In tennis, two players compete (against each other) in the case of a singles match or two pairs of players (against each other) in the case of a doubles match. Each player, or pair of players, is assigned one half of the court ; the opposing half cannot be invaded. The aim of the game of tennis is to hit the ball with a racket, in different materials, to send it to the opposite half of the court, so that the opponent is not able to hit it again after the first bounce (he can be hit on the fly, with the exception of returning the serve) or so that she commits a foul.
Index
- The field
- The racket and the ball
- Start of the game and serve
- Get the point
- Special game situations
- Score
- Slow motion
- Types of tournaments
1 Single elimination tournaments
8.2 Group tournaments
8.3 Two-way draw tournaments
8.4 Progressive draw tournaments
The field
A tennis court has standard measurements and references, which allow you to play both singles and doubles matches:
- it is rectangular, 23.77 m long and 8.23 m wide for the single or 10.97 m for the double;
- it is divided in half by a net stretched between two lateral poles, 0.914 m high in the center and 1.07 m on the sides;
- in doubles, the net posts are positioned 0.914 m outside the sides of the pitch;
- the field is delimited at the back by the back lines, and laterally by the side lines;
- the service line is 6.40 m from the network and is parallel to it;
- the areas bounded by the service line and the net form the batting fields, divided into two equal parts by the central service line;
- the two end lines are divided in half by a central mark.
The racket and the ball
The racket is the most important game tool. Its standard length is 68 centimeters, but there are also a few centimeters longer rackets, weighing between 250 and 340 grams. The choice of the racket depends on the characteristics of each player. In fact, there are racquets of different lengths and weights. In addition, the racquet can have natural strings, in gut, or synthetic strings, in materials such as polyester and titanium or combinations of these. Natural ropes are more expensive, but are characterized by greater elasticity and greater tendency to be taut than synthetic ones, which, if taut, would be less elastic.
The tennis ball is made of rubber covered with felt: it has a diameter between 6.54 and 6.86 centimeters and a weight between 56 and 59.4 grams. In professional matches the balls used are always new, changed after 7 games from the start of the match and, subsequently, every 9 games. Although there are balls of different colors, the rules of professional level matches require them to be yellow, or sometimes (very rarely) white.
Start of the game and serve
Once the players have taken the field, the winner of a simple toss of the coin has the right to:
– decide whether to start the match with a joke or a response;
– decide in which half of the pitch to start the match;
– leave the choice to the opponent.
After the decision, the players have the opportunity to warm up for no more than 5 minutes.
Following the warm-up, the match always begins with the serve (serve). The server must have their feet out of bounds, behind the goal line, and to the right of the center mark. For the serve to be validated and the exchange between the two players to begin, the ball must cross the net and bounce off the batting field diagonally opposite to the one from which it is struck. The ball is considered to be in play even if it touches, even in a very small part, the lines that define the batting field on which the ball must bounce. In addition, during the duration of the service, the player must not commit a foot fault, which occurs in cases in which the player:
- walks or runs while serving;
- crosses the baseline with one or both feet before hitting the ball;
- touches with one or both feet the imaginary extension of the lateral lines;
- touches with one or both feet the imaginary extension of the central sign.
Another type of foul for the striker is a service foul, in cases where:
- the ball does not bounce on the diagonally opposite batting court;
- the player fails to hit the ball;
- the ball touches the serving player or his partner (in the case of doubles), or any object belonging to them.
Whether it is a foot fault or a service fault, the serving player has a second attempt. If even the latter is not considered valid by the touch judges and the chair judge, the player loses the point.
A particular case with regard to the service is given by the “null blow”, in English let. There is a null shot when the ball, while touching the net tape, bounces off the intended batting field or when the return player is not ready for objective reasons (for example, a disturbance to the inside the field or in the audience). If a hit of this type is considered void, the serve is repeated all over, regardless of whether the decision is made on the first or second attempt to serve. In recent years, to be sure that the ball has touched the net, a specific mechanism has been adopted that detects any touch of the tape.
Get the point
According to the rules of tennis, the point can be won in several cases:
- when the player serving makes a directly winning serve, without the opponent being able to touch the ball ( ace) or being able to send it back to the opposite court, despite touching it (winning service);
- when the player manages to bounce the ball twice in a row on the opponent’s court;
- when the opponent commits a double foul, i.e. misses the two services he has available, or makes an error during a rally, i.e. sends the ball into the net or out of bounds (for the ball to be declared out, it is necessary that rebounds off the pitch);
- when the opponent hits the ball before it is in his court or touches the net;
- when the opponent holds the ball on the racket or touches it twice;
- when the opponent touches the ball with objects other than the racket.
