You’d think you had walked in on some romantic interlude or conference of actuaries and accountants taking an afternoon break trying to play tennis (or maybe even actuaries and accountants falling in love while playing tennis). Thirty-love, forty-love. Love this. Love that. Love is all you need.

While we at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club certainly love love and tennis, we want to help newcomers to the game overcome their initial confusion by answering the question: What are the rules and how to play tennis?

The first step, according to PopSugar, is determining who serves first by flipping a coin or spinning a racket. The winner decides to serve or to receive.

• The first server continues serving until the game is over.
• You serve from behind the baseline on the right side of the court.

Scoring Made Easy

The scoring part of the game sounds technical, but it’s easy.

• You as the server announces the score before serving with your score first. If your score is zero and your opponent is winning, it’s “love-30.” Incremental scores are zero (“love”), 15, 30, 40 and game.
• Servers get two tries to get the ball over the next and to bounce it in the opponent’s service area. If the server misses twice, the server loses a point.
• The volley goes back and forth until someone misses or hits the ball out of bounds. If the score is tied at the end, it’s 40-all or deuce. During a tie if the server makes a point, the server says “my ad” (“my advantage”). If the opponent gets the point, it goes back to “40-all.” A player has to win by two points.
• The other player serves when the game is over. After odd-numbered games, players switch sides.

Taking It To The Next Level

Now we go to the next level; scoring the set.

At the start of a new game, the server announces the set score, which is the running score of the individual games. For example, the server in the lead may say, “1-0.”

• Sets are won after one player wins six games.
• Set winners have to win by at least two games.

Then finally, we end with the match.

• The winner of the match is the player who won two out of three sets.
• If you win two sets to start, you win the match. If both players win a set, you play a third to determine the winner of the match.

Contact one of Golden Ocala’s tennis professionals today at 352-402-4351.

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