Tennis
by Gautham Dev - 8A

Tennis is my favorite sport because it requires players to run a lot and it can be played with just one other person.

History and Origin
  Tennis was a game started about 800 years ago when the French crusaders returned from the Middle East. The Europeans played the game indoors in

a monastery or palace. Tennis was first played by hitting the ball with the bare hand and soon gloves and a paddle were added. Then in the sixteenth century a mesh of strings were added so that players could hit the ball with much more power.

In 1877, the first tennis tournament was played in Wimbledon, England. Until the 1950’s, players did not make a lot of money by playing the game while now top players can receive millions of dollars.

Objective
   The main objective of tennis is to hit the ball into the opponents such that they either: hit the ball into the net, hit the ball out or miss the ball completely. If one of these happens a point is awarded. The points go in an order of 15, 30, 40 and finally the game. A tie at 40 is called a deuce and a player must win two points continuously to win the game.

Winning six games means the player wins the set and it is a best of five sets in Men’s tennis will it is best of three sets in Women’s tennis.

Skills Required to Play Tennis
   The main skills needed to play tennis are learning the important shots i.e. forehand, backhand, volley and smash. Along with those shots, one must have good hand-eye-coordination in order to execute the shot properly, fast reflexes as the ball usually travels at high speeds and finally speed, to reach the ball before it bounces twice.

  To win a point, players should hit the ball hard(fast), have good placement so that the opponent is forced to run a lot and miss the ball or add spin on the ball to confuse the player.

The Upper Hand
  The server almost always has the ‘upper hand’ in a game(literally), because a player’s first serve can reach speeds of an excess of 170 kilometers per hour which sets the pace of the rally and usually keeps the opponent on the back foot. Players always try to get an ace, which means the opponent doesn’t even manage to touch the ball.

Tournaments
  There are four big tournaments in Tennis: The Australian Open, Roland Garros (French Open), Wimbledon and The US Open. The Australian and US Opens are mainly played on a synthetic court while the French Open is played on a clay court and Wimbledon is played on a grass court. These tournaments see top players along with young risers from around the world who compete for the trophy. The finals usually last three to four hours of playing; depending on rallies and number of sets. The tournaments have Men’s singles and doubles, Women’s singles and doubles and Mixed double.

Top Players
  The top players in Men’s singles are currently Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka while in Women’s singles they are Serena Williams, Li Na and Agnieszka Radwanska.

  Tennis is a very competitive game and many children in India are starting to answer the call. Although there aren’t many Indians in tennis right now, I think soon, after seeing the sheer number of tennis players here, there will be many more in the years to come.