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Tennis Court

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Tennis court



 
 
A tennis court is where the game of tennis
Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
 is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.

is is played on a rectangular flat surface, usually of grass
Grass court

A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis tennis court. Grass courts are made of rye grass in different compositions depending on the tournament....
, clay
Clay court

A clay court is one of the four different types of tennis tennis court. Clay courts are made of crushed shale, rock or brick. The red clay is slower than the green, or Har-Tru "American" clay....
, concrete
Concrete

Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
 (hard court) or a synthetic suspended court. The court is 78 feet (23.78 m
Metre

The metre or meter is a Unit of measurement of length. It is the SI base unit of length in the metric system and in the International System of Units , used around the world for general and scientific purposes....
) long, and its width is 27 feet (8.23 m) for singles matches and 36 feet (10.98 m) for doubles matches.






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Encyclopedia


A tennis court is where the game of tennis
Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
 is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.

Dimensions

Tennis is played on a rectangular flat surface, usually of grass
Grass court

A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis tennis court. Grass courts are made of rye grass in different compositions depending on the tournament....
, clay
Clay court

A clay court is one of the four different types of tennis tennis court. Clay courts are made of crushed shale, rock or brick. The red clay is slower than the green, or Har-Tru "American" clay....
, concrete
Concrete

Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
 (hard court) or a synthetic suspended court. The court is 78 feet (23.78 m
Metre

The metre or meter is a Unit of measurement of length. It is the SI base unit of length in the metric system and in the International System of Units , used around the world for general and scientific purposes....
) long, and its width is 27 feet (8.23 m) for singles matches and 36 feet (10.98 m) for doubles matches. Additional clear space around the court is needed in order for players to reach overrun balls for a total of 60 feet (18.3 m) wide and 120 feet (36.7 m) long. A net is stretched across the full width of the court, parallel with the baselines, dividing it into two equal ends. The net is 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) high at the posts, and 3 feet (920 mm) high in the center.

Types of tennis courts

See also: Tennis#Surface
Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....


There are four main types of courts depending on the materials used for the court surface: clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
 courts, hard courts, grass
Lawn

A lawn is an area of recreational or amenity land planted with Poaceae, and sometimes clover and other plants, which are maintained at a low, even height....
 courts and indoor courts (carpet, rubber or wood). Each playing surface has its own characteristics which affect the playing style of the game.

Of the Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)

The four Grand Slam tournaments are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, and public attention....
 tournaments, the U.S. Open
U.S. Open (tennis)

The US Open tennis tournament is one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, first contested in 1881. The tournament is chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tennis tournament each year....
 and Australian Open
Australian Open

The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held each year. The tournament is held each January at Melbourne Park....
 use hardcourts (though both used grass courts in the past, and the U.S. Open also used red clay courts from 1975 through 1977), the French Open
French Open (tennis)

The French Open is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between mid-May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros. It is the second of the Grand Slam title tournaments on the annual tennis calendar and the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world....
 is played on clay (though it too was played on grass before 1928), and Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely considered the most prestigious....
 is played on grass.

Clay courts


Clay courts are made of crushed shale, stone or brick. The red clay is slower than the green, Har-Tru, "North-American" clay. The French Open uses clay courts, unlike the other three Grand Slam tournaments of each year.

Clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared to grass courts or hard courts. This is because clay courts have more grab and when the ball lands there is more friction pushing against the ball's horizontal path, therefore slowing it and creating a higher bounce. For this reason, the clay court takes away some advantage of big serves, which makes it hard for serve-based players to dominate on the surface.

Although clay courts are more traditional and cheaper to construct than other types of tennis courts, the maintenance costs of a clay surface are higher than those of hard courts. Clay courts need to be rolled to preserve flatness. The clay's water content must be balanced; green courts generally require the courts to be sloped to allow water run-off.

Clay courts are more common in Europe and South America than in North America and tend to heavily favor baseline players like Rafael Nadal.

