The document provides information about the sport of tennis, including its characteristics, equipment, history, scoring, shots, famous players, and major tournaments (Grand Slams). It details that tennis is played between two or four players on a court with a net, using a racquet and ball. It provides brief histories of famous players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and lists the four Grand Slam tournaments as the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.

1. CHARACTERISTICS ITEMS SHOTS GRAND SLAMS FAMOUS PLAYERS HISTORY AND SCORES

2. CHARACTERISTICS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Tennis is a sport played between two players ( singles ) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles ). Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. > Return to main menu

3. ITEMS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ > Return to main menu Court and lines Racquet, ball and net

4. ITEMS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Racquet Modern tennis racquets vary in length, weight, and head size. Weights of a racquet also vary between 226g to 353g. Most of the rackets are made of synthetic materials such as carbon fibre, ceramics or alloys. The casing cord has been replaced mainly by synthetic materials like nylon > Return to the principal Ball A hollow rubber ball covered with felt, most of the time Optic Yellow, but can be any color or even two-tone.

6. HISTORY AND SCORES _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The modern game of tennis originated in the UK in the late 19 th cen-tury . After its creation, tennis spread throughout the upper-class English speaking population before spreading around the world. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages. A tennis match is composed of a number of sets . The first player who wins two sets wins the match. At certain important tennis tournaments for men, the first man to win three sets wins the match. A set consists of ga-mes, and games, in turn, consist of points. A sequence of points are played with the same players serving, and is won by the first player to have won at least four points and at least two points more than his or her opponent. As simple as this scoring appears, the running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis. Scores of zero to three points are described as "love" (or " zero "), "fifteen" , "thirty ", and "forty", respectively. > Return to main menu

7. Service A serve (or, more formally, a "service") in tennis is a shot to start a point . The serve is initiated by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it into the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net. The serve may be hit under- or overhand. Drive For a right-handed player, the forehand is a stroke that begins on the right side of the body, continues across the body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the left side of the body. Backhand For right-handed players, the backhand is a stroke that begins on the left side of their body, continues across their body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the right side of their body. It can be executed with either one hand or with both and is generally considered more difficult to master than the forehand . > Return to main menu SHOTS __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. FAMOUS PLAYERS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Roger Federer was born in August 8, 1981. He is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 2 . He was the World No. 1-ranked player for a record 237 consecutive weeks, from February 2, 2004, through August 17, 2008. Federer has won 13 Grand Slam singles titles (3 Austra-lian Open, 5 Wimbledon, 5 US Open) He has also won 4 Tennis Masters Cup titles, and 14 ATP Masters Series titles, as well as winning Olympic gold in doubles. Rafael Nadal Parera was born June 3, 1986. He is a Spanish professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 since August 18, 2008. He has won 5 Grand Slam singles titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles. He is the only men to have won four consecutive singles titles there. In 2008, Nadal became the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. Nadal is the only player in the open era to have won the French Open, the London Queen's club, and Wimbledon in the same year. > Return to main menu

9. GRAND SLAMS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The four Grand Slam tournaments are considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. They are held annually and include, in chro-nological order, the Australian Open , the French Open , Wimbledon , and the US Open . Apart from the Olympic Games , Davis Cup , Fed Cup , and Hopman Cup , they are the only tournaments regulated by the International Tennis Fe-deration (ITF). > Return to main menu Hard (DecoTurf) New York City US Open August-September Grass London Wimbledon June-July Clay Paris French Open May-June Hard (Plexicushion) Melbourne Australian Open January Surface Location Tournament Period