Are You a Tennis Expert?

Tennis: A Brief History and Overview

Tennis is a racket sport played individually or between two teams of two players each.
The game's object is to manoeuvre the ball so that the opponent is unable to return it validly.
Tennis is an Olympic sport and can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users.
The modern form of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis.
The rules of modern tennis have changed little since the 1890s, except for the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s and the point-challenge system in recent years.
The four Grand Slam tournaments are the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
Historians believe that the game's ancient origin lay in 12th-century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand.
Tennis became popular in England and France, although the game was only played indoors, where the ball could be hit off the wall.
In 1872, the world's first tennis club was founded in Leamington Spa, England.
In 1968, the Open Era began, where all players could compete in all tournaments, and top players were able to make their living from tennis.
Tennis equipment includes rackets, strings, and balls, with rackets made of wood, metal, and composites of carbon graphite and ceramics.
Tennis balls were originally made of cloth strips stitched together with thread and stuffed with feathers, but modern tennis balls are made of hollow vulcanized rubber with a felt coating.Tennis: Rules, Scoring, and Variations

Rules:

Tennis is played on a rectangular court that is 78 feet long and 27 feet wide for singles matches and 36 feet wide for doubles matches.
The court is divided by a net that is 3 feet 6 inches high at the posts and 3 feet high in the center.
The game can be played on various surfaces such as grass, clay, hard courts, and artificial turf courts.
The lines that delineate the court include the baseline, service line, doubles sidelines, singles sidelines, and centerline.
A legal serve must travel over the net and land in the diagonally opposite service box.
A legal return must fall in the server's court before it has bounced twice or hit any fixtures except the net.
The first player or team to fail to make a legal return loses the point.
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.
A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating between games, and a player wins a set by winning at least six games and at least two games more than the opponent.
A match consists of a sequence of sets, and the first player to win two sets in a best-of-three, or three sets in a best-of-five, wins the match.
Canadian doubles and Australian doubles are informal and unsanctioned forms of tennis.
Wheelchair tennis can be played by able-bodied players as well as people who require a wheelchair for mobility.

Scoring:

Scores from zero to three points are called "love", "15", "30", and "40", respectively.
If at least three points have been scored by each player, the score is called "deuce".
If at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than their opponent, the score of the game is "advantage" for the player in the lead.
Break points occur if the receiver, not the server, has a chance to win the game with the next point.
A game point occurs when the player who is in the lead in the game needs only one more point 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.

Variations:

Canadian doubles is played with three players, with one person playing against a doubles team.
Australian doubles is played with three players, with players rotating court position after each game.
Wheelchair tennis can be played by able-bodied players as well as people who require a wheelchair for mobility.Tennis: Stances, Shots, and Tournaments
In ITF tournaments like Fed Cup, balls are changed after every eleven games and the first change occurs after nine games.
Coaching on court on a limited basis during a match is allowed for women's tennis for WTA Tour events since 2009.
There are four main stances in modern tennis: open, semi-open, closed, and neutral. The stance selected is influenced by shot selection.
The open stance is the most common stance in tennis, while the closed stance is the least commonly used of the three main stances.
A competent tennis player has eight basic shots in their repertoire: the serve, forehand, backhand, volley, half-volley, overhead smash, drop shot, and lob.
Players use various grips during play, including the Continental, Eastern, and Western grips.
The serve is initiated by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it into the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net.
The forehand is a stroke that begins on the right side of the body, continues across the body, and ends on the left side of the body.
The backhand is a stroke that begins on the left side of the body, continues across the body, and ends on the right side of the body.
Tournaments are often organized by gender and number of players, and players may also be matched by their skill level.
The four Grand Slam tournaments are considered to be the most prestigious tennis events in the world, and they carry larger prize funds than any other tour event.
Grand Slam tournaments have best-of-five set matches for men and best-of-three for women, and they are the only tour events that have mixed doubles contests.Overview of Men's and Women's Tennis Tournaments, Players, and Grand Slam Winners
The ATP Masters 1000 is a group of nine tournaments that form the second-highest echelon in men's tennis.
The ATP 500 series consists of 11 tournaments, and the ATP 250 series has 40 tournaments.
The Challenger Tour for men is the lowest level of tournament administered by the ATP. It is composed of about 150 events.
The WTA 1000 Tournaments (formerly the Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 Tournaments), are a series of seven tournaments that are part of the second-highest tier in women's tennis.
The WTA 500 Series (formerly Premier 700) has 15 tournaments, and the WTA 250 Series (formerly International) has 30 tournaments.
The WTA 125 Series (formerly 125K Series) is the lowest tier of women's tennis, with 14 tournaments.
Professional tennis players are not salaried but must play and finish highly in tournaments to obtain prize money.
Singles champions in professional tennis receive more prize money and coverage than doubles and mixed doubles champions.
The Olympics doubles tennis tournament necessitates that both members of a doubles pairing be from the same country.
The singles competition receives the most prize money and coverage in professional tennis tournaments, followed by doubles and mixed doubles.
Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Serena Williams are the three players most often nominated as the greatest female singles player of all time.
Rod Laver remains the only male player in history to have won the calendar year Grand Slam twice in 1962 and 1969 and also the calendar year Professional Grand Slam in 1967.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic hold the record for the most Grand Slam titles with 22 as of 2023.