Tennis is a
sport played
between two players (
singles)
or between two teams of two players each (
doubles). Each player uses a strung
racquet to strike a hollow rubber
ball covered with felt over a net into the
opponent's
court.
The modern
game of tennis originated in the United Kingdom
in the late 19th century as "lawn
tennis" which has heavy connections to various field/lawn
games as well as to the ancient game of real tennis. After its creation,
tennis spread throughout the upper-class English-speaking
population before spreading around the world. Tennis is an
Olympic sport and is played at all levels of
society at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold
a racket, including people
in
wheelchairs.
In the United States
, there is a collegiate circuit organized by the
National
Collegiate Athletic Association.
The rules of tennis have changed very little since the 1890s. Two
exceptions are that from 1908 to 1960 the server had to keep one
foot on the ground at all times, and then the adoption of the
tie-break in
the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the
adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point
challenge system, which allows a player to challenge the line (or
chair) umpire's call of a point.
Tennis
enjoys millions of recreational players and is also a hugely
popular worldwide spectator sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments (sometimes
referred to as the "majors"): the Australian Open
, the French
Open
, Wimbledon
, and the US Open
.
History
Tennis as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots.
Between
1859 and 1935, Major Harry Gem and his
friend Augurio Perera developed a
game that combined elements of rackets and the Basque ball game pelota, which they played on Perera's croquet lawn in Birmingham
, United Kingdom. In 1872, along with
two local doctors, they founded the world's first tennis club in
Leamington
Spa
. The Courier of July 23, 1884 recorded one
of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland
Hall.
In December 1873, Major
Walter
Clopton Wingfield designed and patented a similar game — which
he called
sphairistike ( , from ancient
Greek meaning "skill at playing at ball"), and was soon known
simply as "sticky" — for the amusement of his guests at a garden
party on his estate of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales. He likely
based his game on the evolving sport of outdoor tennis including
real tennis. According to some tennis
historians, modern tennis terminology also derives from this
period, as Wingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French
vocabulary of real tennis and applied them to his new game.
Lawn tennis in the U.S., 1887
The first
championships at Wimbledon in London were played in 1877. The first
Championships culminated a significant debate on how to standardize
the rules.
In America in 1874
Mary Ewing
Outerbridge, a young socialite, returned from Bermuda where she
met Major Wingfield.
She laid out a tennis court at the Staten Island
Cricket Club
in New Brighton Staten Island, New York.The
exact location of the club was under what is now the Staten Island
Ferry terminal. The first American National tournament in 1880 was
played there. An Englishman named O.E Woodhouse won the singles
match. There was also a doubles match which was won by a local
pair. There were different rules at each club. The ball in Boston
was larger than the one normally used in NY. On May 21, 1881, the
United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the
United States Tennis
Association) was formed to standardize the rules and organize
competitions. The U.S.
National Men's Singles Championship, now the
US
Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode
Island
. The U.S. National Women's Singles
Championships were first held in 1887.
Tennis was also
popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891. Thus, Wimbledon, the
US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most
prestigious events in tennis. Together these four events are
called the Majors or
Slams (a term borrowed from
bridge rather than
baseball).
The comprehensive International Lawn Tennis Federation, now known
as the
International
Tennis Federation, rules promulgated in 1924 have remained
remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change
being the addition of the
tie-break system
designed by
James Van Alen. That same
year, tennis withdrew from the Olympics after the 1924 Games but
returned 60 years later as a 21-and-under demonstration event in
1984. This reinstatement was credited by the efforts by the then
ITF President Philippe Chatrier, ITF General Secretary David Gray
and ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens, and support from IOC
President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The success of the event was
overwhelming and the IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full
medal sport at Seoul in 1988.
The
Davis Cup, an annual competition
between men's national teams, dates to 1900. The analogous
competition for women's national teams, the
Fed
Cup, was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the
50th anniversary of the founding of the ITF.
In 1926, promoter C.C. Pyle established the first professional
tennis tour with a group of American and French tennis players
playing exhibition matches to paying audiences. The most notable of
these early professionals were the American
Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman
Suzanne Lenglen. Once a player
turned
pro he or she could not compete in the major (amateur)
tournaments.
In 1968, commercial pressures and rumors of some amateurs taking
money under the table led to the abandonment of this distinction,
inaugurating the
open
era, in which all players could compete in all tournaments, and
top players were able to make their living from tennis. With the
beginning of the open era, the establishment of an international
professional tennis circuit, and revenues from the sale of
television rights, tennis's popularity has spread worldwide, and
the sport has shed its upper/middle-class English-speaking image
(although it is acknowledged that this stereotype still
exists).
