Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually of grass, clay, or concrete. The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and its width is 27 feet (8.23 m) for singles matches and 36 feet (10.97 m) for doubles matches. Additional clear space around the court is required in order for players to reach overrun balls. 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 (914 mm) high in the center.

Types of Courts

There are three main types of courts. Depending on the materials used for the court surfaces, each surface provides a difference in the speed and bounce of the ball, which in turn can affect the level of play of the individual players. The three most common types of courts that are used for play are:

Clay court
Grass court
Hardcourt

Some players are clearly more successful on certain surfaces than on others and become known as, for instance, a “grass-court” or “Clay-court specialist”.

Hardcourt encompasses many different surfaces ranging from old-fashioned concrete courts, to coated asphalt, to wooden gymnasium surfaces, to artificial grass similar to AstroTurf.

Clay courts are considered “slow”, meaning that balls first lose speed as they hit the court and then bounce relatively high, making it more difficult for a player to hit an unreturnable shot, called a winner. On clay courts, line calls are easily reviewable because the ball leaves a visible mark.

Hardcourts and grass are “fast” surfaces, where fast, low bounces keep rallies short and where hard-serving and hard-hitting players have an advantage. Grass courts add an additional variable, with bounces depending on how healthy the grass is and how recently it has been mowed.

For the Grand Slam tournaments, different kinds of courts are used: The U.S. Open and Australian Open use hardcourts, the French Open is played on clay, and Wimbledon is played on grass.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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