Tennis players and playing areas
Playing area
- A competitive tennis court is a large rectangle that can be played on grass, clay and hard courts, which can be of concrete or rubber composition. All courts are marked out to play both singles and doubles. Recreational courts can also be artificial, carpet-based surfaces.
- A tennis court is 23.77 m (78 ft) long. For singles matches, it is 8.23 m (27 ft) wide and for doubles it is 10.97 m (36 ft) wide. Additional lines accommodate both singles and doubles play.
- The tennis net should stretch 91.4 cm (3 ft) past the doubles court, stand 1.07 m (3 ft 6 in) high at the ends and drop to 91 cm (3 ft) in the middle of the net.
Players
A tennis match can have either two or four players on a court at a given time. Singles has one player on each side, while doubles has two players on each side.
In a game of doubles, after a service is returned, both players are then able to hit the ball and are not required to take it in turns.
Competitive tennis games have five different types of matches. These are:
- men's singles
- women's singles
- men's doubles
- women's doubles
- mixed doubles (each team is made up of a man and a woman)
However, recreational games allow women to play against men in singles. Wheelchair formats are also offered in all types of competitive tennis matches.