How to Bluff Your Way in Tennis

British farmers will certainly be rejoicing as the strawberries and cream sales rocket during the ‘Pride of British’ sporting, Wimbledon. And, while the talk of the season this year has been the new multi-million pound roof of centre-court, some slight drizzle meant the roof has now been used and people are back to talking about the most complex and dreaded part of the tournament – the tennis itself.

If, like me, you haven’t a foggiest about the rules, happenings or even the meaning of this traditional sport, here’s a few nice serves to help you blag your way through the two weeks…(beware, this may prove how much you already know about the sport!)

For visual reference, like a good student, make sure you look at the picture of the court and hopefully any confusing references will become clear.

• Let’s start with some easy stuff – the game is played on a rectangular court with opponents facing one another either side of the court (knew more than you thought you did eh?). The player who delivers the ball initially is called the server and the player opposite, the receiver. Which of the players is the server is decided by the tossing of a coin or racket. Not too tricky so far…
•  By the book of tennis rules, the receiver must always state that they are ready before the ball is served to stop any pesky cheaters serving while the receivers back is turned, I imagine.
•  After the ball has been hit by their opponent, the player has a maximum of one bounce in which to hit the ball and return it. When the server has…well, served, the ball must bounce inside the service box or else the serve is deemed a foul and a second must be given. If the receiver hits the ball before it has bounced, a point is given to the server. The service box is made up from the closest line running parallel to the net and the boundaries either side. It is divided in two by a line running through the middle and what are the names of these lovely two sections? Why, the right service box and the left service box…piece of cake! Look at the picture above and I promise you, it will make a lot more sense!
• Now, the bit that always confused me was the scoring. All this love for nothing? However, while I can’t explain why they chose the crazy scoring, it’s fairly simple to understand. Love means nothing in the rules of tennis (what a heartless bunch), and the first point is 15, followed by 30 and then 40. If the score is tied at 40-40, this is known as a deuce. One player must therefore win by two more points which are not represented through numerical scoring. If the server gets one more point, they receive Advantage-in which means if they score the next point, they win the round. If the receiver scores the next point however, this creates Advantage-out, which by some freak chance means the receiver can win the game on the next point. Brilliant. The server’s score is always called first. So simply put scoring goes Love (0) – 15 (first point) – 30 (second point) – 40 (third point) and then the forth point is the win except in the case of a tie when the next point is A followed by a win after that point. (Probably still a tad confusing).
• Tennis in Wimbledon and other grand slams is played in a set. This is a sequence of games ending when the count of games meets set criteria. A player is normally required to win 6 games to win the set and two more games than the opponent. So, while a player may reach 6 games, if their opponent has won 5 games, an additional game will have to be played for that player to win.
• One term you may hear used is a let. This is when a distraction other than the players on court takes place such as a ball rolling on to court for example.
• A tennis match can consist of either singles, one on one, or doubles, two players against another two. The rules and court layout of the two games are slightly different…
• A singles match uses the narrower lines on the court (see the picture at the top). The players swap both who is serving and their end of the court at the end of each game.
•  Doubles aren’t too much different except the wider boundaries on the court are used (see photo again). The serve rotates around the court so for every four games, each player serves once.
•  Now, one final tip to help you blag away. IF the ball lands on the line of the court, that ball is a-ok.

So that’s the very basics of tennis in one shot (excuse the pun). It may not make you Andy Murray overnight but learn all this and your complete ignorance is certainly blanketed over slightly. All you need now is some confidence and your understanding and enjoyment of the game will slowly increase, what’s more, you’ll be a tennis blagger, my son.