In 1954,
Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of
Fame
, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode
Island. The building contains a large collection of tennis
memorabilia as well as a hall of fame honoring prominent members
and tennis players from all over the world. Each year, a
grass-court tournament and an induction ceremony
honoring new Hall of Fame members are hosted on its grounds.
Equipment
Part of the appeal of tennis stems from the simplicity of equipment
required for play. Beginners need only a
racquet and balls.
Racquets
The tennis racquet comprises a handle and neck joining a roughly
circular frame that holds an array of tightly pulled strings. For
the first century of the modern game, racquets were of wood and of
standard size, and strings were of animal gut. Laminated wood
construction yielded more strength in racquets used through most of
the 20th century until first metal and then composites of carbon
graphite, ceramics, and lighter metals such as titanium were
introduced. These stronger materials enabled the production of
oversized rackets that yielded yet more power. Meanwhile technology
led to the use of synthetic strings that match the feel of gut yet
with added durability.
Balls
Tennis balls are of hollow rubber with a felt coating.
Traditionally white, the predominant color was gradually changed to
Optic Yellow in the latter part of the twentieth century to allow
for improved visibility.
Miscellaneous
Advanced players improve their performance through a number of
accoutrements. Vibration dampers may be interlaced in the proximal
part of the string array for improved feel. Racket handles may be
customized with absorbent materials to improve the players' grip.
Players often use sweat bands on their wrists to keep their hands
dry as well. Finally, although the game can be played in a variety
of shoes, specialized tennis shoes have wide, flat soles for
stability and a built-up front structure to avoid excess
wear.
Manner of play
- For individual terms see: Glossary of tennis
Court
Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually
grass,
clay, a
hardcourt of concrete and/or asphalt and
occasionally carpet (indoor). The court is 78
feet (23.77
m) long, and
its width is 27 feet (8.23 m) for singles matches and
36 ft (10.97 m) for doubles matches. Additional clear
space around the court is required in order for players to reach
overrun balls. A net is stretched across the full width of the
court, parallel with the baselines, dividing it into two equal
ends. The net is 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) high at
the posts and 3 feet (91.4 cm) high in the center.
The modern tennis court owes its design to Major
Walter Clopton Wingfield who, in
1873, patented a court much the same as the current one for his
stické tennis (sphairistike). This
template was modified in 1875 to the court design that exists
today, with markings similar to Wingfield's version, but with the
hourglass shape of his court changed to a
rectangle.
Lines
The lines that delineate the width of the court are called the
baseline (farthest back) and the service line (middle of the
court). The short mark in the center of each baseline is referred
to as either the hash mark or the center mark. The outermost lines
that make up the length are called the doubles sidelines. These are
the boundaries used when doubles is being played. The lines to the
inside of the doubles sidelines are the singles sidelines and are
used as boundaries in singles play. The area between a doubles
sideline and the nearest singles sideline is called the doubles
alley, which is considered playable in doubles play. The line that
runs across the center of a player's side of the court is called
the service line because the serve must be delivered into the area
between the service line and the net on the receiving side. Despite
its name, this is not where a player legally stands when making a
serve. The line dividing the service line in two is called the
center line or center service line. The boxes this center line
creates are called the service boxes; depending on a player's
position, he will have to hit the ball into one of these when
serving. A ball is out only if none of it has hit the line or the
area inside the lines upon its first bounce. All the lines are
required to be between 1 and in width. The baseline can be up to
wide if so desired.
Play of a single point
Two players before a serve.
The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One
player is designated the
server, and the opposing player,
or in doubles one of the opposing players, is the
receiver. Service alternates between the two halves of the
court. For each point, the server starts behind his baseline,
between the center mark and the sideline. The receiver may start
anywhere on their side of the net. When the receiver is ready, the
server will
serve, although the
receiver must play to the pace of the server.
In a legal service, the ball travels over the net (without touching
it) and into the diagonally opposite service box. If the ball hits
the net but lands in the service box, this is a
let or
net service, which is void, and the server gets to retake
that serve. The player can serve any number of let services in a
point and they are always treated as voids and not as faults. A
fault is a serve that is long, wide, or not over the net. There is
also a "foot fault", which occurs when a player's foot touches the
baseline or an extension of the center mark before the ball is hit.
