Tennis may be played indoors or outdoors on a variety of surfaces including clay, grass, carpet, and hard surfaces such as asphalt or concrete. A regulation singles' court is 75 ft. (23.77 m) long by 27 ft. (8.23 m) wide and is divided in half by a net over which players must hit the ball. A regulation doubles' court is 36 ft (10.97 m) wide but the same length. There are white baselines at each end of the court, where serves are taken and beyond where the ball must not bounce or the hitter loses the point. Tennis may be played as a singles game with one player on each side of the net, or as a doubles game with two players on each side.

“Fun Fact: The origins of the modern tennis racquet can be traced to the 14th century when players bound strings made of sheep gut into a wooden frame. Balls at this time were made of a wad of hair, wool, or cork wrapped in cloth or leather.”

Practise your strokes. You may have heard that expression applied to baseball hitting and the golf swing. Well, it applies to tennis too. But in tennis, you want to hit the ball hard enough to get over the net, but not so hard that it lands out of bounds. In fact, you want to hit the ball using lots of different strokes, which will make your opponent run all over the court and eventually miss the ball. Here are a few examples:

FOREHAND A return made with the palm of the hand facing forward in the direction of the stroke.

BACKHAND A return made with the back of the hand facing the direction of the stroke.

DRIVE A return hit hard and fairly low.

LOB A return hit high and preferably deep.

THE SERVE

The serve is made behind the baseline and the player must hit the ball over the net and into the diagonally opposite service box. The serve is probably the most important shot in the game. Because if you hit the ball in a place where your opponent can't return it, you win the point, which is called an ace. If you miss your serve by hitting the net or going outside the court boundaries, it's called a fault. But don't worry, you get another chance - it's called the second serve, but make it a good one because that's all you get! To be fair, servers are switched after each game, so everyone gets an equal chance!

THE VOLLEY

The volley is when you hit the ball back before it hits the ground. The advantage of a volley shot is that it's coming at your opponent at a much faster speed than if the ball bounced. That makes it much harder to hit!

SCORING IN TENNIS

Scoring in tennis is 15, 30, 40, Game. Don't ask us why it's not 1, 2, 3 Game, but that's the way you score in the pros. If you hear the expression 'love', it means one of the players has no points. For instance, a score of 15 - love means one player has 15 and the other has zero. If both opponents have 40, then it's called 'Deuce', and you need two more points than your opponent to win the game. If you win six games, you win the set. To win a match, it's usually the best of three or five sets. All this might sound really complicated, but once you get on the court, you'll get the hang of it.