There is nothing like watching Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams or Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon to inspire people to take up tennis.
In the next few weeks, you may become one of the many people who head down to the local park, battered wooden racket in hand, in a burst of post-Wimbledon enthusiasm. The aforementioned racket will come in handy, though most parks, clubs and indoor tennis centres will be able to rent or lend you a racket if you don’t have one. Balls are obviously a must too, and remember that they do go soft if they’ve been in the back of your cupboard for months, so it might be a case of “new balls please”.
The lines on the court can be a bit confusing, so you will find a diagram opposite to help you. The 23.8-metre x 11-metre court is split in half widthways across the middle by a 90cm-high net and edged by parallel lines (called tramlines) at the side and a baseline at each end. On each side of the net sit two adjacent rectangles called service boxes. In singles (one player versus another), you can hit anywhere inside the baseline and inside the tramline closest to the court, including hitting on to the line itself, and the ball will be called “good”. Hit outside these lines and the ball will be deemed out and the point lost. In doubles (two v two), the same rules apply, except that you have more court to play with because you can hit up to and on the outer tramline – ie the one that forms the edge of the court – and the ball will still be called “in”. And please, no John McEnroe-style tantrums – if you and your opponent cannot agree whether or not a ball is in, it is best to replay the point to avoid any unpleasantness.
If you are worried about your technique, it is a good idea to have a couple of one-on-one lessons with a coach, who will teach you the fundamentals of all the different shots and is also likely to stress the importance of moving your feet well. If you watch the pros, their feet are constantly moving.
As well as forehands and backhands, you need to hit volleys – where you don’t wait for the ball to bounce; lobs – where you hit the ball over your opponent’s head; and the all-important serve. When serving, you have two chances to get the ball over the net and inside the service box diagonally opposite you. Miss the first time and it will be called a “fault”; miss the second and you will have committed the dreaded “double fault”, which hands your opponent a free point. Sometimes the ball will skim the net and land in, in which case a “let” is called and you serve again – you still have two serves left if this happens on your first serve and one if it happens on your second. In doubles, you and your partner take it in turns to serve, which means that you only have to serve every four games.
Before you play, it is important to acquaint yourself with the scoring system. The word tennis is said to come from the French verb tenir, which means “to hold” – because the object of the game is to try and hold your serve (ie win the games when you are serving). Players take it in turn to serve games; there are four points to a game 15, 30, 40 and “game”. The server’s score is always listed first, and zero is known as “love”, supposedly because the tennis-loving French originally referred to a zero scoreline as l’oeuf (the egg), the shape of a zero.
If both players are at 40-40 – or “deuce” as it is known – a player must get two points ahead to win the game. The first player to win six games has won a set, and you can play either a best-of-five or a best-of-three sets match, depending on how energetic you are feeling. If the score in a set reaches six games all, you must play a tiebreak, which starts with the player whose turn it is to serve serving one point from their left-hand side. From then on players alternate serving two points, starting from their right-hand court, until someone gets to seven, or, if the score is tied at 6-6, until someone gets two points ahead.
Having got the racket, the rules and, no doubt, the Roger Federer headband, it’s time to get playing. The ball, as they say, is well and truly in your court.
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