If the second service is also faulty, this is a
double
fault, and the receiver wins the point. However, if the serve
is in, it is considered a legal service.
A legal service starts a
rally, in which the players
alternate hitting the ball across the net. A legal return consists
of the player or team hitting the ball exactly once before it has
bounced twice or hit any fixtures except the net, provided that it
still falls in the server's court. The ball then travels back over
the net and bounces in the court on the opposite side. The first
player or team to fail to make a legal return loses the
point.
Scoring
A tennis
match is
determined through the best of 3 or 5
sets. Typically for
both men's and women's matches, the first player to win two sets
wins the match. At certain important tennis tournaments for men,
including all four
Grand Slam
tournaments and the final of the
Olympic
Games, the first man to win three sets wins the match. A set
consists of
games, and games, in turn, consist of
points.
A
game consists of a
sequence of
points played with the
same player serving. A game is won by the first player to have won
at least four points in total and at least two points more than the
opponent. The running score of each game is described in a manner
peculiar to tennis: scores from zero to three points are described
as "
love", "
fifteen", "
thirty", and
"
forty" respectively. (See the main article
Tennis score for the origin of these words as
used in tennis.) If at least three points have been scored by each
player, and the scores are equal, the score is "
deuce". If
at least three points have been scored by each side and a player
has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is
"
advantage" for the player in the lead. During informal
games, "advantage" can also be called "ad in" or "ad out",
depending on whether the serving player or receiving player is
ahead, respectively.
In tournament play, the chair umpire calls the point count (e.g.,
"
fifteen-love") after each point. The score of a tennis
match during play is always read with the serving player's score
first. After a match, the score is always read with the winning
player's score first. At the end of a game, the chair umpire also
announces the winner of the game and the overall score.
A game point occurs in tennis whenever the player who is in the lead in the game needs only one more point to win the game. The terminology is extended to sets (set point), matches (match point), and even championships (championship point). For example, if the player who is serving has a score of 40-love, the player has a triple game point (triple set point, etc.) as the player has three consecutive chances to win the game. Game points, set points, and match points are not part of official scoring and are not announced by the chair umpire in tournament play.
A
break point occurs if the receiver, not the
server, has a game point. Break points are of
particular importance because
serving
is generally advantageous. A receiver who has two (score of 15-40)
or three (score of love-40) consecutive chances to win the game has
double break point or
triple break point,
respectively.
A
set consists of a
sequence of games played with service alternating between games,
ending when the count of games won meets certain criteria.
Typically, a player wins a set by winning at least six games and at
least two games more than the opponent. If one player has won six
games and the opponent five, an additional game is played. If the
leading player wins that game, the player wins the set 7–5. If the
trailing player wins the game, a
tie-break is
played. A tie-break, played under a separate set of rules, allows
one player to win one more game and thus the set, to give a final
set score of 7–6.
Only in the final sets of matches at the
Australian
Open, the French
Open, Wimbledon, the Olympic Games, Davis
Cup, and Fed Cup are tie-breaks not
played. In these cases, sets are played indefinitely until
one player has a two-game lead. A "love" set means that the loser
of the set won zero games. In tournament play, the chair umpire
announces the winner of the set and the overall score.
In tournament play, the chair umpire announces the end of the match
with the well-known phrase "
Game, set, match" followed by
the winning person's or team's name.
Rules variations
Variations
| Name |
Description |
| No-ad |
The first player or doubles team to win four points wins the
game, regardless of whether the player or team is ahead by two
points. When the game score reaches three points each, the receiver
chooses which side of the court (advantage court or deuce court)
the service is to be delivered on the seventh and game-deciding
point. |
| Pro set |
Instead of playing multiple sets, players may play one "pro
set". A pro set is first to 8 (or 10) games by a margin of two
games, instead of first to 6 games. A 12-point tie-break is usually
played when the score is 8-8 (or 10-10). These are often played
with no-ad scoring. |
| Match tiebreak |
This is sometimes played instead of a third set. This is played
like a regular tiebreak, but the winner must win ten points instead
of seven. Match tiebreaks are used in the Hopman Cup for mixed doubles, on the ATP and WTA tours for doubles and as a
player's choice in USTA league play. |
Another, however informal, tennis format is called "Kiwi doubles",
"Canadian doubles" or "cut-throat". This involves three players,
with one person playing a doubles team. The single player gets to
utilize the alleys normally reserved only for a doubles team.
