The toss decides who has the first choice about serving, receiving or the opening end. It does not give its winner every choice. The players then warm up for the event's announced period before the first service starts the match.
Quick ruling: under International Tennis Federation (ITF) Rule 9, effective for the 2026 rules year, the toss takes place before the warm-up. The winner may choose to serve or receive in the first game, choose the end for the first game, or require the opponent to make one of those choices; the other side makes the linked remaining choice. ITF Rule 29 sets a maximum five-minute warm-up unless the event organiser decides otherwise.
Scope
The governing rule and effective version
This page applies the ITF Rules of Tennis 2026, principally Rules 9, 14, 15, 27 and 29, together with the ITF Duties and Procedures for Officials 2026 for matches at ITF-sanctioned or recognised events. The ITF, now trading as World Tennis, is the international rule-making authority.
The 2026 edition took effect on 1 January 2026 under the rulebook's amendment provision. The separate 2026 amendment notice changes Rules 18 and 27 and Appendix V, but it does not change the toss or warm-up provisions discussed here. Tour, Grand Slam, national-association, collegiate, junior and local competition regulations may set a different warm-up duration or enforcement process.
Decision path
Five steps before the first point
Check the event rules: establish the warm-up limit and any start-of-match procedure.
Conduct the toss: ITF Rule 9 requires this before the warm-up starts.
Record the first choice: serve/receive, opening end, or requiring the opponent to choose.
Complete the linked choice: one side chooses serve/receive and the other chooses the opening end.
Time the warm-up and start: when the permitted warm-up and any applicable ready-to-play period end, the chosen server begins the first game.
Rule 9
The winner has three options
Choose to serve or receive in the first game: the opponent chooses the end for that game.
Choose the end for the first game: the opponent chooses whether to serve or receive.
Require the opponent to choose: after the opponent selects one of the two categories above, the toss winner makes the remaining choice.
That third option is often called “deferring,” but Rule 9's exact effect is narrower: the opponent must make one of the first two choices. The toss winner does not surrender both decisions.
Toss or coin toss?
The rulebook and officiating procedure use different levels of detail
ITF Rule 9 says only that the choices are “decided by toss”; it does not prescribe the object or method. At an ITF-sanctioned or recognised match with a chair umpire, Duties and Procedures Article I.D.5(b) is more specific: immediately before the match, the chair umpire tosses a coin in the presence of both players or teams and does so before the warm-up.
At a match without a chair umpire, do not invent a universal coin requirement from the title of this page. Use the fair toss method and pre-match procedure published or directed by the event.
Rule 29
Five minutes is a maximum, not an entitlement everywhere
ITF Rule 29(e) says the warm-up time is a maximum of five minutes unless the event organisers decide otherwise. An organiser can therefore prescribe a shorter or different limit. “Five minutes under the ITF baseline” and “the event must always provide exactly five minutes” are not the same claim.
The warm-up is outside the match for Rule 29's continuous-play definition: the match starts when the first service is put in play. This does not prevent a competition code from regulating lateness or readiness during the pre-match period.
ATP 2026 variation
ATP Tour and Challenger matches use four minutes
ATP Official Rulebook 2026, Section 7.22.N.6, requires a four-minute warm-up before ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour matches. For a stopped or postponed ATP match, the same section allows no re-warm-up after a delay of up to 15 minutes, three minutes after a delay of more than 15 but less than 30 minutes, and four minutes after 30 minutes or more; the last period is five minutes at Challengers.
The ATP book also contains a generic five-minute reference in the chair-umpire responsibilities at Section 5.07.D.9. For duration, this page follows the specific on-court competition provision in Section 7.22.N.6. ATP's changes notice, current revision 27 April 2026, does not amend that warm-up provision.
Officials
What happens as the warm-up clock runs down
For ITF-sanctioned or recognised events, Duties and Procedures Articles I.D, II.G and II.J require the chair umpire to conduct the coin toss before the warm-up, keep a stopwatch, record the winner and choices, announce the time remaining, call “Time” at the end and identify the player who will serve.
Where the separate ITF Start of Match procedure is in effect, the players have a maximum of 60 seconds after the warm-up to be ready; a player not ready to serve at the end of that period receives a Start of Match Violation. That 60-second procedure is not stated as a universal addition to every recreational or local match.
Interrupted before play
Leaving court can reopen the choices, not the toss
ITF Rule 9, Case 1 covers a warm-up that is stopped and in which the players leave the court. The original toss result stands, but both players or teams may make new choices before play begins. For example, the original winner may change from serving to choosing an end, after which the opponent makes the new linked choice.
