Tennis Terms Explained

• Tennis Terms Game
• Tennis Terms Explained Chart
• Tennis Terms Ace
• List Of Tennis Terms
• Tennis Terms Explained Definition

If you don’t play tennis regularly it can be easy to be confused by the jargon and specific terminology that is used within the sport. Thankfully much of it is very easy to understand even beginners of the sport. So here is our guide to a range of different commonly-used tennis terms to make it easier for you when you are out on the court.

Game – unlike a ‘game of football’, a game in tennis is only one small section of the match. Each match is made up of at least two sets, and these sets comprise a number of games.

Universal Tennis Ratings (UTR) is a system that accurately tracks a player's skill. Age, ethnicity, gender, etc., are factors that do not affect the rating. A person with a tennis rating of 1.0 is essentially new to tennis and first stepping out onto the court.

• Tennis terminology, volume 1. If you're new to tennis, don't be intimidated by the game's lingo. We're here to break down tennis terminology. Let's start with the court. Baseline - This is where you'll hit your groundstrokes and serve. It's the line that runs parallel to the net at the back of the court, farthest from the net and closest to the.
• A tennis match is composed of points, games, and sets. A set consists of a number of games (a minimum of six), which in turn each consist of points. A set is won by the first side to win 6 games, with a margin of at least 2 games over the other side (e.g.

Set – the match is split into sections known as sets – typically a match will be a best of three sets so you need to win two sets to win the match, although in Grand Slam events such as Wimbledon, men’s matches are best of five. A set is won by the first player to win six games (by a margin of two games). If the set reaches six games each a tiebreak is played.

Tiebreak – played at a score of 6-6 in a set, the tiebreak is used to determine the winner of the set. It is played in a sequence of two service points for one player, then two for the other, and repeat until one player has won seven points (by a margin of two points).

Scoring system – the scoring system for games in tennis might seem unusual. Zero is referred to as ‘love’, winning the first point is ‘15’, winning the second is ‘30’ and winning the third is ‘40’.

Deuce – if the score in a game reaches 40-40, this is known as deuce. Players are then required to win two consecutive points to win the set. Winning the first is announced as ‘advantage’ – if the opponent is able to win the next point, the score returns to deuce.

Serve – the shot that starts each point, which is hit from behind the baseline.

Ace – when a player serves and their opponent can’t hit the ball to return it.

Fault – when a player serves and the ball does not touch anywhere in the service box. On the first fault the player is forced to hit their second serve.

Double Fault – if a player faults on their second service it is known as a double fault and they lose the point.

Let – when a player hits a serve and the ball hits the net but still lands in the service box, this does not count as a fault, but the serve must be re-taken.

Volley – when a player hits the ball back without it bouncing.

Smash – a powerful spot played from above a player’s head in a similar motion to the serve.

Forehand – a shot hit with the palm facing forwards.

Backhand – a shot hit with the back of the hand facing forwards.

Lob – when a player is standing close to the net and their opponent hits the ball high over their head but it still lands in, this is known as a lob.

• History
  • Outstanding players
• Play of the game

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Tennis Terms Game

Tennis Terms Explained Chart

Tennis, original name lawn tennis, game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly strung rackets to hit a ball of specified size, weight, and bounce over a net on a rectangular court. Points are awarded to a player or team whenever the opponent fails to correctly return the ball within the prescribed dimensions of the court. Organized tennis is played according to rules sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body of the sport.

Tennis originally was known as lawn tennis, and formally still is in Britain, because it was played on grass courts by Victorian gentlemen and ladies. It is now played on a variety of surfaces. The origins of the game can be traced to a 12th–13th-century French handball game called jeu de paume (“game of the palm”), from which was derived a complex indoor racket-and-ball game: real tennis. This ancient game is still played to a limited degree and is usually called real tennis in Britain, court tennis in the United States, and royal tennis in Australia.

