Lawn Tennis
LAWN TENNIS is to Badminton what Billiards is to Bagatelle, it is a more manly, scientific, and exhilarating game. The net and poles of Badminton answer admirably, but the battledores must be of the racket pattern, spoon-shaped, with wire gauze or cat-gut netting. The balls are hollow, made of india-rubber, and shall not be less than 2 1/2 inches nor more than 2 9/16 inches; and not less than 1 7/8 oz. nor more than 2 oz. in weight. The size of the court will necessarily vary with the size of the ground available, so no arbitrary rules can be laid down. The court must, however, be divided into two equal parts by a net attached to two posts, each 7 feet high. The net at the posts should be 4 feet from the ground, and 3 feet at the centre. True courts are 27 feet wide and 78 feet in length. The poles stand 3 feet outside the courts on each side. The setting-out of the ground differs somewhat from Badminton in the dimensions of the courts. Taking 27 feet as the length of the net, at a distance of 39 feet on both sides, lines called "base lines" are marked parallel with the net. From the extremities of the base lines, other lines to the poles must be drawn to form the court. The court is divided lengthways, by what is known as the central or half-court line, into two equal parts. These are called respectively the right and left courts. At a distance of 21 feet from the net lines called "service lines" are to be drawn parallel with it; when this is done, the game may begin. The players toss for choice of courts, and the right to serve ere they begin to play, but in future games the winner of the previous game serves, and the courts are changed at the end of every game.
If the winner of the toss choose right to serve, the other player may choose sides, and vice versa.
The players occupy the courts on each side of the net, and the player who "serves," that is, delivers the first ball, is called the server, or "hand-in," and is alone able to score; and if he loses the game, he is called striker-out, or "hand-out," and his adversary becomes hand-in and serves. It is understood that the hand-in shall not serve until the handout shall be prepared, but if the latter takes, or attempts to return the service, it is treated as good. In serving the ball, the hand-in must stand so that one foot shall be without, that is, farther from the net than the base line of the court, and the other within or upon it, and must serve from the right and left courts alternately, beginning with the right, so that ball shall drop between the net and the service side, and half-court lines, or on any such, lines of the court diagonally opposed to that from whence it was delivered. The hand-out is said to "volley" a ball if he strikes it before it has touched the ground; to properly "return" it, he must strike it before it touches the ground the second time. The hand-in is said to make a fault if in making a service it shall drop in the wrong court or beyond the service line, or if the server do not stand as directed; or if the ball served fall in the net, or out of court, or in the wrong court. And if he does this, he must serve again from the same court, unless he served from the wrong one. A fault must not be taken, nor can it be claimed, after the next service. According to the Hurlingham rules, revised by the M.C.C., which guide the majority of Lawn Tennis clubs and players, it is understood that the hand-in shall win a stroke if the hand-out fails to return the service or any subsequent stroke or strikes the ball so that it drops out of court, or "volleys" the service, for it is this volleying that is so tempting to the inexperienced player. Should, however, the hand-in make two successive faults, or so that it drops out of the court, or fail to return the ball in play so that it shall drop into the court, then the striker-out wins a stroke. Either player loses a stroke if the ball in play touches his hand, or any other part of his person or his clothes, or if he shall strike the ball more than once, or if he touch the net or supports while the ball is in play, or if he volley the ball before it has passed the net. The service may not be volleyed. The return is good though the ball touch the net, but if a ball served touch it, the service, even if good, counts for nothing. A service or fault, when striker-out is not ready, does not count.
When a player wins his first stroke, the score is 15 for him. If he win a second stroke, he calls 30, his third is 40, and the fourth stroke won by either player scores game for him, except when both players have won three strokes, then the score is called deuce; and the next won by either is 'vantage (or advantage). If the same person lose the next stroke, the score is again called "deuce;" if he win again, he wins "advantage," and so on till one player wins two consecutive strokes after "deuce," when that player wins. Six games make a set; but if both sides win five games, it is "games all." The next is advantage, and so on, substituting "games all" for "deuce" as above. Two games won consecutively after "games all" win the set. Sides are changed after every set.
When more than two persons play at once, the same regulations are followed, with these modifications. In the three-handed or four-handed game the court is 36 feet wide. The service lines are within the side lines at a distance of 4 1/2 feet and parallel with them. (See plan.) In a four game partners respectively decide who shall serve through the games. The partner of first server shall serve in the third, and partner of second server in the fourth game, and so on. The players take service alternately, and no one shall take service delivered to his partner. No alterations shall be made till end of the set. It is a fault if the service ball do not drop within or upon the lines of the court diagonally opposite that where it was served. There are many varieties of play introduced. Sometimes one player plays against two adversaries, and then he will be hand-in twice, except at the commencement of the game. A good player will take half a court into which to play his ball, and will lose the stroke, if it fail to drop into that half-court. Sometimes a cord will be stretched much higher than the net, in order to equalise the odds--the giver having to play his ball over the cord at whatever height it is agreed to be fixed. At other times points are given, or the privilege of being hand-in two or more times. There are other fancy variations which are subject to the whims of individuals. The latest full rules are published by the Field newspaper office, and by these we have revised our game.