The stated conditions matter. Rule 9 does not promise new choices merely because hitting pauses briefly while everyone remains on court. Nor does it order a second toss after the players leave: the same side remains the toss winner.
Suspended after play
A re-warm-up is not a new pre-match choice
Once the first service has been put in play, the match has started. A later weather delay may produce a re-warm-up under the applicable competition procedure, but it does not reset the toss or let the players redesign the service and end sequence.
The ITF 2026 officiating table lists no re-warm-up for a 0–15-minute delay, three minutes for a 15–30-minute delay, and four or five minutes for 30 minutes or more. Because the table overlaps at exactly 15 minutes and leaves the four-or-five-minute selection to the applicable tour or event, the appointed official and competition regulation control those boundaries. The chair umpire records the server and each player's side when play is suspended.
Doubles
The team choice and partner order are separate decisions
Rule 9 applies to a doubles team in the same way as to a singles player: the team chooses the first-game service status or opening end. ITF Rules 14 and 15 then govern decisions within the team.
The team due to serve in the first game chooses which partner serves that game.
The team due to receive in the first game chooses which partner receives the first point; the partners then alternate receiving points within that game and keep their receiving order for the set.
Winning the toss therefore does not let a doubles team choose both partners' orders for the opponents.
Error correction
If the opening choice is carried out incorrectly
After play begins, ITF Rule 27—not a new toss—controls correction. Points already played stand. Players at the wrong ends move to the correct ends as soon as the error is discovered. If the wrong player serves during a standard game, the player originally due to serve takes over immediately, unless the game has already finished; then the altered service order remains.
In doubles, a receiving-order error remains through the game in which it is discovered, and the partners resume the original order the next time they receive in that set. These outcomes explain why officials should record the pre-match choices rather than attempt to reconstruct them later.
Worked case 1
The winner chooses to receive
Situation: in an ITF-rules singles match, Blue wins the toss and chooses to receive in the first game.
Ruling: Red serves the first game and chooses the opening end. Under ITF Rule 9(a), Blue used the serve-or-receive choice, so the end choice belongs to Red.
Worked case 2
The winner makes the opponent choose
Situation: Green wins the toss and requires Gold to choose. Gold chooses the north end.
Ruling: Green now chooses whether to serve or receive in the first game. Gold chose the end under ITF Rule 9(b), leaving the service-status choice to Green; Gold cannot also claim it.
Worked case 3
Rain stops the warm-up
Situation: Silver won the toss and chose to serve. Rain stops the warm-up and both players leave the court. They return later, before any service has been put in play.
Ruling: Silver remains the toss winner, but both players may make new choices. Under ITF Rule 9, Case 1, Silver may now choose an end or require the opponent to choose; there is no second toss.
Worked case 4
Rain arrives after the first point
Situation: the first point has been completed and the players leave court during a long suspension.
Ruling: the original service and end sequence remains. The event may permit a re-warm-up, but Rule 9's pre-match new-choice case no longer applies because the match has started. The decisive fact is that the first service had already been put in play.
United States play
USTA's cooperative warm-up guidance is a separate layer
For USTA play, Friend at Court 2026, The Code §§3–4 says the warm-up is not practice: a player should direct shots to the opponent, take warm-up serves before the match's first serve, and return the opponent's warm-up serves at a moderate pace. Section 3 describes a five-to-ten-minute cooperative warm-up and provides that a player who refuses to warm the opponent forfeits that player's own warm-up opportunity.
This is USTA-specific sportsmanship guidance, not the wording of the international five-minute maximum. The Code applies in USTA matches except where an official assumes a responsibility, and an event's announced warm-up limit remains controlling.
Common mistakes
Four misconceptions to avoid
“The toss winner chooses serve and end”: no; choosing one category gives the other side the linked choice.
“The ITF always requires a coin”: Rule 9 requires a toss; the ITF chair-umpire procedure specifies the coin.
“Every warm-up lasts five minutes”: no; five minutes is the ITF maximum unless organisers decide otherwise, and ATP's 2026 operative rule uses four.
“A rain delay always means a new choice”: no; Rule 9's new-choice case requires a stopped pre-match warm-up and the players leaving court.
Checked on 28 August 2026 against the current ITF 2026 rulebook, officiating procedures and amendment notice; the ATP 2026 competition and personnel chapters plus the 27 April revision notice; and USTA Friend at Court 2026. ITF Rules 9 and 29 are the international baseline. ATP and USTA material is identified only where it changes or supplements that baseline. WTA, Grand Slam, collegiate, national-association, junior and individual tournament regulations may prescribe other timing or enforcement and should be checked for those competitions.
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