Journalist Sports: ALL ABOUT TENNIS

"It's one-on-one out there, man.  There ain't no hiding.  I can't pass the ball"

Pete Sampras

Tennis is a sport commonly played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Every player uses a racquet that is strung to strike a hollowed out rubber ball protected with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a good return. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all stages of community at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racquet, including people in motorized wheel chairs.

The contemporary game of tennis began in Birmingham, England in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis" which has close connections to several field/lawn games as well as to the historical game of real tennis. Up to then, "tennis" known to the latter sport: for example, in Disraeli's novel Sybil (1845), Lord Eugene De Vere declares that he will "go down to Hampton Court and play tennis. As it is the Derby [classic horse race], nobody will be there". After its development, lawn tennis multiply throughout the upper-class English-speaking human population before growing around the world.

The rules of tennis have not modified much since the 1890s. Two conditions are that from 1908 to 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the use of the tie-break in the 1970s. A recent add-on to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point challenge system, which enables a player to challenge the line (or chair) umpire's call of a point. Players have unlimited chances to challenge furnished the challenges made are correct. Nonetheless, once three incorrect challenges are made in a set, they cannot challenge again until the next set. If the set moves to a tie-break, players are given one additional opportunity to challenge the call. This electronic review, presently called Hawk-Eye, is obtainable at a limited number of high-level ATP and WTA tournaments.

Tennis is experienced by millions of recreational players and is also a greatly popular globally viewer sport, especially the four Huge Throw competitions (also referred to as the "Majors"): the Australia Start performed on difficult legal courts, the People from france Start performed on red clay-based legal courts, Wimbledon performed on lawn legal courts, and the US Start performed also on difficult legal courts.