Tennis rules explained: how to play, serve, and score

The rules of tennis are simpler than the scoring. If you can serve the ball into the right box, keep it inside the lines, and let it bounce no more than once, you can play. Here are the essentials, drawn from the ITF Rules of Tennis: serving, what is in or out, how you win a point, and how play flows, enough to walk onto a court and start.

Every point starts with a serve, and you get two attempts. Standing behind your baseline, you hit the ball diagonally across the net so it lands in the service box on the opposite side. You serve from the right (deuce) side for the first point of a game, then alternate sides each point. A serve that misses the box, hits the net and lands out, or is struck after either foot touches or crosses the baseline (a foot fault) is a fault. Two faults in a row is a double fault, and you lose the point. One special case: if the serve clips the top of the net but still lands in the correct box, it is a let and you simply serve again, with no limit on how many times.

The receiver must let the serve bounce once before returning it. After that, either player may take the ball in the air (a volley) or after one bounce. The key limit is that the ball may bounce only once on your side; if it bounces twice, you lose the point. A ball is in if it lands on or inside the lines, and since every line counts as part of the court, a ball touching any part of a line, even by a hair, is in. For what each line means, see tennis court lines explained.

You win the point when your opponent cannot return the ball legally into your court. Most points end on an error: a ball hit out, a ball hit into the net, or a ball that bounces twice before it is reached. You also lose the point if you touch the net while the ball is in play, hit the ball before it has crossed to your side, hit it twice in one stroke, or are struck by the ball. Everything else is fair game: rally until someone misses.

One player serves for an entire game, then the other player serves the next game, and so on, alternating game by game. Players change ends of the court after every odd-numbered game of a set, the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and so on, to share any sun or wind evenly. In a tiebreak you also switch ends, every six points.

Doubles uses the wider court, so the alleys down each side are in. The four players serve in a fixed rotation, one full game each across the four of them, and each team picks which partner receives in the deuce court and which in the ad court for the whole set. Otherwise the rules are the same as singles.

A few things trip up almost every new player. Foot faults are the most common: drifting onto the baseline before you strike the serve, easy to do when you lean into it. Plenty of beginners also play a ball that has already bounced twice, you only get one bounce on your side. And touching the net, or reaching over it, while the ball is in play loses you the point, even by accident. Knowing those three saves a lot of arguments.

Points run love (0), 15, 30, 40, then game; 40-40 is deuce and you must win by two. First to six games, won by two, takes a set; at 5-5 you play on to 7-5, and 6-6 is decided by a tiebreak. Most matches are best of three sets. That is the short version, the full breakdown with examples is in tennis scoring explained.

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