Conversely, the doubles team does not use the alleys when executing
a shot. The scoring is the same as a regular game. This format is
not sanctioned by any official body.
"Australian doubles", another informal and unsanctioned form of
tennis, is played with similar rules to the "Kiwi" style, only in
this version, players rotate court position after each game. As
such, each player plays doubles and singles over the course of a
match, with the singles player always serving. Scoring styles vary,
but one popular method is to assign a value of 2 points to each
game, with the server taking both points if he or she holds serve
and the doubles team each taking one if they break serve.
Wheelchair tennis can be played by
able-bodied players as well as people who require a wheelchair for
mobility. An extra bounce is permitted. This rule makes it possible
to have mixed wheelchair and able-bodied matches. It is possible
for a doubles team to consist of a wheelchair player and an
able-bodied player (referred to as "one-up, one-down"), or for a
wheelchair player to play against an able-bodied player. In such
cases, the extra bounce is permitted for the wheelchair users
only.
Surface
There are four main types of court surface, each different in the
speed and bounce of the ball:
| Name |
Description |
| Clay |
Examples are red clay (used at the French Open and many other tournaments, especially in Europe
and Latin America) and green clay (an example of which is Har-Tru and used mainly in the U.S.). Clay
courts normally have a slower paced ball and a fairly true bounce
with more spin. |
| Hard |
Examples are acrylic (e.g. Plexicushion used at the Australian
Open, DecoTurf used at the
US
Open), asphalt, and concrete. Hardcourts
typically have a faster-paced ball with a very true bounce. |
| Grass |
Used
at Wimbledon. Grass courts usually have a faster-paced
ball, and a more erratic bounce. Wimbledon has slowed its courts
over the years. (see the cited main article, Grass courts). |
| Indoor |
Examples are carpet and very rarely,
wood. Carpet courts typically have a very fast-paced ball with a
true but low bounce. |
Officials
An umpire informing two players of the
rules.
In most professional play and some amateur competition, there is an
officiating head judge or chair umpire (usually referred to as the
umpire), who sits in a raised chair to one side of the court. The
umpire has absolute authority to make factual determinations. The
umpire may be assisted by line judges, who determine whether the
ball has landed within the required part of the court and who also
call foot faults. There also may be a net judge who determines
whether the ball has touched the net during service. In some
tournaments, certain line judges, usually those who would be
calling the serve, are replaced by electronic sensors that beep
when an out call would have been made. In some tournaments,
electric line calls aren't made, but rather are used to assist the
linespeople. When a ball lands in a spot where the linesperson
isn't sure if the ball was in or out, a noise is made that only
linespeople can hear (because they are wearing headsets), and helps
them to make the call. In some open-tournament matches, players are
allowed to challenge a limited number of close calls by means of
electronic review.
The US
Open, the NASDAQ-100 Open
in Key Biscayne, Florida
, the US Open
Series, and World Team Tennis
started using a "challenge" system in 2006 and the Australian
Open and Wimbledon introduced the system in 2007. This used the
Hawk-Eye system and the rules were similar
to those used in the
NFL,
where a player gets a limited number of opportunities to challenge
per match/set. More recently, a player may use unlimited challenges
in a set, provided that he or she is not incorrect more than three
times.
In
clay-court matches, such as at the French Open, a call may be questioned by reference to the mark
left by the ball's impact on the court surface.
The referee, who is usually located off the court, is the final
authority about tennis rules. When called to the court by a player
or team captain, the referee may overrule the umpire's decision if
the tennis rules were violated (question of law) but may not change
the umpire's decision on a question of fact. If, however, the
referee is on the court during play, the referee may overrule the
umpire's decision.
Ball boys and girls may be employed to
retrieve balls, pass them to the players, and hand players their
towels. They have no
adjudicative role.
In rare events (e.g., if they are hurt or if they have caused a
hindrance), the umpire may ask them for a statement of what
actually happened. The umpire may consider their statements when
making a decision. In some leagues, especially junior leagues,
players make their own calls, trusting each other to be honest.
This is the case for many school and university level matches. The
referee or referee's assistant, however, can be called on court at
a player's request, and the referee or assistant may change a
player's call. In unofficiated matches, a ball is out only if the
player entitled to make the call is sure that the ball is
out.
Juniors
In tennis, a junior is a player under the age of 18 who is still
legally protected by a parent or guardian. Players on the main
adult tour who are under 18 must have documents signed by a parent
or guardian. These players, however, are still eligible to play in
junior tournaments.
The
International Tennis
Federation (ITF) conducts a junior tour that allows juniors to
establish a world ranking and an
Association of Tennis
Professionals (ATP) or
Women's Tennis Association (WTA)
ranking. Most juniors who enter the international circuit do so by
progressing through ITF, Satellite, Future, and Challenger
tournaments before entering the main circuit. The latter three
circuits also have adults competing in them. Some juniors, however,
such as Australian
Lleyton Hewitt and
Frenchman
Gaël Monfils, have
catapulted directly from the junior tour to the ATP tour by
dominating the junior scene or by taking advantage of opportunities
given to them to participate in professional tournaments.
In 2004, the ITF implemented a new rankings scheme to encourage
greater participation in doubles, by combining two rankings
(singles and doubles) into one combined tally. Junior tournaments
do not offer prize money except for the
Grand Slams, which are the most
prestigious junior events. Juniors may earn income from tennis by
participating in the Future, Satellite, or Challenger tours.
Tournaments are broken up into different tiers offering different
amounts of ranking points, culminating with Grade A.
Leading juniors are allowed to participate for their nation in the
Junior Fed Cup and
Davis Cup competitions as well. To succeed in tennis often
means having to begin playing at a young age. To facilitate and
nurture a junior's growth in tennis, almost all tennis playing
nations have developed a junior development system. Juniors develop
their play through a range of tournaments on all surfaces,
accommodating all different standards of play. Talented juniors may
also receive sponsorships from governing bodies or private
institutions.
Match play
Convention dictates that two players
shake hands at the end of a match.
A tennis match is intended to be continuous. Because stamina is a
relevant factor, arbitrary delays are not permitted. In most cases,
service is required to occur no more than 20 seconds after the end
of the previous point. This is increased to 90 seconds when the
players change ends (after every odd-numbered game), and a 120
second break is permitted between sets. Other than this, breaks are
permitted only when forced by events beyond the players' control,
such as rain, damaged footwear, damaged racquet, or the need to
retrieve an errant ball. Should a player be determined to be
stalling repeatedly, the chair umpire may initially give a warning
followed by subsequent penalties of "point", "game", and default of
the match for the player who is consistently taking longer than the
allowed time limit.
In the event of a rain delay, darkness or other external conditions
halting play, the match is resumed at a later time, with the same
score as at the time of the delay, and the players at the same end
of the court when rain halted play, or at the same position (north
or south) if play is resumed on a different court.
Balls wear out quickly in serious play and, therefore, in
ATP and
WTA tournaments, they are changed
after every nine games with the first change occurring after only
seven games, because the first set of balls is also used for the
pre-match warm-up. As a courtesy to the receiver, the server will
often signal to the receiver before the first serve of the game in
which new balls are used as a reminder that they are using new
balls. However, in
ITF tournaments like
Fed Cup, the balls are changed in a 9-11
style. Continuity of the balls' condition is considered part of the
game, so if a re-warm-up is required after an extended break in
play (usually due to rain), then the re-warm-up is done using a
separate set of balls, and use of the match balls is resumed only
when play resumes.
A recent proposed rules change is to allow coaching on court during
a match on a limited basis, and this has, in fact, been instituted
for
WTA Tour events.
Shots
A competent tennis player has eight basic shots in his or her
repertoire: the serve, forehand, backhand, volley, half-volley,
overhead smash, drop shot, and lob.
Serve
A serve (or, more formally, a "service") in tennis is a shot to
start a point. The serve is initiated by tossing the ball into the
air and hitting it (usually near the apex of its trajectory) into
the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net. The
serve may be hit under- or overhand.
Experienced players strive to master the conventional overhand
serve to maximize its power and placement. The server may employ
different types of serve including flat serve, topspin serve, slice
serve, and kick (American twist) serve. A reverse type of spin
serve is hit in a manner that spins the ball opposite the natural
spin of the server, the spin direction depending upon right- or
left-handedness. If the ball is spinning counterclockwise, it will
curve right from the hitter's point of view and curve left if
spinning clockwise.
Some servers are content to use the serve simply to initiate the
point; however, advanced players often try to hit a winning shot
with their serve. A winning serve that is not touched by the
opponent is called an "ace". If the receiver manages to touch it
but fails to successfully return it, it is called a "service
winner" and the point is awarded to the server.
