The Basic Rules of Tennis
This is far from an extensive guide to the rules of tennis. Rather, this is intended to give the novice player enough information to play the game as intended.
The Serve
Each point begins with one player ("the server") standing completely behind the baseline and either to the left or right of the center mark on his side of the court. The server hits the ball over the net and diagonally across the court into the appropriate service box on his/her opponent's ("the returner") side of the court. (e.g. If a player serves from his left side of the center mark, then his serve must land in the returner's left service box.) The server gets two chances to begin the point with a legal serve that lands in the correct service box (each failed service attempt is called a "fault"). The server loses the point if he/she "double-faults" (he/she faults in each of the two service attempts for the point).
Loss of the Point
Below is a short of list of ways that a player can lose a point (or for his/her opponent to win a point) after a legal serve has been hit to begin the point.
- The player fails to hit a good return his/her opponent's shot. A good return is when the player hits the ball over the net so that it lands in-bounds on his opponent's court or makes any contact with his/her opponent before landing.
- The player fails to return his/her opponent's shot before it has bounced twice.
- The player or his racquet touch the net or netposts during the point.
- The player returns his/her opponent's shot with more than a single shot. Note: Hitting the ball two or more times with a single swing of the racquet is legal. But the instance of this kind of "double-contact" is rare and left to the discression of the referee.