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.
Browse Tennis rules by topic
21 plain-English explainers, grouped by the kind of decision you need to settle.
Essentials and setup
Players, playing areas, equipment, positions, and the basic structure of the sport.
Tennis Ball Change Rules Explained
ITF 2026 tennis ball-change rules: how games and tiebreaks count, the 7-and-9 pro schedule, missed changes, and broken or lost balls.
Read explainerTennis Court Dimensions and Markings
ITF 2026 tennis court dimensions and markings: singles and doubles boundaries, service courts, line widths, net height, run-off space and youth courts.
Read explainerTennis Doubles Serving Order and Positioning
ITF 2026 doubles tennis rules for serving and receiving order, legal partner positions, tiebreaks, wrong-server corrections, and scoring-format exceptions.
Read explainerTennis Net Posts, Singles Sticks, and Court Fixtures
ITF 2026 tennis rules for net posts, singles sticks and permanent fixtures: serves, rally contacts, around-the-post returns and player touches.
Read explainerTennis Racket, String, and Equipment Rules
ITF 2026 tennis racket and equipment rules: legal dimensions, strings, dampeners, added weight, smart sensors, broken strings, and event variations.
Read explainerTennis Scoring: Points, Games, Sets, and Matches
ITF 2026 tennis scoring explained: love, deuce, advantage, games, tie-break and advantage sets, match tie-breaks, score errors, and event variations.
Read explainerTennis Singles Court and Positioning Rules
ITF 2026 tennis singles rules: court lines, serve and receiver positions, service boxes, doubles alleys, singles sticks, movement and edge cases.
Read explainerScoring and match formats
How points, goals, results, tied contests, and competition formats are decided.
Advantage and No-Ad Scoring
ITF 2026 advantage and no-ad scoring: deuce, the deciding point, receiver's choice, doubles receiving order and current tour variations.
Read explainerTennis Match Formats: Best of Three, Best of Five, and Pro Sets
2026 ITF tennis match formats: best of three and five, match and final-set tiebreaks, short sets, USTA pro sets, and current tour variations.
Read explainerTennis Tiebreak and Scoring Rules
ITF 2026 tennis scoring explained: deuce, tiebreak service order, end changes, match tiebreaks, error corrections, and ATP, WTA and Grand Slam formats.
Read explainerFouls, penalties, and conduct
Illegal contact, violations, cards, discipline, and how sanctions are applied.
Line Calls and Hindrance in Tennis
Under the 2026 ITF Rules of Tennis, a ball touching the relevant line is in; hindrance can mean the point, a replay, or no relief depending on its cause.
Read explainerMedical Timeouts, Code Violations and Challenges
The 2026 Grand Slam rules for medical timeouts, cramp, toilet breaks, code and time penalties, electronic reviews, and resuming play.
Read explainerService Lets and Foot Faults
Under the 2026 ITF Rules of Tennis, learn when a serve is a fault, a service let, or live; the exact foot-fault boundaries; and how second serves and no-let events work.
Read explainerTennis Coaching and Time Violations: ITF 2026 Rules
ITF 2026 tennis coaching and time rules: when coaching is allowed, the 25-second limit, changeover timing, exceptions and Grand Slam penalties.
Read explainerTennis Retirements, Walkovers, and Defaults Explained
ATP, WTA and ITF 2026 rules for tennis retirements, walkovers and defaults: the match-start boundary, official result, medical procedure and competition-specific consequences.
Read explainerPlay and decisions
The live-play rulings, sequences, and judgment calls that decide what happens next.
Tennis Net-Cord and Ball-Touch Rules
ITF 2026 tennis net-cord rules: service lets, no-let formats, live rally balls, player contact, posts, singles sticks and permanent fixtures.
Read explainerTennis Permanent Fixtures and Out-of-Play Rules
ITF 2026 tennis permanent-fixture rules: who wins when a live ball hits a fence, roof, official, net post or singles stick before or after a bounce.
Read explainerTennis Receiver Readiness and Quick-Serve Rules
Under the ITF 2026 rules, when must a tennis receiver be ready, when is a quick serve a let, and how do time violations differ from service lets?
