Love the Advantage — The basics of tennis for absolute beginners

Anyone can learn how to play tennis if you get to know the basic rules and scoring system. Even if you are not interested in playing but like to watch, then knowing more will give you a better understanding of the game.

Tennis can be played with either two people — singles — or four people — doubles — and the only equipment required is a tennis racket each, a tennis ball, and a tennis court.

There is specialist gear you can wear but if you’re just starting out you can wear any type of trainers or sneakers so long as they’re suitable for the surface of the tennis court you’re using.

The lines of play

The court is marked out with a series of lines and the net goes across the middle of the court. The service line, which the server must stand behind, runs parallel to the net at the end of the court and there’s another line parallel and closer to the net which represents the service box. A service must go into the service box to be considered ‘in play’.

On the sides of the court there are two parallel lines on left and right that mark the edges and which are often known as ‘tram lines’. The inner line is the boundary for singles tennis while the outer line is the boundary if you are playing doubles. If the ball goes outside of these lines it is ‘out’ of play and the person who hit the ball out sees their opponent gain a point.

Serving it up

To start a game of singles tennis, one player takes the service which means to serve the ball over the net into the other player’s side of the court and into the service box on their side. If the serve is outside the box the server gets a second service to try again. If the serve is out a second time then the server is said to have ‘double-faulted’ and their opponent gains a point.

The server for each game starts on the right-hand side of the court and alternates side for each point.

If the serve is hit into the service box, then the receiver hits the ball back into the server’s court. This continues until either a player hits the ball out of play beyond the boundary lines, the ball is hit into the net or a player fails to return the ball into play. If both players trade shots with each other it is called a ‘rally’.

When the point is won by either player, the player serving serves the ball again. Each game sees a player alternate on serving.

The tennis point-scoring system

The point-scoring system is unique to tennis and uses the term ‘love’ to mean zero and uses a progression of 15, 30, and 40. You can win a game of tennis in a minimum of four points, which would be: 15-love, 30-love, 40-love, game. The server’s points total always goes first, so if the receiver won a game in the minimum of four points, the scoring would be: love-15, love-30, love-40, game.

If a game is more closely contested it could be, for example, 15-love, 15-all, 30-15, 30-all, 40-30, game. ‘All’ is used as the score being equal, so for 15-all each player would have won one point each (15-15).

If the score reaches 40-40 it is called ‘Deuce’ and a player has to win two consecutive points to win a game. The winner of the next point following ‘Deuce’ is said to have the ‘Advantage’ (also known as ‘Van’ or ‘Ad’) and will then win the game if they win the following point. If they lose the following point the score will revert to ‘Deuce’.

It’s all much simpler than it sounds once you start playing.

Players change ends on the odd numbers of game totals, so you would change ends after one, game, three games, five games, etc.

Set for victory

The player who is the first to win six games and have a lead of at least two games over their opponent wins a ‘set’. For example, if a player wins six consecutive games, they will win a set by 6-0. If their opponent wins four games while they win six games then they win the set by 6-4.

If the score in games goes to 6-5 then either player must win by a margin of at least two games to take the set. For example, they could win by 7-5, 8-6, 10-8, etc. However, most tennis matches nowadays play a tie-break if players reach the score of 6-6 in games.

Tennis tie-break rules

When a tie-break is played, the winner is the first to get to seven points or more while being two clear points ahead. The scoring system for tie-breaks is simply 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, etc, and doesn’t use the traditional tennis scoring. The first player to serve in a tie-break gets one service and then service alternates every two points.

The player (let’s call him Player One) whose turn it would have been to serve in the next game starts the tie-break serving from the right-hand side (the Deuce side) as if it were a new game but only gets one service.

The opponent (Player Two) serves the next two points, starting with a serve from the left-hand side (the Advantage side) and then from the right.

Service then changes back to Player One for the next two points, with them serving first from the left and then the right side of the court.

Player Two then serves from the left. This means that a total of six points have been played and the players change ends before they resume the tie-break. Player Two serves again from the right. That brings up a total of seven points played and could mean that one player has won by 7-0.

If not, then the tie-break continues on the same pattern of two serves for each player and switching ends every six points until a player has pulled two clear points ahead, such as 12-10, 14-12, etc. When a tie-break is won, the score for the set is recorded as being 7-6.

If you are playing another set after the tie-break then the player who received first in the tie-break will start serving.

Some tennis matches can comprise only one set while others might be the best of three sets. Men’s championship matches are often the best of five sets, which would be the first player to win three sets; while many women’s matches are the best of three sets and means the winner would be the player to take two sets.

As you can see, there are three sections in each tennis match — game, set, match.