Grass courts

Grass courts are the fastest type of tennis court in common use (AstroTurf
AstroTurf

AstroTurf is a brand of artificial turf. Though the term is a registered trademark, it is sometimes used as a genericized trademark of any kind of artificial turf....
 is faster but is primarily only used for personal courts). They consist of grass grown on very hard-packed soil, similar to golf greens, which adds an additional variable: bounces depend on how healthy the grass is, how recently it has been mown, and the wear and tear of recent play. Point
Point (tennis)

A point in tennis is the smallest subdivision of the play whose completion changes the Tennis score. A point can consist of a double fault by the server, in which case it is won be the receiver; otherwise, it begins with a legal Serve by one side's server to the receiver on the other, and continues until one side fails to make a legal return...
s are usually very quick where fast, low bounces keep rallies short, and the serve
Serve (tennis)

A serve in tennis is a shot to start a point . The serve is usually initiated by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it into the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net....
 plays a more important role than on other surfaces. Grass courts tend to favor serve-and-volley tennis players, such as John McEnroe
John McEnroe

John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is an American former List of ATP number 1 ranked players professional tennis player. McEnroe won seven Grand Slam title singles titles?three at Wimbledon Championships and four at the U.S....
 and Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras

Petros "Pete" Sampras is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked players tennis player from the United States of America. During his 15-year career, he won a record 14 Grand Slam men's singles titles , and had a 203?38 win-loss record over 52 Grand Slam singles tournament appearances....
 among men and Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova

Martina Navratilova is a former List of WTA number 1 ranked players women's tennis player. Billie Jean King said about Navratilova in 2006, "She's the greatest singles, doubles and Types of tennis match player who's ever lived." Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, named her as the...
 among women. The International Tennis Hall of Fame
International Tennis Hall of Fame

File:ITHF.jpgThe International Tennis Hall of Fame is a non-profit tennis hall of fame and museum at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island, USA....
 in Newport, R.I.
Newport, Rhode Island

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island....
, comprises grass courts. The surface is less firm and more slippery than hard courts, causing the ball to slide and bounce lower, and so players must reach the ball faster. Serve and volley players take advantage of the surface by serving the ball (usually a slice serve because of its effectiveness on grass) and then running to the net to cut off the return of serve, leaving their opponent with little time to reach the low-bouncing, fast-moving ball. Players often hit flatter shots to increase power and allow the ball to travel faster after and before the ball hits the ground. However, Wimbledon, the most famous grass tournament, has slowed down its grass courts as early as 2001. Players have said that the courts of Wimbledon have become slower, heavier, and high bouncing . In 2001, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely considered the most prestigious....
 organizers had changed the grass to 100% perrenial rye in addition to changing to a harder and denser soil with both providing for a higher bounce to the ball. Grass specialist, Tim Henman
Tim Henman

Timothy Henry "Tim" Henman Order of the British Empire is a retired English tennis player. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis that suited the grass courts of Wimbledon....
, voiced out against this change in 2002 by stating, "What on earth is going on here? I'm on a grass court and it's the slowest court I've played on this year" . As a result, serving and vollying has become rare at Wimbledon and dominant baseliners such as Roger Federer
Roger Federer

Roger Federer is a Switzerland professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 2. He was the List of ATP number 1 ranked players ranked player for a ATP Tour records#Ranking, from February 2, 2004 to August 17, 2008....
 and Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal Parera is a Spain professional tennis player who has been ATP Entry Ranking List of ATP number 1 ranked players since August 18, 2008....
 have won the most recent titles. Grass courts were once among the most common tennis surfaces. However, due to high maintenance costs, grass courts are now rare as they must be watered and mowed often, and take a longer time to dry after rain than hard courts. For a more extensive discussion of the skills most advantageous on grass court, see grass-court specialist
Grass-court specialist

A grass-court specialist is a tennis player who excels on Tennis court#Grass courts but does not perform to the same standard on hard courts, clay courts or other surfaces....
.

