TENNIS

Tennis, originally called lawn tennis, is believed to have been invented by the British army officer Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873.  It was supposedly modeled after English court tennis, squash racquets and badminton.  It has since become a widely played game both professionally and on amateur courts worldwide.

Tennis is a sport played on a court with a racket and a ball.  It can be played by two (as in singles) or four (as in doubles) indoors or outdoors.  Courts are divided by a net and marked with two sets of lines, one for singles and one for doubles play.

Each point of a tennis game begins with a serve.  The player serving the ball is the server and the one receiving the ball is the receiver.  The server tosses the ball into the air and strikes it with the racket before it touches the ground, aiming to hit the ball into the opponent's area to begin the volley.  The server usually uses an overhand motion to strike the ball from behind the base line.  The first serve of the game is hit from the right side of the court into the diagonally opposite side of the court.  A fault is called if the ball does not enter the opponent's court on this side, is out of court bounds, or is served into the net.  After a fault, the server may attempt to serve again, but if the next serve results in a fault, a double fault is called.  A double fault results in a point being awarded to the server's opponent.  If a proper serve is not touched by the opponent's racket, it is called an ace.  After the first point, the serve is made from the left side of the court and alternates accordingly after each serve throughout the game.  A successful serve results in the ball being hit back and forth until one player or team fails to return it.  The ball must not bounce twice in a row on the same side of the court.  It also cannot be hit into the net or outside boundary lines.