Grips
Players use various grips during play, including the continental
(The "Handshake Grip"), eastern (Can be either semi-eastern or full
eastern. Usually used for backhands.), and western (semi-western or
full western, usually for forehand grips) grips. Different grips
generally are used for different types of spin and shots.
Forehand
For a right-handed player, the forehand is a stroke that begins on
the right side of the body, continues across the body as contact is
made with the ball, and ends on the left side of the body. There
are various
grips for executing the
forehand, and their popularity has fluctuated over the years. The
most important ones are the
continental, the
eastern, the
semi-western, and the
western. For a number of years, the small, apparently
frail 1920s player
Bill Johnston was
considered by many to have had the best forehand of all time, a
stroke that he hit shoulder-high using a
western grip. Few
top players used the
western grip after the 1920s, but in
the latter part of the 20th century, as shot-making techniques and
equipment changed radically, the
western forehand made a
strong comeback and is now used by many modern players. No matter
which grip is used, most forehands are generally executed with one
hand holding the racquet, but there have been fine players with
two-handed forehands. In the 1940s and 50s, the Ecuadorian/American
player
Pancho Segura used a two-handed
forehand to achieve a devastating effect against larger, more
powerful players. Currently, France's
Fabrice Santoro uses a two-handed forehand.
Some females such as
Monica Seles and
France's
Marion Bartoli also use a
two-handed forehand.
Backhand
For right-handed players, the backhand is a stroke that begins on
the left side of their body, continues across their body as contact
is made with the ball, and ends on the right side of their body. It
can be executed with either one hand or with both and is generally
considered more difficult to master than the forehand. For most of
the 20th century, the backhand was performed with one hand, using
either an
eastern or a
continental grip. The
first notable players to use two hands were the 1930s Australians
Vivian McGrath and
John Bromwich, but they were lonely
exceptions. The two-handed grip gained popularity in the 1970s as
Björn Borg,
Chris Evert,
Jimmy
Connors, and later
Mats Wilander
and
Andre Agassi used it to great
effect, and it is now used by a large number of the world's best
players, including
Rafael Nadal and
Serena Williams.
Andy Roddick uses the
extreme western
grip to create massive amounts of top spin. It is difficult to do
this and could possibly cause injury if done incorrectly. Two hands
give the player more control, while one hand can generate a slice
shot, applying backspin on the ball to produce a low trajectory
bounce. Reach is also limited with the two-handed shot. The player
long considered to have had the best backhand of all time,
Don Budge, had a powerful one-handed stroke in the
1930s and 1940s that imparted topspin onto the ball.
Ken Rosewall, another player noted for his
one-handed backhand, used a very accurate slice backhand through
the 1950s and 1960s. A small number of players, notably
Monica Seles, use two hands on both the
backhand and forehand sides.
Other shots
A
volley is made in the air
before the ball bounces, generally near the net, and is usually
made with a stiff-wristed punching motion to hit the ball into an
open area of the opponent's court. The
half volley is made by hitting the ball on
the rise just after it has bounced, once again generally in the
vicinity of the net. The
swinging volley is hit out of the
air as the player approaches the net. It is an offensive shot used
to take preparation time away from the opponent. From a poor
defensive position on the baseline, the
lob can be used as either an offensive or
defensive weapon, hitting the ball high and deep into the
opponent's court to either enable the lobber to get into better
defensive position or to win the point outright by hitting it over
the opponent's head. If the lob is not hit deeply enough into the
other court, however, the opponent may then hit an
overhead smash, a hard, serve-like shot,
to try to end the point. Finally, if an opponent is deep in his
court, a player may suddenly employ an unexpected
drop shot, softly tapping the ball just over
the net so that the opponent is unable to run in fast enough to
retrieve it.
Tournaments
Tournaments are often organized by gender and number of players.
Common tournament configurations include men's singles, women's
singles, and doubles, where two players play on each side of the
net. Tournaments may be arranged for specific age groups, with
upper age limits for youth and lower age limits for senior players.
Example of this include the
Orange
Bowl and
Les Petits As. There are
also tournaments for players with disabilities, such as
wheelchair tennis and deaf tennis. In the
four
Grand Slam tournaments, the
singles draws are limited to 128 people for each gender.
Players may also be matched by their skill level. According to how
well a person does in sanctioned play, a player is given a rating
that is adjusted periodically to maintain competitive matches. For
example, the
United
States Tennis Association administers the National Tennis
Rating Program, which rates players between 1.0 and 7.0 in 1/2
point increments. Average club players under this system would rate
3.0-4.5 while world class players would be 7.0 on this scale.
