Tennis or lawn tennis is a court game played with rackets and a ball. The court surface may be grass, clay, asphalt, concrete, wood or synthetic carpet. Major international championships are usually played on grass or clay. Tennis can be played by single players or double teams. Serving, volleying and playing ground strokes are the basic skills of the game.
Tennis is played on a rectangular court seventy-eight feet (23.77metres) long and twenty-seven feet (8.23metres) wide for singles and thirty six feet (10.97metres) wide for doubles. The playing surface is divided by a net three feet (91 centimetres ) high at the center and three and a half feet (1.07metres ) high at the net posts. Each side of the court is divided into three areas. The two forecourt areas near the net are called the left and right service courts. A third backcourt area extends from the service line to the base line.
The modern game of tennis originated in England in the eighteen seventies. The first Wimbledon Championships were held in eighteen seventy-seven. The scoring system of love, fifteen, thirty, forty, deuce, was based on that of “real tennis”. The ITF was founded in nineteen twelve, in Paris. Dominant nations in world tennis include the USA, Germany, Sweden and Australia. In nineteen twenty-six tennis became a professional sport, with the first tournament in New York. The game became open to amateur and professional players in nineteen sixty-eight.
Tennis requires speed, stamina, balance, agility, flexibility, coordination, good footwork and ball skills.
