2765. Lawn Tennis

This fashionable and delightful game, suitable for both ladies and gentlemen, is generally played on a lawn or grass-plat by two, three, or four players, with balls and racquet bats. The object of the game is to strike a ball over a net and keep it in play backwards and forwards within certain limits. The court or ground may be of any size consistent with the lawn, the base lines being marked out by chalk, or tapes slightly pinned to the turf, which should be frequently mown and rolled. The mode of play may be seen from the following leading rules, which are now generally accepted by all players.

2766. Rules of Lawn Tennis

  1. The Court, for a single-handed game, should be 78 ft. long and 27 ft. wide, and for a double-handed game the same length, but 36 ft. wide, divided across the centre by a net attached to two upright posts. The net should be 3 ft. 6 in. high at the posts, and 3 ft. at the centre. At each end of the court, parallel with the net, are the base lines, whose extremities are connected by the side lines. The half-court line is halfway between the side lines and parallel with them. The service lines are 21 ft. from the net and parallel with it.
  1. The balls should be 2-1/2 in. in diameter and 2 oz. in weight.
  1. The players stand on opposite sides of the net. The player who first delivers the ball is called the server, the other the striker-out.
  1. At the end of each game the striker-out becomes server, and the server striker-out.
  1. The server stands with one foot beyond the base line, and delivers the service from the right and left courts alternately.
  1. The balls served must, without touching the net, drop within the court nearest to the net, diagonally opposite to that from which the striker serves it.