The modern game of tennis is played by millions in clubs and on public courts. Its period of most rapid growth as both a participant and a spectator sport began in the late 1960s, when the major championships were opened to professionals as well as amateurs, and continued in the 1970s, when television broadcasts of the expanding professional tournament circuits and the rise of some notable players and rivalries broadened the appeal of the game. A number of major innovations in fashion and equipment fueled and fed the boom. The addition of colour and style to tennis wear (once restricted to white) created an entirely new subdivision of leisure clothing. Tennis balls, which historically had been white, now came in several hues, with yellow the colour of choice. Racket frames, which had been of a standard size and shape and constructed primarily of laminated wood, were suddenly manufactured in a wide choice of sizes, shapes, and materials, the most significant milestones being the introduction of metal frames beginning in 1967 and the oversized head in 1976.

While tennis can be enjoyed by players of practically any level of skill, top competition is a demanding test of both shot making and stamina, rich in stylistic and strategic variety. From its origins as a garden-party game for ladies in whalebone corsets and starched petticoats and men in long white flannels, it has evolved into a physical chess match in which players attack and defend, exploiting angles and technical weaknesses with strokes of widely diverse pace and spin. Tournaments offer tens of millions of dollars in prize money annually.

History

Origin and early years

There has been much dispute over the invention of modern tennis, but the officially recognized centennial of the game in 1973 commemorated its introduction by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. He published the first book of rules that year and took out a patent on his game in 1874, although historians have concluded that similar games were played earlier and that the first tennis club was established by the Englishman Harry Gem and several associates in Leamington in 1872. Wingfield’s court was of the hourglass shape and may have developed from badminton. The hourglass shape, stipulated by Wingfield in his booklet “Sphairistiké, or Lawn Tennis,” may have been adopted for patent reasons since it distinguished the court from ordinary rectangular courts. At the time, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was the governing body of real tennis, whose rules it had recently revised. After J.M. Heathcote, a distinguished real tennis player, developed a better tennis ball of rubber covered with white flannel, the MCC in 1875 established a new, standardized set of rules for tennis.

Meanwhile, the game had spread to the United States in the 1870s. Mary Outerbridge of New York has been credited with bringing a set of rackets and balls to her brother, a director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. But research has shown that William Appleton of Nahant, Massachusetts, may have owned the first lawn tennis set and that his friends James Dwight and Fred R. Sears popularized the game.

An important milestone in the history of tennis was the decision of the All England Croquet Club to set aside one of its lawns at Wimbledon for tennis, which soon proved so popular that the club changed its name to the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. In 1877 the club decided to hold a tennis championship, and a championship subcommittee of three was appointed. It decided on a rectangular court 78 feet (23.8 metres) long by 27 feet (8.2 metres) wide. They adapted the real tennis method of scoring—15, 30, 40, game—and allowed the server one fault (i.e., two chances to deliver a proper service on each point). These major decisions remain part of the modern rules. Twenty-two entries were received, and the first winner of the Wimbledon Championships was Spencer Gore. In 1878 the Scottish Championships were held, followed in 1879 by the Irish Championships.

There were several alterations in some of the other rules (e.g., governing the height of the net) until 1880, when the All England Club and the MCC published revised rules that approximate very closely those still in use. The All England Club was the dominant authority then, the British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) not being formed until 1888. In 1880 the first U.S. championship was held at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. The victor was an Englishman, O.E. Woodhouse. The popularity of the game in the United States and frequent doubts about the rules led to the foundation in 1881 of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association, later renamed the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association and, in 1975, the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA). Under its auspices, the first official U.S. national championship, played under English rules, was held in 1881 at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. The winner, Richard Sears, was U.S. champion for seven consecutive years.

Tennis had taken firm root in Australia by 1880, and the first Australian Championships were played in 1905. The first national championships in New Zealand were held in 1886. In 1904 the Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia (later of Australia) was founded.

Tennis Terms Ace

The first French Championships were held at the Stade Français in 1891, but it was an interclub tournament that did not become truly international until 1925; the French Federation of Lawn Tennis was established in 1920. Other national championships were inaugurated in Canada (1890), South Africa (1891), Spain (1910), Denmark (1921), Egypt (1925), Italy (1930), and Sweden (1936). In 1884 a women’s championship was introduced at Wimbledon, and women’s national championships were held in the United States starting in 1887.

List Of Tennis Terms

Tennis Terms Explained Definition