Grand Slam tournaments
The four
Grand Slam tournaments
are considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the
world.
They are held annually and include, in
chronological order, the Australian Open, the French
Open, Wimbledon
, and the US Open.
Apart from the
Olympic Games,
Davis Cup,
Fed Cup, and
Hopman Cup, they are the only tournaments
regulated by the
International Tennis
Federation (ITF).
The ITF's national associations, Tennis Australia (Australian Open), the
French Tennis Federation
(French Open), the United States Tennis
Association (US Open), and the All
England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
and Lawn Tennis
Association (Wimbledon), are delegated the responsibility to
organize these events.
Aside from the historical significance of these events, they also
carry larger prize funds than any other tour event and are worth
double the number of ranking points to the champion than in the
next echelon of tournaments, the
Masters 1000 (men) and Premier
events (women). Another distinguishing feature is the number of
players in the singles draw, 128, more than any other professional
tennis tournament. This draw is composed of 32 seeded players,
other players ranked in the world's top 100, qualifiers, and
players who receive invitations through
wild cards. Grand Slam men's tournaments
have best-of-five set matches throughout.
Grand Slam
tournaments are among the small number of events that last two
weeks, the others being the BNP Paribas Open
in Indian Wells, California
and the Sony Ericsson Open
in Key Biscayne, Florida. Currently, the Grand Slam tournaments are
the only tour events that have
mixed doubles contests. Grand Slam
tournaments are held in conjunction with wheelchair tennis
tournaments (with the exception being Wimbledon, where the
grass surface prevents this) and
junior tennis competitions. Grand Slam
tournaments are often seen as the culmination of a particular
season, such as the
US Open Series.
These tournaments also contain their own idiosyncrasies. For
example, players at Wimbledon are required to wear predominantly
white, a rule that has motivated certain players, such as
Andre Agassi, to skip the tournament. Wimbledon
also has its own particular methods for disseminating tickets,
often leading tennis fans to follow complex procedures to obtain
tickets.
Masters 1000
The
ATP World Tour Masters
1000 is a group of nine tournaments that form the
second-highest echelon in men's tennis. Each event is held
annually, and a win at one of these events is currently worth 1000
ranking points. When the
Association of Tennis
Professionals, led by
Hamilton
Jordan, began running the men's tour in 1990, the directors
designated the top nine tournaments, outside of the
Grand Slam events, as "Super Nine"
events. These eventually became the Tennis Masters Series. In
November at the end of the tennis year, the world's top eight
players compete in the
ATP World
Tour Finals, a tournament with a rotating locale.
It is currently held
in London,
England
.
On August 31, 2007 the ATP announced that major changes will take
place in 2009. The Masters Series will be renamed to the “Masters
1000”, with the addition of the number 1000 referring to the number
of ranking points earned by the winner of each tournament.
Contrary
to earlier plans, the number of tournaments will not be reduced
from nine to eight and the Monte Carlo Masters
will remain part of the series although, unlike the
other events, it will not have a mandatory player
commitment. The Hamburg Masters
event will be downgraded to a 500 point
event. The
Madrid Masters will
move to May and onto clay courts, and a new tournament in
Shanghai will take over Madrid's former indoor
October slot. In 2011 six of the nine “1000” level tournaments will
be combined ATP and
WTA
events.
250 and 500 Series
The International Series for men is split into two categories, both
run by the
ATP:
the
250 Series and
500 Series. Like the
Masters 1000, these
events offer various amounts of prize money, and some regular
International Series events offer larger prize monies than 500
Series tournaments.
The Barclays Dubai Tennis
Championships
offer the largest financial incentive to players,
with total prize money of US$1,426,000.
Challenger Tour and Futures Tournaments
The
Challenger Tour for men is
the lowest level of tournament administered by the
ATP. It is composed of
roughly 160 events and, as a result, features a more diverse range
of countries hosting events. The majority of players use the
Challenger Series to work their way up the rankings, including
World No. 1s
Pete Sampras,
Marcelo Ríos,
Patrick Rafter, and
Gustavo Kuerten.
Andre Agassi, between winning Grand Slam
titles, plummeted to World No. 141 and used Challenger Series
events for match experience and to progress back up the rankings.
The Challenger Series offers prize funds of between
US$25,000 and US$150,000.
