Male and female professional tennis players play by the same rules except for one notable exception: on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour, men play best-of-five set matches in the major tournaments, whereas women play best-of-three set matches. The four major tournaments include the French Open, Australian Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon. Aside from these particular scoring differences, the rules of tennis are universal.
General Rules
The game consists of matches contested between two individual players in singles or two teams of two players in doubles. The major difference between singles and doubles tennis concerns the boundaries of the court. In singles, a ball that you hit into the doubles alleys--the two long strips on either side of the court--is called out-of-bounds, whereas it is called in-bounds in doubles tennis. Points are played the same. You and your opponent must strike a tennis ball back and forth. If you strike it beyond the boundaries of the court, it is called out and the point goes to your opponent. If you let the ball bounce twice on your side before striking it, the point goes to your opponent. If you hit a ball into the net, the point goes to your opponent. Any ball that lands on a boundary line is called in-bounds.
Serving
In tennis, you serve for an entire game before yielding serve to your opponent. In doubles, you and your partner may decide who serves first, then when serve returns to your team the other player serves. When serving the first point of a game, you must stand behind the right side of the baseline, toss the ball into the air and strike it before it hits the ground. The ball must land in service box to your left on your opponent's side. If it lands outside the box or lands into the net, a fault is called. If you fault twice, the point goes to your opponent and you serve a new point from the left side of your court. You alternate your serve position with each new point. If on a serve the ball hits the top of the net and falls into the correct service box, it is called a let and you get another chance. A foot-fault occurs when your foot crosses the base line or the imaginary extension of the center or sideline. Two foot-fault amount to a double-fault and the point is awarded to your opponent.
Scoring
A men's tennis match usually consists of the best-of-three sets, though in the major tournaments they are the best-of -five sets. A set consists of a group of games won by the first player to reach a score of six games and have a two-game margin over his opponent. If neither player can achieve a two-game margin over the other and the game score becomes six to six, a tiebreak may be played. Tiebreaks are played to seven points, with the players alternating serve every two points. The first player to reach seven wins the tiebreak, so long as he achieves a two-point margin over the other player. Play continues beyond seven until one player achieves a two-point margin. When the tiebreak is won, the set is decided. Each game starts at love-love--tennis terminology for zero to zero. The first player to win a point gets a score of 15, then 30, then 40 with each consecutive point. A player wins a game when he has 40 and scores the next point. However, if the other player has a score of 40 as well, they are tied in what is called deuce. From deuce, a player must win two consecutive points to win the game. If a player wins one, then loses the next, the score returns to deuce.
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