🎾Tennis rules

Tennis is a racket sport played in singles (one against one) or doubles (two against two) on a court divided by a net. Each player hits the ball over the net into the opponent's half, aiming to make it impossible for the opponent to return legally. It is played on several surfaces such as clay, hard court and grass.

Win rallies by placing the ball in the opponent's side so they cannot return it within the rules, in order to win points, games, sets and ultimately the match.

• •The serve starts every point: you serve diagonally into the opposite service box.
• •The ball may bounce only once on the ground before it must be returned.
• •A ball touching any line counts as in (inside the court).
• •On serve you get two attempts; a second miss gives the point to the opponent (double fault).
• •Players change ends after the 1st game, then every two games.
• •In doubles the court is wider: the side tramlines (alleys) are in play, except on the serve.

Within a game, points are counted 15, 30, 40 then game, with 0 called "love". At 40-40 it is "deuce", and a player must then win two points in a row to take the game (advantage then game), except in a deciding-point format where the next point wins the game. Games are then strung together to win a set, and sets to win the match.

A match is played best-of-3 sets (2 sets to win) or best-of-5 sets (3 sets to win) depending on the competition. A set is usually played to 6 games with a 2-game lead, with a tie-break often deciding at 6-6. There is no time limit: the match lasts until a player reaches the required number of sets.

The match is won by the player or team that first wins the number of sets required by the format (2 of 3, or 3 of 5).