As a recreational Tennis player, I begin to play this sport after my twenties and so I wasn’t familiar with the rules, some terminologies and types of Tennis and I know how it is to feel confuse by so many information.

So, in this Post I want to help you that is starting to know Tennis right now, with some information regarding some rules and different ways of playing Tennis.

Different types of Tennis

There are different types of Tennis: singles, doubles, mixed doubles, wheelchair tennis, and quad tennis.

Tennis Singles: In Tennis Singles, one player competes against other player, the court space on this game is smaller than the one used on Tennis Doubles.

Tennis Doubles: In Tennis Doubles, two players team up against two other players, the court space is larger than on Tennis Singles.

Tennis Mixed Doubles: In Tennis Mixed Doubles one female player and one male player plays against another female player and male player, the court space and rules are the same as the Tennis Doubles.

Wheelchair Tennis: In Wheelchair Tennis the players compete with a wheelchair using the same equipment, court and rules from Tennis with the exception that the ball can bounce two times and the second time can be outside the court.

Can Wheelchair Tennis players walk? Officially no, just players who have disabilities to walk can play in tournaments of Wheelchair Tennis.

There are three categories of Wheelchair Tennis: one played with just men’s, other played with just woman’s and the Quads category.

The difference between Wheelchair Tennis and Quad Tennis is that on Quad can only compete players who has disabilities on the legs and in at least one arm or hand. They allow some players to use electric wheelchair.

Why is it called Quad wheelchair? The word Quad is associated with the number four and the athlete of Quad Tennis can have disabilities in four limbs and still play.

Tennis is an individual and dual sport, that’s because in Tennis you can play a singles match which is one against other, or you can play a doubles match which is two players against two players.

Like the name indicates, an individual sport is when just one person compete against one or more persons and a dual sport is when two persons team up against two other persons.

Example of other individual and dual sports: Badminton, Beach Tennis, Boxing and some other martial arts that has the Tag Team game, Golf, Squash, Racquetball, 360ball, Speedminton, Four wall paddleball, Pickleball and Padel.

Some curiosities on Tennis tournament rules

Below I list some curious rules and terminologies that I always thought so confusing at first back in the days that I was learning more about Tennis, I hope that can help you feel less lost.

Men’s Tennis and Woman’s Tennis

All the materials and space used in Tennis are equal to Men’s and Woman’s, but is common to find big tournaments with extended matches for men’s, while Woman’s play best of 3 sets, Men’s plays best of 5 sets.

Why do female Tennis players only play 3 sets? Tennis is a very traditional sport and the decision to let female Tennis players play just best of 3 sets was made a long time ago, the argument is that female players don’t have the physical condition for it and would be too hard on then.

Over the years, some male Tennis players questioned this decision, some believe that men’s shouldn’t play best of 5 sets and just play best of 3 sets like the female Tennis.

Some female Tennis players don’t see with good eyes the change to best of 5 sets matches, while others don’t mind the change.

If this is going to change, I don’t know, but if you are getting to know more about Tennis, you will soon realize that changes on rules and tournament organizations are very rare on this sport.

It was a long way to the point where the prize money of male and female Tennis players in some tournaments are the same or closer to equal.

Difference between seed and rank in tennis

The rank of a Tennis player is the global position of that player on Pro Tennis in terns of tournament points, in a tournament a seed is given to the players with the highest global rank and or to the players the tournament organizers decides to be the best.

Example 1: If the number one Tennis player of the world is not on the tournament, the number one seed is given to the next highest ranked Tennis player that is on the tournament.

Example 2: The tournament can choose to give the seed for players with more wins on the tournament surface in recent years.

Tournaments use this seed system to make the competition more interesting, it would be bad if the best ranked player end up playing the number two player on the first match of the tournament and not at the final.

The seeded players are sorted in a way that the great and more interesting matches happens just latter on the tournament.

Difference between default and forfeit in Tennis

In Tennis a default is given to a player that violated some of the rules during a match and because of that he or she loses that match and forfeit is when the player loses the match because he or she didn’t show up at the time of the match.

Difference between let and net in Tennis

In Tennis, the word “let” is used by the umpire/referee to let players know that the point has to be replayed, normally because the ball touched the net and landed inside the box on the serve, the word “net” was used on the past by a person that stayed close to the net to say “net” when the ball touched the net, but now sensors are used on the net and the word “net” is not used like that anymore on Pro Tennis tournaments.

What do Tennis referees say? Now, you know what the umpire says when the ball touches the net and lands in the serve box during a serve, is “let” and not “net”. A lot of recreational Tennis players get this wrong and calls “net” when this happens.

When the ball hits the net and falls out of the court, the umpire or referee says “fault” and not “out” like some people may think. The “out” word is used in other occasions when is not on serve and the ball bounce out of the court.

What is players box in Tennis?

In Pro Tennis tournaments is called player box the place where the coach, family, team members and guests of a Tennis player stays on the grandstands.

This is more common in big tournaments, some seats are reserved to the players guests, they can choose to use or not, that’s why sometimes you see empty seats next to the players’ coach on a crowded Tennis match.