SRSport Rules
Tennis - Serve order and ends

Serve order and changeovers without losing the pattern.

Tennis keeps the match fair by rotating both the server and the playing ends on fixed schedules. The server changes after each standard game, the side of the baseline changes after odd-numbered games, and tiebreaks use their own point-by-point service pattern. Most mistakes come from treating those three clocks as one rule.

Quick ruling: in a standard game, the receiver becomes the next server. Players change ends after the first game, the third game, and every later odd game in a set. In a tiebreak, the player due to serve starts with one point, then service changes every two points, and players change ends after every six tiebreak points.
Decision path

How to find the next server

  1. Start with the game score, not the point score. In ordinary games, players alternate service games through the set.
  2. At the end of each standard game, the player or team that received becomes the server for the next game.
  3. Inside each game, the server starts from the right-hand court and then alternates sides of the center mark after every point.
  4. If the set reaches a tiebreak under the event format, the player or team whose turn it was to serve next serves the first point only.
  5. After the tiebreak's opening point, service changes to the opponent for two points, then continues in two-point turns until the tiebreak is over.
Changeovers

When players switch ends

  • During a set: players change ends at the end of the first, third, fifth, and every later odd-numbered game.
  • At the end of a set: players change ends unless the total number of games in that set is even.
  • If the set ends on an even total: players stay where they are for the start of the next set and change ends after the first game of that next set.
  • During a tiebreak: players change ends after every six points, regardless of who is serving next.
Tiebreak sequence

The first server does not serve two points

The player due to serve at 6-6 starts the tiebreak with a single point from the right-hand court. The opponent then serves the next two points, starting from the left-hand court, and the two-point serving turns continue from there. After the tiebreak, the player or team that received first in the tiebreak serves first in the next set.

Doubles order

Four players make the rotation longer

In doubles, each team chooses its service order at the start of a set. The first team's chosen server serves the opening game, the opposing team's chosen server serves the second game, and the partners then take the third and fourth games. That four-player rotation continues through the set and into any set tiebreak unless the rules for the specific format say otherwise.

Common mix-ups

What people usually count wrong

  • The point score does not decide changeovers: love, 15, 30, 40, and deuce do not matter for switching ends in standard games.
  • A tiebreak counts as a game for the set score: a 7-6 set has an odd total of games, so the end-of-set change rule matters.
  • Serving side and court end are separate: a server may move from deuce court to ad court within the same game without a changeover.
  • Changing ends is not a timeout by itself: players must follow the event's allowed rest and timing procedures at changeovers.
Mistakes

Wrong server or wrong end

Order mistakes are corrected when discovered, but completed points usually are not replayed just because players later realise the wrong person served or the players were at the wrong ends. Officials restore the correct order from the current score, with specific correction rules depending on whether the mistake involved a standard game, a tiebreak, singles, or doubles.

Officials

How it is enforced

Officials track the server, receiver, end of court, and point score separately. If there is a dispute, they reconstruct the sequence from the last certain score and apply the correction rule that fits the mistake. In unofficiated play, the practical approach is the same: stop as soon as the error is noticed, agree on the current score, put the proper server and ends back in place, and continue.