Tennis is a game played on a rectangular court by either two players (singles) or four (doubles).  Players stand on opposite sides of a net and use a stringed racket to hit a ball back and forth to each other.  Each player has a maximum of one bounce after it has been hit by their opponent to return the ball over the net and within the boundaries of the court.  Once a player fails to do this his or her opponents wins a point.  The aim is to win enough points to win a game and enough games to win a set and enough sets to win a match.  The first person to win six games wins a set.  Matches typically consist of best of 2 out of 3 sets or best 3 out of 5 sets.

Singles

A two player game is known as a singles match.  In a singles match the players use the narrower singles court.  The player who plays the ball first is the server and the person who returns it is the receiver.  Players change serve after every game and change ends after every odd game (1,3,5,7,etc).  The right to be server or receiver or the choice of ends is decided by spinning a racket.  The winner of the toss can choose one of four options:

1. To serve, in which case the opponent can choose ends
2. To receive, in which case the opponent can choose ends
3. The end of the court at which he or she wishes to begin the match, in which case the opponent can choose to serve or receive
4. To ask the opponent to choose

Doubles

The game of doubles is played with two people on each team and uses a wider court.  Players on a team don’t have to alternate hitting shots; however, they do have to rotate who the server.  A player in a doubles match should serve once every four games.  A team can rotate the order of serving only after a completed set.  A player can stand anywhere in the court on their side of the net.  The typical format consists of each player on a team taking one side of the court.