Fault rules in tennis have to do with making a clean serve to start the point. A player who is serving can commit a fault with his feet or in how he hits the serve. In a competitive match, the chair umpire usually makes the calls on a foot fault and the net umpire calls service faults. In more casual matches, players may call such violations on themselves or each other.
Foot Fault
When a player is serving, he has to keep his feet behind the service line and between the imaginary extended center line and the imaginary extension of the singles sideline. He can have both feet in their as he serves, but he must take off from a point behind the service line. His feet cannot touch the line, either. The official rules of tennis also state that a server cannot "change position by walking or running," but that slight movement of the feet is permissible. That means the server's feet must be at rest before starting his serve, as opposed to a serve in volleyball, which often employs a runup and then a jump to serve the ball.
Service Faults
A service fault occurs when a player commits a foot fault or a specific serve-related infraction that includes missing the ball completely on a serve, serving the ball into a permanent structure, such as the net or the net post, or letting the served ball hit a playing partner or any part of the server or what she or her partner are wearing or carrying.
Fault Penalties
If a player commits a foot fault or a service fault, he can serve again. But if he commits a second fault or hits the ball out of bounds, he loses the point to his opponent on what is called a double fault. Play then goes to a second serve.
Let
A serve that hits the top of the net on a serve and goes into the proper service court is not considered a fault. Instead it is called a let and play is stopped. But instead of being penalized, as she would if the ball hit the net and bounced back onto her side of the court on a serve, the server simply gets to repeat the serve without any penalty.
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