# Tennis

Tennis| Tennis pictogram |
| Highest governing body | International Tennis Federation |
| First played | 19th century, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom |
| Characteristics |
| Contact | No |
| Team members | Singles or doubles |
| Mixed sex | Yes, separate tours and mixed doubles |
| Type | Outdoor or indoor |
| Equipment | Ball, racket, net |
| Venue | Tennis court |
| Glossary | Glossary of tennis terms |
| Presence |
| Country or region | Worldwide |
| Olympic | Part of Summer Olympic programme from 1896 to 1924 Demonstration sport in the 1968 and 1984 Summer Olympics Part of Summer Olympic programme since 1988 |
| Paralympic | Part of Summer Paralympic programme since 1992 |

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Tim Henman hitting a backhand volley
Andy Roddick before serving
Tennis balls
A female player
Scoreboard
**Tennis** is a sport played with a felt-covered rubber ball, a tennis racket, and a court. It is quite popular, and many people enjoy watching it.

In the early 11th century, players in France first played with their hands a similar sport, which was called “*jeu de paume*”. In the 15th century, the players played with rackets. The sporty is now is called “tennis” and became popular in England and France. King Henry III of France was a big fan of the sport, which is now known as real tennis ("real" here meaning "royal"). The sport of "lawn tennis", played on grass courts, was invented in mid 19th-century England and later spread into many other countries.

## Tennis matches

There are many different kinds of courts, like grass, clay, or hard court. The goal of tennis is to hit the ball over the net into the other player’s court. When the other player cannot return the ball, a point is won. The game is played with two or four people When it is played with two people, it is called "singles"**,** and when it is played with four people, it is called "doubles". The court has "alleys" on each side, which are "fair" territory during doubles.

A tennis game has a number of sets. Each set has a number of games, and each game has points. The points are counted love (0, after the French *l'oeuf*), fifteen (15), thirty (30), and forty (40). If both players get to forty, the score is *deuce* from which two more points are needed to win the game. When one player reaches six games, one set is finished.

During a three-set match, the player who wins two sets is the winner. If the game count reaches 5–5, the set must be won with two more games than the other player, like 7–5 or 8–6. If the game count gets to 6–6, a "tiebreaker" is played. During a tiebreak, players have to get at least seven points and to get two more points than the other player to win the set. During tiebreakers, points are called "one", "two", etc.

## Soft tennis

Soft tennis is different from regulation tennis. For example, it has very different racket, ball, and rules.

Soft tennis is popular in Japan, where thousands of people play it.

## Shots

There are many different "shots" and "strokes", ways to hit the ball, in tennis. A stroke is how the body moves to hit the ball. A shot is how the ball is hit. They include the following:

Strokes
* The *backhand* is a type of stroke hit by swinging the racquet away from the body. The stroke begins with the arm holding the racquet held across the body. The arm is then moved in front of the body to hit the ball. For a right-handed player, a backhand begins on the left side of his body, continues across his body as the ball is hit, and ends on the right side of his body. It can be either a one-handed or a two-handed stroke.
* The *forehand* is the opposite of the backhand. It starts with the arm outside of the body and moves across the body. For a right-handed player, the arm starts on the right side of the body and moves across the body to the left side. The *forehand* is hit with one hand, most commonly the one that the player uses to write.

Shots
* A *serve* (sometimes called a *service*) is a shot to start a point. The serve is usually started by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it across the net. The serve may be done underhand or overhead. The overhead serve is more common. The serve is done from behind the *baseline*, the line at the back of the court. The serve must land on the inside of the service line and the centre service line on the other side of the net to call it good. The serve that is sent must in the box diagonal to where the server serves.
* A *volley* is a shot that is hit before the ball bounces on the ground. Usually, a player hits a volley while standing near the net. The volley is sometimes done farther back, in the middle of the court, or even near the back.
* A *drop shot* is tapping. A good drop shot travels just far enough that the opponent cannot run fast enough to get to it.
* A *lob* is a shot that can use backhand or forehand swings. The person must swing through but make the tennis ball go up. The goal is for the ball, when it goes up, to land in between the *baseline* (the line at the back of the court) and the service line.

## Four Grand Slams

Tennis is now a sport that is played at the Olympics. There are also have big tournaments like the U.S. Open, Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. The four events are known together as Grand Slams.

* Australian Open (January)
* French Open ( May-June)
* Wimbledon (June - July)
* US Open (August-September)

Winning all four Grand Slams in the same year is called a Calendar Slam.
They are the most important tennis tournaments of each season (year) because of the world-ranking points, tradition, prize-money, and public attention.

## Other websites

* ATP The official site for men's professional tennis
* WTA The official site for women's professional tennis
* Tennis Ball Hopper Archived 2017-09-20 at the Wayback Machine