What every player should know before a tennis tournament

One question settles most arguments later: what is the match format?

Rule 6 obliges the organiser to announce the scoring method for a set in advance, and specifically to say whether the final set is played as a tie-break set or an advantage set. If the entry form does not say, ask. There is a real difference between driving home at six and driving home at nine.

The other things worth knowing before you commit:

• Is the match best of 3, or is there a match tie-break in place of the deciding set?
• Is it no-ad, where deuce is settled by one point?
• Are there short sets to four games?
• Is there a rest period allowed after the second set, and is coaching permitted?

None of these is exotic. All of them are sanctioned in Appendix VI of the ITF rules, and a club event may legitimately use any combination — but only if it announced them first.

This is the first thing players get wrong. The toss happens before the warm-up starts, not after it.

The winner of the toss has three choices, and the third one is the one people forget:

1. To serve or receive in the first game, in which case the opponent picks the end
2. To pick the end, in which case the opponent chooses to serve or receive
3. To make the opponent choose first

That third option is genuinely useful into a strong sun or wind, where you would rather see what your opponent values before deciding.

The warm-up is a maximum of five minutes unless the organiser decides otherwise. It is a warm-up, not a practice session, and the clock is real.

One detail for anyone whose warm-up gets interrupted: if play stops and the players leave the court, the original toss result stands, but both sides may make new choices.

You change ends at the end of the first, third and every subsequent odd game of each set. You also change at the end of a set, unless the total number of games in that set was even — in which case you change after the first game of the next set instead.

That is why some sets seem to start with a changeover and others do not. A set won 6–3 is nine games, an odd total, so you change immediately. A set won 6–4 is ten, so you play one game of the next set first.

The part that catches people is what happens at those changeovers:

• After a normal odd game: 90 seconds, sit down, drink, change your racket
• After the first game of a set: play is continuous. Change ends and carry on — no rest
• During a tie-break: change ends every six points, again with no rest
• Between sets: a set break of 120 seconds

A player who sits down after the first game of a set is not committing a fault, but they are heading for a time violation, and an umpire who has already started the clock will say so.

Play should be continuous from the first serve to the end of the match. In practice that means the following limits, all from Rule 29:

Situation	Maximum
Between points	25 seconds
Changeover at an odd game	90 seconds
Between sets	120 seconds
Warm-up	5 minutes
Medical time-out	3 minutes

The 25 seconds runs from the moment one point ends until the next serve is struck. On most professional courts a visible serve clock now shows it, but the umpire still decides when to start it, and may hold it after a long rally in heat.

What a violation costs depends on who commits it. For the server, the first is a warning and every further one costs a first serve — you play a second serve instead. For the receiver, the first is a warning and subsequent ones are point penalties.

Two more allowances worth knowing. A player with a treatable medical condition may take one medical time-out of three minutes for that condition. And if the organiser announced it in advance, a rest of up to ten minutes may be taken after the second set of a best-of-3 match.

A tie-break is scored 0, 1, 2, 3 and won by the first to seven points with a margin of two. If nobody leads by two at 6–6, it continues until somebody does.

The serving pattern is the part worth memorising:

• The player whose turn it is to serve serves one point
• The opponent serves the next two
• After that, each side serves two consecutive points until the end
• Ends change every six points, with no rest

In doubles, the rotation of service within each team continues in the same order as it did during the set.

Then comes the rule that costs games at club level: the player who served first in the tie-break receives in the first game of the following set. People finish a tie-break, walk to their end, and serve — because they have lost track of whose turn it was eight points ago. Agree it out loud before you start the next set.

If the event uses a match tie-break to 10 in place of a deciding set, the same shape applies with ten points instead of seven. There is a 120-second set break before it, the original order of service continues, and in doubles the order of serving and receiving within a team may be changed as at the start of any set.

Appendix VI of the ITF rules lists the sanctioned alternatives. A club event may use any of them, and you should recognise them on sight.

No-ad scoring. Points are called the usual way to 40–40, which is deuce, and then a single deciding point settles the game. The receiver chooses which half of the court to take it from. In mixed doubles the receiver must be the player of the same gender as the server, and the receiving team cannot switch positions for it.

Short sets. First to four games with a margin of two, tie-break at 4–4. Some events instead play the tie-break at 3–3.

Short set tie-break. When short sets are used, the tie-break may be first to five points with a deciding point at 4–4, and ends change only once, after the first four points.

Final set tie-break to 10. At one set all and 6–6 in the final set, a ten-point tie-break decides the match.

The no-let rule. A serve that clips the net and lands in is played rather than replayed. It is unfamiliar for one game and then completely natural.

Coaching used to be simple: it was banned. Now it depends on the event.

Rule 30 allows off-court coaching in events where the sanctioning body permits it, which is why you see coaching from the stands in professional tennis. On-court coaching is permitted only in team events where a captain sits on court. In every other competition it is not allowed, and in no competition may anyone coach during the playing of a point.

If your event has not said anything about coaching, assume it is not permitted and ask the organiser rather than the person in the next chair.

If you cannot finish a match, there are two distinct outcomes and they are not interchangeable. A retirement is when you start and cannot continue — the score stands as played and your opponent advances. A walkover is when you do not start at all. Tell the organiser as early as you can: a walkover known at nine in the morning is a schedule adjustment, and the same walkover discovered at the net is an hour of somebody's day.

In a tournament that publishes live results, both show up on the public draw sheet immediately, so a retired match does not leave your opponent waiting to find out whether they are in the next round.