Tennis rules in five minutes
Rules baseline: International Tennis Federation 2026 Rules of Tennis. Grand Slam, ATP, WTA, team, national, junior, and recreational competitions add their own formats and procedures.
- Objective: win points by serving and returning the ball into the correct court until the opponent cannot make a legal return.
- Players, court, and equipment: singles has one player per side and doubles two; the rectangular court, net, balls, rackets, singles sticks where needed, clothing, and permanent fixtures are regulated.
- How play begins: the pre-match toss gives choices of serve, receive, or end, and each point starts with a serve from behind the baseline into the diagonally opposite service court.
- Turns and service: players alternate hitting the ball, allowing no more than one bounce; one player serves an entire game, with service changing after each game and ends changing on the prescribed pattern.
- Scoring: standard games progress 0, 15, 30, 40 and game, with deuce requiring two consecutive points; six games normally win a set with the required margin or tie-break.
- Length and winner: the match winner is the first to the required number of sets, commonly two in best-of-three or three in best-of-five; tennis has no fixed match clock.
- Main faults: two service faults lose the point, as do balls out, two bounces, illegal racket or body contact, touching the net while the ball is live, deliberate hindrance, and other loss-of-point cases.
- Restarts and penalties: a let may replay a serve or point; time violations and conduct offences follow the event code, while corrected order or end errors are handled under the Rules of Tennis.
- Competition differences: no-ad scoring, final-set tie-breaks, match tie-breaks, coaching, ball changes, electronic line calling, rest periods, and best-of-five play depend on the event.
- Go deeper: start with scoring basics, service faults and lets, service order, line calls and hindrance, and the detailed guides below.