Tennis

Tennis is a racket sport in which two players, or two pairs, hit a ball over a net and try to win points, games and sets. Modern lawn tennis was defined in England in the 1870s, and the game is governed worldwide by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Its four Grand Slam tournaments are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

History of tennis

Olympics.com traces tennis back to jeu de paume, a medieval game invented in France in the 11th century. The racket arrived in the 16th century, and the 15, 30 and 40 scoring system developed at around the same time.

Tennis was codified in England in the 1870s. In 1874 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield published A Portable Court of Playing Tennis, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame says he obtained a provisional patent for his portable court on February 23, 1874. His rubber ball could bounce on grass, which helped to define lawn tennis. He first called the game lawn tennis and also considered the name Sphairistike, and his boxed sets showed both names. According to the Hall of Fame, Marylebone Cricket Club became the sport’s governing body about a year after the boxes began to sell well.

Wingfield’s boxed sets sold well and carried the game abroad. By 1881 they had reached the United States, where the forerunner of the US Open was held in Newport, Rhode Island. The first Wimbledon tournament followed in 1877, and women were competing there by 1884.

Rules and how tennis is played

Points are counted as 15, 30 and 40, and a zero is called love. At 40-all, called deuce, a player must win two straight points to take the game. Winning one of those points gives that player the advantage. Because a game cannot end on a single point from deuce, long games are possible.

A set is won by taking six games with a lead of two. At six games all, a tie-break usually decides the set, and the first player to reach seven points with a two-point margin wins it. In a tie-break the player due to serve takes the first point, the opponent serves the next two, and after that each side serves two points in turn. Players change ends after every six points.

The number of sets depends on the event. Men’s singles at the Grand Slams are best of five sets, while men’s singles on the ATP Tour are best of three. Women’s singles and doubles at the Grand Slams and on the WTA Tour are best of three.

The tie-break itself is a modern addition, introduced in the 1970s. The ITF’s Rules of Tennis also provide for a Tie-break Set, in which a tie-break is played at six games all, and Appendix V describes alternatives such as the Coman Tiebreak Procedure and the 10-Point Match Tiebreak.

Equipment and venues

A tennis court is 78 feet (23.77 meters) long. It is 27 feet (8.23 meters) wide for singles and 36 feet (10.97 meters) wide for doubles. The net stands 3.5 feet (1.07 meters) high at the posts and 3 feet (0.914 meter) high at the center, so the net sags slightly lower in the middle than at the sides.

The ITF rules require court lines to contrast with the surface color, and they leave the detailed ball specifications to a separate appendix. Players use a racket and a rubber ball, a descendant of the rubber ball Wingfield used on grass.

Wingfield’s original kit was a portable court: two poles, a net, pegs and rackets packed in a box. That portability explains how quickly the game moved from English lawns to clubs overseas. The grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon remain the best-known venue, and Centre Court is its main stadium.

Governing bodies and major competitions

The International Lawn Tennis Federation was founded in Paris in 1913, and it is the predecessor of today’s ITF. The ITF publishes the Rules of Tennis. Its Rules of Tennis Committee monitors the game and recommends changes to the Board of Directors, and the annual general meeting is the final authority on any change.

The professional game is organized around the Grand Slams and the men’s and women’s tours. Amateurism ended in 1968, which began the Open era, and ATP and WTA rankings began in 1973.

Tennis is also an Olympic sport, though its roots lie in France. It was on the program of the first modern Games in Athens in 1896, left the Olympics in 1924 after a dispute between the ILTF and the IOC, and returned officially at the Seoul Games in 1988.

Notable moments in tennis history

At the 1896 Athens Olympics, Britain’s John Pius Boland won the men’s singles. Women first competed in Olympic tennis at the Paris Games in 1900, and Charlotte Cooper won the women’s singles. Cooper had won her first Wimbledon title in 1895.

Tennis also appeared as a demonstration sport at the Mexico City Games in 1968, the same year the Open era began.

Tennis around the world

Tennis grew from French courts and English lawns into a global sport through clubs and tournaments. Wingfield’s boxed sets reached the United States by 1881, and by 1884 women were competing at Wimbledon. The Grand Slam events are spread across four countries, and the Olympic tournament brings players from many more.

Because the ITF writes a single set of rules, a player can move between tournaments on different continents and find the same court size, net height and scoring. The differences that remain, such as the number of sets in a match, are set by each event.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 4, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue