Tennis rules for beginners: scoring, serving and the court

The tennis court, with every part named

The court is 23.77 metres long. It is 8.23 metres wide for singles and 10.97 for doubles, the extra width being the alleys down each side. The net is 91.4 cm high in the middle. Lines are named on the far half of the diagram, zones on the near half.

Baseline

The back line. You serve from behind it and rally from around it.

Service boxes

The two boxes next to the net. A serve has to land in the box diagonally opposite you. The right-hand one is the deuce side, where every game starts; the left is the ad side.

Service line

The line that closes the back of the service boxes. A serve landing past it is long.

No man's land

The area between the service line and the baseline. Balls land at your feet here, so pass through it rather than stand in it.

Doubles alley

The strips down each side, also called the tramlines. In play for doubles only, and never for the serve.

Centre mark

The small notch in the middle of the baseline. Serve from the correct side of it.

How scoring works

A match is made of sets, a set is made of games, and a game is made of points.

The server's score is always called first: 30, 15 means the server has two points and the receiver one. At 40 all the score is deuce. From deuce you need two points in a row: win one and you have advantage, win the next and it is your game, lose it and you are back to deuce.

The first player to six games wins the set, but only by two clear games, so 6, 4 is a set and 6, 5 is not. At six games all, a tiebreak decides it: points are counted 1, 2, 3, first to seven, win by two. Most matches are the best of three sets.

Serving

• Stand behind the baseline, to the right of the centre mark for the first point of every game, and serve diagonally into the service box on the other side. Swap sides after each point.
• You get two serves. A serve that misses the box, or goes into the net, is a fault. Two faults is a double fault and you lose the point.
• If the serve clips the net and still lands in the correct box, it is a let and you take that serve again.
• Your feet must stay behind the baseline until you have hit the ball. Stepping on the line first is a foot fault.
• One player serves for the whole game, then the serve passes to the other side. In doubles the four players take turns in a fixed order.
• In a tiebreak, the first player serves one point, then each player serves two in turn.

The technique has its own guide: how to serve in tennis.

During the rally

• The ball may bounce once on your side, or you can hit it before it bounces (a volley). The only ball you may not volley is the serve.
• A ball that touches any part of the line is in.
• You lose the point if the ball bounces twice, if you hit it into the net or out, if it touches you, or if you touch the net while the ball is in play.
• You may not reach over the net to hit the ball, though your racket may follow through over it after contact.
• In singles the alleys are out. In doubles they are in, except on the serve.
• Players change ends after the first game and then after every two games, so after games 1, 3, 5 and so on.

With no umpire, each player calls the lines on their own side, and a ball you did not clearly see out is in.

Where to stand

In singles, return to the middle of the baseline after every shot, just behind the centre mark. Avoid waiting in no man's land between the service line and the baseline, where balls land at your feet. Go through it to get to the net, or stay behind it.

In doubles, the server's partner usually starts at the net, halfway between the net and the service line, covering their alley. The receiver's partner starts on the service line. The pair that gets both players to the net, side by side, usually wins the point.

The shots to learn first

1. The forehand and the backhand, so you can rally.
2. The serve, because every point starts with it.
3. The volley, for doubles and for finishing points.
4. The overhead and the slice once the first four hold up.

Related guides

• How to hit a forehand: grip, swing and the whip
• How to serve in tennis: first serve and second serve
• How to hit a backhand: one-handed and two-handed
• How to volley in tennis
• Tennis practice at home: how to practise alone