Tennis

A competent tennis player has eight basic shots in his or her repertoire:

• the serve,

• forehand,
• backhand,
• volley,
• half-volley,
• overhead smash,
• drop shot,
• and lob.

• The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net.

• One player is designated the server, and the opposing player is the receiver.

• The choice to be server or receiver in the first game and the choice of ends is decided by a coin toss before the warm-up starts.

• Service alternates game by game between the two players (or teams).

• For each point, the server starts behind the baseline, between the center mark and the sideline.

• A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving.

• A game is won by the first player to have won at least four points in total and at least two points more than the opponent.

• The running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis:
  • scores from zero to three points are described as "love", "15", "30", and "40", respectively.
  • If at least three points have been scored by each player, making the player's scores equal at 40 apiece, the score is not called out as "40–40", but rather as "deuce".
  • If at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is "advantage" for the player in the lead.