Below the Challenger Series are the
Futures Tournaments, the main events on
the
ITF Men's Circuit. These
tournaments also contribute towards a player's
ATP rankings points. Futures Tournaments offer
prize funds of between US$10,000 and US$15,000; however, futures
status is granted only to events offering a total of US$30,000,
meaning that two or three tournaments are played. Approximately 400
Futures Tournaments are played each year.
Premier events
Premier events for women
form the most prestigious level of events on the
Women's Tennis Association Tour after the
Grand Slam tournaments. These events
offer the largest rewards in terms of points and prize money.
Within the Premier category are Premier Mandatory, Premier 5, and
Premier tournaments. The tiering system in women's tennis was
introduced in 1988.
At the time of its creation, only two
tournaments, the Lipton International Players
Championships
in Florida
and the German Open
in Berlin, comprised the Tier I
category. In 2009, four tournaments are Premier Mandatory,
five tournaments are Premier 5, and ten tournaments are
Premier.
Players
Professional tennis players enjoy the same relative perks as most
top sports personalities; clothing, equipment and endorsements. As
an individual sport, like Golf, they are not salaried, but must
play and place highly in tournaments to obtain money.
Grand Slam winners
Male players who have played at least part of their careers during
the
open era and who have
won at least two
Grand Slam
singles titles are as follows:
Female players who have played at least part of their careers
during the open era and who have won at least two Grand Slam
singles titles are as follows:
Greatest male players
Lawn Tennis has churned out more legends than any other sports in
history. A frequent topic of discussion among tennis fans and
commentators is who was the greatest male singles player of all
time. No consensus has ever existed, however. By a large margin, an
Associated Press poll in 1950 named
Bill Tilden as the greatest player of
the first half of the 20th century.
From 1920-1930, Tilden won singles titles
at Wimbledon three times and the U.S.
Championships seven times. In 1938, however,
Donald Budge became the first person to win all
four
Grand Slam singles titles
during the same calendar year and won six consecutive Grand Slam
singles titles in 1937 and 1938. Tilden called Budge "the finest
player 365 days a year that ever lived." And in his 1979
autobiography,
Jack Kramer said that,
based on consistent play, Budge was the greatest player ever. Some
observers, however, also felt that Kramer deserved consideration
for the title. Kramer was among the few who dominated amateur and
professional tennis during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Tony Trabert has said that of the players he
saw before the start of the
open era, Kramer was the best
male champion. By the latter half of the 1950s and 1960s, Budge and
others had added
Pancho Gonzales and
Lew Hoad to the list of contenders. Budge
reportedly believed that Gonzales was the greatest player ever.
Gonzales said about Hoad, "When Lew's game was at its peak nobody
could touch him. ... I think his game was the best game ever.
Better than mine. He was capable of making more shots than anybody.
His two volleys were great. His overhead was enormous. He had the
most natural tennis mind with the most natural tennis
physique."
During the open era, first
Rod Laver and
then more recently
Björn Borg and
Pete Sampras were regarded by many of
their contemporaries as among the greatest ever.
Roger Federer is now considered by many
observers to have the most "complete" game in modern tennis. Many
experts of tennis, former tennis players and his own tennis peers
believe Federer is the greatest player in the history of the
game.
Greatest female players
Popular culture
- David Foster
Wallace, an amateur tennis player himself at Urbana High School
in Illinois
, included tennis in many of his works of nonfiction
and fiction including "Tennis Player
Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain
Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and
Human Completeness," the autobiographical piece "Derivative Sport in
Tornado Alley," and Infinite
Jest, which is partially set at the fictional "Enfield
Tennis Academy" in Massachusetts
.
- The Royal Tennenbaums
(2001) features Richie Tenenbaum (Luke
Wilson), a tennis pro who suffers from depression and has a
breakdown on court in front of thousands of fans.
- Confetti (2006) is a mockumentary which sees three couples competing
to win the title of "Most Original Wedding of the Year". One
competing couple (Meredith
MacNeill and Stephen Mangan) are
a pair of hyper-competitive professional tennis players holding a
tennis-themed wedding.
See also
General
Other forms
Statistics
References
Further reading
- We Have Come a Long Way. King, Billie Jean and Starr,
Cynthia. (1998) McGraw-Hill ISBN
0-07024-625-9
- The Tennis Junkie's Guide (To Serious Humor).
Whitehead, Dave. (2002) iUniverse ISBN 0-595-65364-2
External links
,Toronto
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