Tennis
Tennis was created in England in the late 1800's. It is a sport played using a stringed racquet and hollow rubber ball. It may be played by two individuals (singles), or by two teams of two (doubles). A tennis court is made of either a hard court surface (cement, or coated asphalt), clay, or grass. The court is 78 feet long by 27 feet wide for singles play, and 78 feet long by 36 feet wide for doubles play.
A tennis game is called a match. Matches consist of an odd number of sets (typically 3 sets, but sometimes 5 sets). A match winner is the player or doubles team that wins more than half the sets (2 in the case of 3 sets, 3 in the case of 5 sets). Service alternates between games from one player or team and the other.
A set consists of a sequence of games. The set winner is the first player or team to win at least 6 games and at least two points more than their opponent. Some tournaments allow for a "twelve-point tie break" which would allow a set to be won 7-6.
Each tennis game is scored in points as follows: "zero" or "love", "fifteen", "thirty", "forty", and "game". If the score is tied at forty it is referred to as "deuce". If one player has one more win point over forty than their opponent it is referred to as "advantage". The game is won by the first player to game as long as they are two or more points ahead of their opponent.
Professional Tennis
The United States Tennis Association administers the National Tennis Rating Program. This program assigns a rating to tennis players - 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, and 7.0 (higher ratings mean more skill). "World class" tennis players are ranked 7.0.
World class tennis players compete in tennis tournaments or in professional team tennis, where available. Many of these events also allow amateur boys and girls to compete in tournaments for their own level of play.
Tennis Tournaments
Professional tennis tournaments are usually organized by gender and include competition for men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles (a man and a woman per side).
The most well known tennis tournaments are the four "Grand Slam" events, which are:
- The Australian Open which takes place in January of every year
- The French Open which takes place between mid-May and early June of every year
- Wimbledon which takes place in late June / early July of every year
- The U.S. Open which takes place in late August / early September of every year
Team Tennis
There is a single professional team tennis league in North America - World Team Tennis.
College Tennis
Tennis is a college sport for all three NCAA levels of competition (Division I, Division II, and Division III). Both men and women compete and championships are determined at all levels as follows:
- Men's Team Champion
- Men's Individual Champion
- Men's Doubles Champions
- Women's Team Champion
- Women's Individual Champion
- Women's Doubles Champions
The NAIA also provides competition similar to the NCAA.
College Tennis Links
Tennis News
| Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News |
| Nalbandian, Ferrer open Davis Cup final (AP) Argentina's David Nalbandian will face Spain's David Ferrer on Friday in the opening match of the Davis Cup final. Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina's top-ranked player at No. 9, was drawn Thursday to play Feliciano Lopez in the second singles match of the best-of-five series. "Juan Martin had a slight preference to play second," Argentina captain Alberto Mancini said. |
| Wimbledon to regain All England Club (AP) Wimbledon organizers will pay $83 million to regain total control of the All England Club, buying back the 50 percent it gave away in 1934. The amount will be paid to Britain's Lawn Tennis Association in installments over a likely five-year period from 2013, after the existing agreement expires, All England Club chairman Tim Phillips told The Associated Press on Wednesday. |
| Ex-No. 1 doubles player Graebner dies (AP) Carole Caldwell Graebner, who won doubles titles at the U.S. and Australian Championships in the 1960s, died Wednesday. She was 65. Graebner died in New York City following a brief battle with cancer, said her daughter, Cameron Graebner Mark. The top-ranked doubles player in the United States in 1963, Graebner teamed with Nancy Richey to capture doubles titles at the 1965 U.S. |
| Federer beats Blake in exhibition match (AP) Roger Federer overcame an ailing back to beat James Blake in a one-set exhibition Tuesday. Federer rallied from 3-1 down to win 7-6, taking the tiebreaker 10-7. His victory came days after a sore back contributed his struggles at the Masters Cup, where he failed to reach the semifinals. John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg also played at the "Showdown of Champions," which included four one-set matches. |
| Miss. St. player arrested on rape charge (AP) Authorities say a Mississippi State tennis player has been arrested and charged with raping a 20-year-old woman during a party at his apartment. Police in Oktibbeha (Ock-ti-be-HA) County say Christopher Richard Doerr, who is from London, was released from jail Tuesday after posting a $50,500 bond. The 20-year-old junior also faces a charge of furnishing beer to a minor. |
| Djokovic wins season-ending Masters Cup (AP)
Novak Djokovic is trying his best to complete Serbia's ascension to the top of the tennis world. Jelena Jankovic, the U.S. Open runner-up, already is No. 1 on the women's side. Compatriot Ana Ivanovic, the French Open winner, held the spot earlier in the year before slipping to No. 5. Nenad Zimonjic became the top doubles player when he and Canada's Daniel Nestor teamed to beat Bob and Mike Bryan for... |
| Nestor, Zimonjic win Masters Cup doubles (AP) Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia beat Americans Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (3), 6-2 Sunday to win the Masters Cup doubles title and clinch the year-end ATP No. 1 ranking. The Bryan twins, who were playing for their third title here, held the top ranking and won Olympic bronze at Beijing in August. |
| RSS integration by RSSinclude |
Contact • Home • Legal • Privacy • RSS
Subscribe to NuttyAboutSports.com Articles by Email • Subscribe to NuttyAboutSports BLOG by Email
Copyright © 2006-2008 WorldReach Marketing. All Rights Reserved.