One of the players begins by serving. The selection of the court is
usually chosen by lot or by tossing up a racket in a way similar to
tossing a cent. The side of the racket where the woven gut appears is
called “rough,” and the other side “smooth.” This practice is not to
be recommended, as it injures the racket. It is better to toss a coin.
The game of tennis consists in knocking the ball over the net and into
the court of your opponent, keeping up this volley until one side or
player fails to make the return properly or at all, which scores his
opponent a point. While a game in tennis consists of four points, the
simple numbers from one to four are not used. The points run 15,30,
40, game, when one side makes them all. Or it may be “15-30,” “15
all,” and so on, the score of the server being mentioned first. Where
one side has nothing their score is called “love.” When one side has
scored four points the game is won—with this exception: When both
sides are tied at 40, or “deuce,” as it is called, the winners must
make two points more than their opponents to win. In this way the game
may be continued for a long time as the points are won first by one
side and then by the other. The score at deuce, or “40 all,” will be
denoted as “vantage in” or “vantage out,” depending upon whether the
server’s side or the other wins one of the two points necessary to win
from “deuce.” If first one side, then the other, obtains one of these
points the score will be “vantage in” or “out,” as the case may be,
and then “deuce” again, until finally when two points clear are made
it is “game.” A set of tennis consists in winning six games, but in
this case also there is a peculiar condition. Where each side wins
five games it is necessary in order to win the set to obtain a lead of
two games. The score in games is then denoted just as in a single
game, “deuce” and “vantage” games being played until a majority of two
is won.
[Illustration: (a) the right and (b) the wrong way to hold a tennis
racket]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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