Chiedu Nkwocha

12-6-10
Period 3B
How to Play Tennis

The game of tennis is a great sport that requires hand-eye coordination and

not being afraid of the ball. The equipment used to play tennis is a racket and

tennis balls. There are two main things I am going to be explaining in this paper,

how to score and how to play on the court.

While playing tennis the score is very different from other sports. At first

you and your opponent are at ‘love’ which means zero. After ‘love’ it goes 15, 30

and then 40. Before you serve you call out your score and then your opponents

score. If you were the first one to score then you would call out 15-love. If the

opponent scores first you would then say love-15. When and if you and your

opponent get to 40 all it would be called deuce. Once you are at deuce, you have

to win by two points. If you are the server and you have the point after deuce,

then you would say ‘add-in’. If you don’t have the point after deuce then you

would say ‘add-out’. When you get the point after add-in then you win the match.

If you get the point when its add-out then it goes back to deuce.

While playing doubles in tennis, you and your partner stand on opposite

ends of your side of the court. One of you stands at the baseline on the right side
and the other stands by the net on the left side. Your opponents stand the same

way but on their side of the court. With the team that serves first, the player on

the baseline has to serve the ball cross court aiming the ball into the service

square. If the net blocks the ball or goes out, the player has a second try to serve

the ball in. On the serve, if the ball hits the net and lands in the service square

then it is called a ‘let’. If you get a let on the first serve then you get two more

serves. If you get a let on the second serve you get one more serve. So, once you

serve successfully the opponent cross court returns the ball. Once, you play the

point out you walk to the other side of your court if you are the server. If you are

the returner then you move to the net, and if you are the net person you move to

the baseline.

Tennis is a very simple game once you get the hang of it. You just need to

focus and keep your eye on the ball. I have been playing tennis for 2 years and it

has been one of the best experiences of my life!