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Tennis TipsOverview
Tennis is a sport that gives its participants plenty of exercise. It is played by high school and collegiate teams, and by accomplished professionals as well. One of the more difficult aspects of tennis for those not familiar with the sport is mastering how the game is scored, as tennis scoring is full of strange terms. Tennis lingo such as love, deuce, and ace can confuse the casual fan. Remembering that a tennis match consists of sets which are composed of games that in turn are made up of individual points can help someone be able to keep score accurately.
Step 1
Understand that points make up a game. A point in tennis is scored when a player hits the tennis ball by the opponent, hits the ball so that it cannot be returned, or makes an error that results in the opponent being awarded a point. Points can be scored for example when the ball is hit out of bounds during a volley, hit into the net, or served into the net or out of bounds on consecutive serves.
Step 2
Realize that the first player to win four points wins the game if the opponent has less than three points. If the opponents in a game are tied at three points apiece this is referred to as "deuce." The first player to record two more points than the opponent from that point in the game wins the game. The first point scored after deuce is called "advantage" or "add" and refers to the fact that the player that scored it now has the upper hand in the game. If the opponent scores the next point the game goes back to deuce and proceeds from there until one player finally wins the game by the two point margin.
Step 3
Remember that rather than the points being scored as one, two, three, and four they are scored as 15, 30, 40, and game. 15 simply corresponds to the first point scored by a player, 30 to the second, 40 to the third, and game means the fourth point has been scored. Zero points have the designation of "love." The player serving always has her score called first. A player that has won the first two points on their serve will be leading the opposing player 30-love for example.
Step 4
Learn that the first player to win six games by no less than two games wins what is called a set. A tennis match consists of sets, with men normally playing a best-of-five set match and women competing in the best two-of-three sets. The most lopsided score possible then for a men's match is 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 which means that one player won 18 games while his opponent failed to win a single game.
Step 5
Know what a tiebreaker is. The tiebreaker is employed when a set is tied at six games apiece. The first player to win seven points during the tiebreaker wins the set, but a tiebreaker must be won by at least two points. This means that a potential score for a tiebreaker could be 19-17, with the winner gaining that two point margin ultimately. Serve in a tiebreaker alternates, with the player whose turn it was to serve in the set serving the first point and then each player serving twice in a row for the duration of the tiebreaker.
TIPS AND WARNINGS
- TIP : Watching an actual tennis match and paying close attention to the scoring will give you a much better perspective on how tennis is scored.
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