Tennis is played on a court that is rectangular in shape and is divided into two equal halves where each player attempts to score by shooting a tennis ball towards the other side of the court with a tennis racket and the opponent is unable to deliver back the ball to the player’s court. Thus, the sport of tennis tests player’s ability in delivering the ball in an intended direction and in defending the ball being delivered by an opponent. Both singles and doubles matches are played on the same court with specific markings on the court itself. 

Regulation lengths are as follows:

• The length of the court is 23.77 metres and the net is placed at the centre which divides the court into two equal halves. 
• The width of the court varies as per the type of game to be played i.e. singles or doubles. For singles game the width is 8.23 metres while for the doubles game the width is 10.97 metres. 
• The net is 0.91 metres in height from the ground and it is tied parallel to the width of the court. 
• There is one base line in each half and two side lines parallel to each other. The distance between the two side lines is 1.37 metres and the first line is called singles side line and the second one is called doubles side line.
• Two service lines are drawn parallel to the net from singles side line at 6.4 metres from the net in each half of the court. 
• The area between the service line and the net is divided into two equal halves with a centre line which is perpendicular to the service line.
• All lines are 2.5-5 cm in width except the base line which is around 10 cm in width. All the lines form area of the court.  
• Generally, four different types of court surfaces are used in the sport of tennis which is clay, grass, hard surface or carpet. Each surface differs from the other in terms of speed and height of the bounce of the ball.

The various lines on the tennis court are defined as follows: 

• Base line/End line: It is the back line that runs parallel to both ends of the net and the length of this line is equal to the width of the court.
• Service line: It is the line that runs parallel to net in each half of the court. 
• Centre line: It is the line that runs perpendicular to the net and down the middle of each side up to the service line on each side of the court. 
• Service area: It is defined as the area formed by the centre line, service line, singles/doubles side line and the net. 
• Singles sideline: It is the line that runs along the inside of the doubles sideline and parallel to it.
• Doubles sideline: It is the line along with the base line that forms the outer boundary lines for the court.

Ball: The tennis ball used for majority of the tournaments is fluorescent yellow and covered in a fibrous felt with each having a white curvilinear oval covering it. The ball specifications are as follows: 

• The diameter of the ball should be in the range of 6.54-6.86 cm with mass in the range of 56-59.4 grams. 
• The ball is tested for bounce by dropping it from a height of 254 cm and the bounce should be in the range of 122-135 cm/135-147 cm depending on the altitude.

Racket: The hitting surface of the racket should be flat and consist of a pattern of crossed strings connected to a frame which should be uniform. The racket should be strung and designed in such a way that the playing characteristics are identical on both the faces. The major specifications are as follows: 

• The frame should not exceed 73.66 cm in length (including the handle) and the frame should not exceed 31.75 cm in width.
• The hitting surface should not exceed 39.37 cm in length and 29.21 cm in width.
• The frame, including handle, should be free from any objects other than solely used to prevent wear and tear, vibration or weight distribution.   

Net: The net is fully extended such that it completely fills the space between the two posts and should be made of sufficiently small mesh to ensure that the ball cannot pass through it. The height of the net should be 0.91 metres from the centre and a band should cover the cord/metal cable at the top of the net. The band should be white in colour with width of around 5 cm and depth of around 5-6.25 cm on each side.

A singles match comprises of two players while a doubles match comprises of four players without any substitution.

Before the start of the play, a toss is conducted and the side winning the toss has the right to choose between serving first or to start the play from the desired end of the court.

A match consists of the best of 3 or 5 sets. A set consists of games, and games, in turn, consist of points. The various terminologies used are defined as follows:

Set: A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating between the games, ending when the count of the games won meets certain criteria. A player/team wins a set by winning at least six games and at least two more games than the opponent.

Game: A game consists of a sequence of points played by the same player serving and a game is won by the player who scores at least four points first and at least two more points than the opponent. The running score of each game is described as “love”, “fifteen”, “thirty” and “forty”. The below highlighted combinations generally occur in the game which are,

• Deuce: If at least three points have been scored by each player/team and the scores are equal, the score is called as deuce. 
• Advantage: If at least three points have been scored by each player/team and has one more point than its opponent then the score is called as advantage to the leading player/team.  
• Game point: A game point occurs when the player/team that is in lead in the game needs only one more point to win the game. It is generally extended to set point, match point and championship point.
• Break point: A break point occurs when the opponent (service receiver) has a chance to win the game in the next rally.

Tie break: If in a game the score becomes six all then to decide the winner of the set a tie break is played. A tie breaker is won by the player/team that reaches the score of seven points first and provided there is a margin of two points over the opponents score.

The service shall be delivered in the following manner.

• Before the serve, the server should stand with both feet at rest behind the base line and within an imaginary extension of the centre line and the side line. 
• To deliver a serve, the serve should project the ball by hand into the air and should strike it with the racket before it touches the ground. The player is allowed to use only one arm along with racket for projection.
• For the serve to be deemed as correct, the server should deliver the ball in the diagonally opposite service box. In case, the ball hits the net on the first serve and bounces over in to the correct diagonal box then it is called a “let” and the server gets two more additional serves to get the serve in. 

Second Serve: In case the first serve is a fault then the player is allowed to serve again from the same court and same side half.

Singles
The players stand on opposite sides of the net and the player who delivers the serve first is called the server and the other player is called the receiver. For a singles match, at the end of each game the server shall become the receiver and vice-versa. 

Doubles
For a doubles match, the team due to serve in the first game of each set shall decide which player shall serve for that game. The teammate of the player who served in the first game shall serve in the third game and so on. Similarly, the opponents shall decide who shall serve when they start to serve for the second game. The same logic goes while receiving of the serve from the server.

Ends are changed after the end of every first, third and every subsequent alternate game of each set and at the end of each set unless the total number of games in such a set is even. During a tiebreak, the players change ends after every six points.

The server starts the serve from right side of the court behind the base line and after each point the server switches his/her position to the left side and vice-versa. This alternate movement occurs until a game is won by any of the players.

The various faults/fouls in the game of tennis are explained as follows:

• Foot fault: While delivering a serve, the server commits a foot fault in case,
  • He/She changes position by walking or running, or
  • Touches the baseline, touches the imaginary extension of the side line or touches the imaginary extension of the centre mark with either foot 
• Service fault: The server commits a service fault in case,
  • Unable to follow a serving routine, commits a foot fault, or
  • He/She misses the ball while trying to hit it, or
  • The ball touches any of the permanent fixtures/singles stick/net post/server’s body/server’s partner before hitting the ground
• Double fault: the player commits a double fault, in case the first and the second serves being served happens to hit the net or land outside the service line/area.

• Tennis allows the use of technology to aid on-court officiating. Through this system, players have three challenges per set available with them to review the decision being made by the on field umpires. 
• In case the umpire’s call after the review call is deemed correct then the player looses one challenge and in case the player makes three incorrect challenges then he/she is not allowed to make any challenge throughout the duration of the set. However, in case the challenge made by the player is correct then he/she retains the challenge. 
• Apart from that, in case the set goes to a tie break then one additional challenge is extended to the player.

The designated match officials for the game of tennis are as follows:

• Chair Umpire
• Line Umpires
• Net court Umpire
• Referee
• Court Supervisors
• Ball Persons