Read explainerTennis Serve Order and Changeovers
2026 ITF tennis rules for serve order and changeovers: singles, doubles, tiebreak rotation, end changes, rest periods, errors, and approved variants.
Read explainerTennis Toilet Break and Change of Attire Rules
2026 tennis toilet and attire-break rules: Grand Slam, ATP and WTA allowances, 3/5-minute clocks, extra breaks, penalties and edge cases.
Read explainerTennis Warm-Up and Coin Toss Rules Explained
ITF 2026 tennis toss and warm-up rules: the winner's three choices, the five-minute baseline, interruptions, doubles, errors and ATP variations.
Read explainerWhat tennis rules are really organizing
- Scoring and sequence: points build into games, games into sets, and the serving order and ends change on a defined pattern.
- Ball in play: the rally starts with a legal serve and continues until the ball bounces twice, lands out, is struck illegally, or a let or other interruption changes the point.
- Court boundaries: singles and doubles use different sidelines, but a ball that touches any part of the relevant line is in.
- Player conduct and fairness: the rules cover deliberate hindrance, accidental interference, time between points, and how officials handle code violations.
How officials usually work through a tennis point
- Start with whether the serve was legal, including foot position, net contact, and where the ball landed.
- If the serve was legal or replayed as a let, judge each shot in sequence rather than reacting only to the final error.
- Ask whether the ball was in, out, or touched illegally before any later contact or celebration.
- If there is interference or a stoppage, decide whether the point should stand, be replayed, or be awarded because the hindrance was clear enough to change the rally.
- Only after the point is settled do officials update the score, server, ends, and any conduct penalties.
Rules that are broad across tennis
- The line rule is constant: if any part of the ball touches the line, the shot is good.
- A serve must land in the correct service box: if it misses, the server takes a fault; two faults lose the point.
- Net-cord serves are replayed as lets: that matters only when the serve otherwise lands correctly.
- A player loses the point for certain direct violations: striking the ball after a second bounce, touching the net during play, or hitting the ball before it crosses to that player's side are common examples.
Important competition-specific differences
- Final-set formats can differ: some competitions use deciding tiebreaks at different scores, while others have changed formats over time.
- Coaching, time limits, and technology can differ: chair-umpire procedures, shot clocks, electronic line calling, and player challenge systems are not identical everywhere.
- Doubles service and no-ad options can differ in some formats: the core service rules stay recognisable, but shortened scoring systems exist.
- Code-violation ladders can differ in presentation: the broad idea of warnings and escalating penalties is common, but the exact structure depends on the event rules in force.
Where fans most often get the call wrong
- "It hit the line, so it is out" is backwards. In tennis, the line belongs to the court area it marks.
- "The serve touched the net, so it is automatically a fault" is also wrong. A serve that clips the net and still lands correctly is a let and is replayed.
- "The rally should continue if a player shouts by accident" is not always true. Officials still have to judge whether the noise or movement hindered the opponent.
- "Electronic calls remove judgment" goes too far. Technology can settle some line decisions, but timing, hindrance, double-bounce judgment, and conduct issues still need officiating.
How tennis is actually enforced
- Officials focus on the first decisive event, because later shots do not rescue an earlier ball that was already out or a point that was already dead.
- Hindrance is interpreted through fairness, not annoyance alone. The key question is whether the opponent's chance to play the point was genuinely affected.
- When no chair umpire is present, players are usually expected to make calls on their own side honestly and give the opponent the benefit on uncertain line calls.
- In higher-level events, electronic line calling may change who announces the call, but not the underlying in-or-out standard.
Where these rules come from
- ITF Rules and Regulations - the International Tennis Federation hub for the Rules of Tennis and related governance documents.
- ITF Rules of Tennis - the core rulebook covering the court, scoring, service, lets, and loss-of-point cases.
- ATP Official Rulebook - tournament procedures and tour-level regulations used in men's professional events.
- WTA Rules - women’s professional tennis rules, regulations, and event procedures.
- USTA Friend at Court - a practical rules guide including unofficiated-match procedures widely used in the United States.