They say love means nothing to a tennis player, and if you understand that double-entendre, you're already well on your way to grasping the most difficult part of the tennis rulebook. Get past the quirky scoring system, and the rest of the rules of tennis are extremely clear-cut and leave little room for interpretation. A ball is either in or out, it either cleared the net or it didn't, it either bounced once or twice.
Court Dimensions
A singles tennis court is 78 feet long and 27 feet wide. The boundaries are marked by baselines and sidelines, and a ball that lands on a line is considered in. A net that stands 3 feet, 6 inches tall at the sides and 3 feet tall at the center divides the court in half. Each player in singles must defend an area that is 49 feet long and 27 feet wide. The other lines on the court make up the service box. Two lines that run parallel to the net and 21 feet away on each side mark the back of the service box. Those lines are divided in half by the center service line. A player is responsible for calling balls on his side of the net. When in doubt, the ball should be called good. Players switch sides of the court after every odd-numbered game.
Serving
Each point starts with a serve. The server stands behind the baseline and hits the ball over the net and into the service box diagonally across the net. A server gets two chances to put the ball in play. The first miss is called a fault and the second one is called a double-fault, which results in a point for the returner. If a server's feet touch the line before contact, it is a fault. If the serve hits the top of the net and lands in the correct service box, it is a do-over. The server alternates sides each point, but always starts on the right. After each game, the server becomes the receiver and the receiver becomes the server.
Rally
The player who is receiving serve must let the ball bounce prior to hitting it. After that, players can hit the ball before it bounces, called a volley, or after one bounce, called a groundstroke. If a ball bounces twice, the point is over. A player can only strike the ball once, and if the ball hits any part of a player except his racket the point is lost. If a player touches the net with any part of his body or his racket, he loses the point.
Scoring
Now for the tricky part. In tennis, zero is called "love," and a tie score is called "all." Each game starts with the score at love-all. The first point of a game is called "15," the second "30" and the third "40." The fourth point for one player constitutes a game. Unless, that is, the score is 40-all, also known as deuce. In that case, a player must win two points in a row to win the game. The first point after deuce would either give advantage to the server, often called "ad-in," or the advantage to the receiver, called "ad-out." If the server wins the "ad-in" point, he wins the game. If he loses it, it's back to deuce. The server should call out the score prior to each point. When a player gets to six games leading by two, he wins the set. Most matches are best-out-of-three sets but can be best-of-five.
Tiebreaker
In some tournaments, play continues on if a set is tied 6-6. In most cases, however, a tiebreaker follows. The most common type of tiebreaker awards the set to the first player who gets to seven or more points leading by two. Oddly, a tiebreaker abandons the 15, 30, 40 scoring format for a more logical 1, 2, 3 method. The player whose turn it is to serve starts the tiebreaker by serving one point. The players then serve two points each until somebody wins.
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