Hard courts

Hard courts, usually made of asphalt, are considered "medium" surfaces, where fast hard-hitting players have a slight advantage. Hard courts can vary in speed, they are faster than clay but slower than grass courts, which allow the ball to slide. Depending on the amount of sand added to the paint the amount the ball slows down can vary greatly. These courts are considered the most equal for all playing styles. The U.S. Open
U.S. Open (tennis)

The US Open tennis tournament is one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, first contested in 1881. The tournament is chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tennis tournament each year....
 is played on an acrylic hard court, while the Australian Open
Australian Open

The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held each year. The tournament is held each January at Melbourne Park....
 is played on a synthetic hardcourt. The main difference between a synthetic hardcourt and a true hardcourt surface is the level of hardness. When the ball bounces on this surface it is faster than all other surfaces if there is not much sand in the top paint. The amount of sand used in the top paint and the size of the sand also determines the speed—more sand means less speed and larger sand particles will slow the speed of play. The amount of friction can also be altered and more friction will produce a clay court effect, where topspin
Topspin

In sports, in particular racquet sports, topspin is a property of a shot where the ball rotates as if rolling in the same direction as it is moving....
 is magnified. The extra grip and friction will resist the sliding effect of the ball and the resistance will force the ball to change its rotation. The extra grip provided by the surface can resist the movement of the player and can cause injury.

Indoor courts

Special surfaces can only be used indoors. Most commonly carpet surfaces, carpet courts vary in playing characteristics due to differences in thickness, texture, and materials used in the base and yarn. Suspended surfaces may be used indoors. The ATP tennis tour also considers rubber surfaces as carpet, such as that of the Paris Masters
Paris Masters

The BNP Paribas Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy....
. While being the most common surface for real tennis
Real tennis

Real tennis is the original List of sports#Racket sports from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended. It is also known as jeu de paume in France, "court tennis" in the United States...
, wood is the rarest surface for tennis. It is also the fastest surface, which bounces faster and lower than grass. There are many other types of indoor surfaces including artificial grass.

Smaller courts

The ITF
International Tennis Federation

The International Tennis Federation is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 205 national tennis associations.It was established as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by 12 national associations meeting at a conference in Paris, France on 1 March 1913....
 campaign Play and Stay aims to increase tennis participation worldwide, by improving the way starter players are introduced to the game. The campaign promotes to play in smaller courts with slower red, orange and green balls that give players more time and control so that they can serve, rally and score (play the game) from the first lesson.

Terminology

Common tennis court terms:
  • Ad court (short for "advantage court"): the left side of the receiving team, the right side of the opponent's court as viewed from the server's side, significant as the receiving side for an Ad point.
  • Alley (Tramlines): the zone between the single court and the doubles court, one on the Ad side, one on the Deuce side. These are only used when playing doubles.
  • Back Court ('No man's land'): the area between the baseline and the service line. It is not recommended to play in this area because this is where balls usually bounce.
  • Baseline: The line dividing the "out" area from the "in" area made up of the back line of the back court and the small back side of the alleys.
  • Center line: The line dividing the two service boxes.
  • Center Mark: The 12-inch mark at the halfway point of the baseline used to distinguish the two halves (and service boxes) of a tennis court.
  • Deuce court: the right side of the receiving team, the left side of the opponent's court as viewed from the server's side, significant as the receiving side for a deuce point.
  • Middle T: See T.
  • Service box: is made up of the singles boundary and the closest line that runs parallel with the net. There is a left and right service box that is divided by the line running down the center of the court.
  • Service Line: the line that is parallel to the net and is located between the baseline and the net. It marks the end of the service boxes.
  • Side T: The T shape formed by the service line and the sideline. There are two such side Ts.
  • T or Middle T: The T shape formed by the service line and the center line.


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