Special game situations
According to the rules of tennis, the game continues when:
- the ball bounces in the correct court after touching the net or the posts;
- the ball bounces in the correct field after passing sideways to the posts, even if below an imaginary continuation of the net;
- the ball is hit by the player on his own court, but the movement of the racket ends in the opponent’s one (without however touching the net);
- a ball lost on the court by one of the two players (it is not valid if the ball comes from another external court) is hit by the one in play, which remains the only one to hit in the continuation of the exchange.
Score
Each game is divided into sets, which in turn consist of games or games. In each game, each player starts from 0, then goes up to 15 after the first point, 30 after the second point and 40 after the third point. At the fourth point, the player wins the game. In case of 40-40, the two players are in an equal situation ( deuce , in English), in which whoever manages to get two consecutive points will win the game. After making the first of the two, you are in “advantage”, but if you lose the next point you are back in “parity”. When the number of games played in the set is odd, the players change sides.
The seemingly illogical succession of points derives from real tennis (see Real Tennis in Tennis), where 15, 30 and 40 were the minutes marked on the scoring clock.
The set, in most occasions, is won by the player who reaches 6 games won first, albeit with a gap of two from his opponent; a score of 7-5 is also allowed to win the set. At 6-6, to avoid going on to the bitter end, a special game is played, called a “ tie-break ”.
In the tie-break , unlike the previous games, the points follow the ordinary sequence (zero, one, two, three, etc.). After the first point, the two players take turns serving every two points, changing sides every six. The tie-break wins who arrives first to 7 points, always with a gap of two from the opponent, a condition without which one continues indefinitely. In the final result, the tiebreak will count as the thirteenth game and the player who won it will win the set with a score of 7-6.
In some events, the tie-break is not allowed as a decisive game of the final set of a match, in which it continues until a player prevails with two games of advantage over his opponent.
Most games are played best of three sets, i.e. won by the first player to win two sets, but in major men’s Grand Slam tournaments, games are played best of five sets, i.e. won by the first player to win three sets.
Slow motion
For some years now, a type of slow motion has been introduced in tennis available to players, called Hawk-Eye (in Italian “hawk eye”) or “Challenge”. Players may request this when they disagree with a call from the touch judges (for example, a ball called out but held on the court, or vice versa). At their request, which must be immediate, a replay of the shot in question will be viewed. If it is verified through Hawk-Eye that the line judge’s call was wrong, the chair judge decides, based on the game situation that had arisen, whether to replay the point or to award the point to one of the two players. .
Players have a limit of three calls per set available, with an additional one in case oftie-break , but if the replay proves them right, the call is not dropped to the remaining ones.
In case of Hawk-Eye malfunction , the call of the judges is considered valid. Although this rarely happens, the chair judge may reserve the right to refuse a player’s request if he deems it inappropriate (for example to waste time).
Hawk-Eye is a mechanism now widespread in all Grand Slam lathes, in all ATP Master 1000s and in many ATP Master 500s .
Types of tournaments
Different types of tournaments are played, depending on the level and events.
Single Elimination Tournaments
It is the most used tournament formula at the highest levels and in Grand Slam tournaments. In these tournaments, the loser is eliminated from the tournament. To avoid clashes between the most important players, the best participants are called “seeded” and are placed in a position of the board already determined and independent of the draw.
In some (few) cases, the players who are defeated in the first match are expected to participate in a consolation tournament, so that all participants play at least two games.
These include the Olympics , Grand Slam tournaments and the most important ATP tournaments (with the exception of the ATP World Tour Finals at the end of the year).
Group tournaments
In these tournaments, the participants are divided into groups or groups and must face the other players who are part of them. The first two players classified in a group qualify and go to face other qualified players from the other groups in single elimination matches.
On this formula, the ATP World Tour Finals are played at the end of the year.
Two-way draw tournaments
It is a particular tournament formula, whereby the board is divided into a left and a right part. Whoever wins the first match goes to the right side of the board, whoever is defeated moves to the left side instead. Such a scoreboard allows all participants to play four games.
Tournaments with progressive scoreboard
These are tournaments where whoever wins a draw (single elimination) gets to the next draw. The scoreboards are divided according to the level of the participants and this allows for balanced matches in the different scoreboards.
