Are you one of those who would love to play a game of tennis but clueless as to where to begin? Well, the easiest way to make an entry is to take up a few lessons, get hold of a tennis-playing friend and start hitting out at the court. If you feel embarrassed to look like a greenhorn in front of others, here are some basic rules and principles which can help you get started:
• What are the items needed to play a game of tennis? You need a racquet, a number of tennis balls and of course a tennis court.
• What do those lines which you see painted on the court mean? Service Lines: These are parallel lines which appear closest to both sides of net. Baseline: The parallel lines which run furthest away from the net. The Alleys: These are two long narrow strips which are situated perpendicular to the net.
• When there are only two players on the court, it is a singles match and if the ball bounces in the alley area, they are not counted as they are considered ‘out’. When however, there are four players on the court, or during a doubles match, the alley areas are considered ‘in’.
• As you have noticed, each game starts with a ‘serve’ by a serving player who stands behind the baseline which is situated on the right hand side of the serving player. He hits the ball into the service box, an area which is situated on the opposite side of the court between the alley and mid-court.
• To consider the serve as a good one, the ball must bounce at least once in the service box area.
• The serving player gets two chances to hit the box area. In case he misses both the times, his opponent is rewarded with a point.
• As the server sends out his ball right it is now time for the opponent to hit the ball. This he can do before the ball bounces, if he is completely confident where the ball is going to fall or after one bounce. If the ball bounces more than once, the serving player gets one point. The opponent can hit the ball which must go over the net and call anywhere on the server’s side
• The ball is played in this manner by the both the players till someone misses the ball. In this case, the person who did not miss the ball is awarded a point.
• There serving player is switched after every serve.
• The winner of the game is the player who scores at least four points and wins by two points.
• The next set is played after the serving player is switched and the game continues till there is a winner. Usually to win a set, a player has to win at lest 6 games and score 2 more than his rival.
• A match consists of multiple sets with the winning player wins most sets.
The information given above is simply the basic of playing the game. There are plenty of strategies and tricks to learn about the game which professionals use. But then playing tennis using these basic techniques can be fun as well as keep you physically fit.
