Tennis Talk

In tennis, there are given boundaries. There is a net in the middle of the court with two sides for players to be on. Within the boundaries, there two types of game plays you can play. These are singles which consts of one on one or doubles which consists of two on two.

The line on the outside is called the doubles alley. As the name itself explains, this is for doubles players only. The ball can land within that line/ touch that line and be counted as “in”. The line next to that doubles alley, a little further inside the court is called the singles sideline. This line is meant for singles players.

There is a short line on the center of the back of each side of the court. This is called the baseline and determines which side to serve on. The server always hits the ball diagonal of what side they are on, into the service box which are the boxes right behind the net. The person on the opposite side stands diagonal from the server so they are ready for the ball. If there’s a doubles team, the second player will stand on the opposite side of their teammate at the base of the other service box. This person is meant for hitting balls that come in short or closer to the net, that the person in back cannot reach.

The server gets two chances to hit if the first ball hits the net or doesn’t make it into the service box. If they miss again on the second serve, then the other team scores a point. If the ball hits the net and still goes over onto the other side, this does not count as a point. The server automatically gets another serve even if it was on their second chance of serving.