Find out everything you need to know about tennis, right here.
Tennis Strokes
The first thing to become familiar with is the names of the various strokes in tennis. A forearm is played on the player’s strong side of the body normally just with one arm or hand on the racket.
The backhand is typically played on the player’s weaker side of the body. Some players keep both hands on the racket which is called a double handed backhand. Other players prefer to use one hand, known as a single handed backhand.
The grips for a one-handed or two-handed backhand are quite different and so many players are unable to switch between the two. Each point is started with the service, when the player throws the ball up and hits the ball above their head.
A very similar shot can occur in the middle of a rally and it’s known as a smash. However, smashes can be hit from anywhere in the court. The second last shot to be aware of is the volley.
The volley is a shot that is played when the ball doesn’t bounce. Typically players play the volley when they’re standing closer to the net and so they are able to hit the ball before it touches the ground.
Another shot worth mentioning is the drop shot. A drop shot is played when the player takes all power off the ball, and is played with a lot of spin – landing the ball quite close to the net on your opponent’s side.
Game Play and Scoring
The scoring system in tennis can be quite complicated for anyone learning about the game for the first time.
It uses a mixture of points such as 15,30 and 40 as well as other strange words like deuce and advantage. Tennis consists of points, games, sets and matches.
In the main tennis tournaments, also known as the Grand Slams that are very popular with fans of online betting in New Zealand, male players play best of five sets. Female players on the other hand play best of three sets.
The Grand Slams and Strategies
There are an incredible variety of strategies that can be used in tennis. These vary from player to player and from tournament to tournament. The main grand slam tournaments, namely Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the US Open and the French Open are all played on different surfaces.
Wimbledon is a lawn grass tournament. The Australian Open and the US Open are played on hard or concrete surfaces. The French Open is the only Grand Slam to be played on a clay court.
A clay court is a much slower court then a grass court and so the types of shots and strategies that are used by play do vary quite considerably. In addition, some players’ games are more suited to one surface over another and so they are typically more successful on one type of surface.
However the best players in the world such as Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal have all been successful on a wide range of surfaces, making them some of tennis’ greats.
Some of the strategies used include a serve and volley strategy, where the player rushes the net just after serving.
Another strategy is making the opponent move left to right around a court, and hopefully tiring them out as the match wears on. However, the complexity of these strategies really increases quite considerably as the level of play increases.