serve, you lose the point.
Winning Points
You win points in tennis by hitting a serve or shot in-bounds to your opponent's court that your opponent cannot return. Balls that hit the court's lines fall in bounds. If your opponent serves two faults, cannot reach the ball before it bounces twice, hits the ball twice or hits the ball out of bounds, you win the point.
Scoring
You must win four points to win a game, and you must win by a margin of two. Zero, one, two, three and four points in a regular game are expressed as "love," "15," "30," "40" and "game." If you and your opponent both win three points, the score is expressed as "deuce." In a tie-break game, you must win seven points to win and you must win by a margin of two. You must win six games to win a set. In an advantage set, you must win by a two-game margin. In a tie-break set, if both players reach six games, a tie-break game determines the winner of the set.
Individual tournaments must announce the set format they will follow. Depending on the competition, you must win either the best-of-three sets or the best-of-five sets to win the match. Individual tournaments must also announce the number of sets that players must win to win a match. In most tournaments, women must win the best-of-three sets.
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