Three Women's Tennis Players example essay topic

1,411 words
There are several different aspects of playing and improving your tennis game. Different strokes, rules, boundaries and many other aspects make up the game of tennis. Over the next few pages, I will do my best to explain the forehand and backhand stroke, the serve and volley, the rules of tennis, and without a doubt the grand slam. The forehand stroke is the most popular in tennis. Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and forward on the balls of your feet.

The racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close and parallel to the ground. The racket is supported with your free hand. From the turn position, the racket goes back until it is parallel to the ground- the angle between forearm and racket still remaining the same. The butt of the racket is pointing toward the net and the racket is on edge. The ball is contacted opposite the left leg, approximately waist high; the arm is relatively straight and the wrist firm. The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion finishing high with the racket butt opposite the left eye, (for right hand ers).

The backhand is for the most part very similar just reversed. Tilt the face of your racquet down more on your backswing. Your racquet face naturally opens up (tilts upward) as you swing forward. You need to start your swing with it facing somewhat downward in order for it to end up at vertical as it meets the ball.

Hold your racquet face vertical at the point where you normally meet the ball, then, without turning your wrist (s), pull the racquet back to your normal backswing position. It should face somewhat downward, and that's the angle you want at the start of each swing. The serve is, to me, the best way to take advantage of your opponent. For players of average height, hard, flat serves have to just barely clear the net, or they will go long. Only very tall players can get hard, flat serves in consistently enough to make them pay off. Adding some topspin will increase your margin of clearance over the net to several times larger.

The most preferred power serve among advanced players has a mix of topspin and slice. On the serve, the feet are flat, the ball is tossed slightly over the head and out in front of the body. The forehand motion is used only straight over the top of your head. The volley becomes most important when playing the net.

If you step or turn your shoulder first, you will always hit the ball late. Volleys hit in front of your body use very little effort and most of the time are winners. Prepare quickly with a compact back-swing. Flex your body and knees to get down to the shot and stay there through the stroke.

Move the racquet head smoothly to lift the ball over the net. Let your racquet continue naturally in the direction of the ball. The whole point of the volley is to move your opponent from front to back court. In turn, you will have a better chance of placing the ball as far away from your opponent as possible. There are a few basic rules to playing the game of tennis.

Though rules can change a little with singles and doubles match-ups, the rules are for the most part fairly general. The Court shall be a rectangle 78 feet (23.77 m.) long and 27 feet (8.23 m.) wide. When a combined doubles (see Rule 34) and singles Court with a doubles net is used for singles, the net must be supported to a height of 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m.) by means of two posts, called 'singles sticks', which shall be not more than 3 inches (7.5 cm.) square or 3 inches (7.5 cm.) in diameter. The centers of the singles sticks shall be 3 feet (. 914 m.) outside the singles Court on each side. For the Doubles Game, the court shall be 36 feet (10.97 m.) in width, i.e. 41/2 feet (1.37 m.) wider on each side than the Court for the Singles Game, and those portions of the singles side-lines which lie between the two service-lines shall be called the service side-lines.

In other respects, the Court shall be similar to that described in Rule 1, but the portions of the singles side-lines between the base-line and service-line on each side of the net may be omitted if desired. Scoring is another big part of the rules of tennis. If a player wins his first point, the score is called 15 for that player; on winning his second point, the score is called 30 for that player; on winning his third point, the score is called 40 for that player, and the fourth point won by a player is scored game for that player except as below: -If both players have won three points, the score is called deuce; and the next point won by a player is scored advantage for that player. If the same player wins the next point, he wins the game; if the other player wins the next point the score is again called deuce; and so on, until a player wins the two points immediately following the score at deuce, when the game is scored for that player.

A player (or players) who first wins six games wins a set; except that he must win by a margin of two games over his opponent and where necessary a set is extended until this margin is achieved. The tie-break system of scoring may be adopted as an alternative to the advantage set system in paragraph (a) of this Rule provided the decision is announced in advance of the match. In this case, the following Rules shall be effective: The tie-break shall operate when the score reaches six games all in any set except in the third or fifth set of a three-set or five-set match respectively when an ordinary advantage set shall be played, unless otherwise decided and announced in advance of the match. The Grand Slam is the biggest and without a doubt most the most prestigious tennis matches in the world. Only the best players on the planet are invited to play in the Grand Slam. The Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open tournaments make up tennis's "Grand Slam".

In 1985, Germany's Boris Becker won the first of his three Wimbledon tournaments at age 17. As an amateur in 1962, Australia's Rod Laver won all four men's Grand Slam titles. He became the only player to accomplish the feat twice when he did it again in 1969 as a professional. Maureen Connolly (in 1953), Margaret Smith Court (in 1970), and Steffi Graf (in 1988) are the only three women's tennis players to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in one year.

Pete Sampras is tennis's all-time biggest money winner with over $40 million in career earnings. Helen Wills Moody, whose serious demeanor on the court earned her the nickname "Little Miss Poker Face", finished the year as the no. 1 ranked women's tennis player nine times, including seven years straight from 1927 to 1933. In 1997, 16-year-old Martina Hingis became the youngest women's tennis player to be ranked no. 1 in the world since the rankings began in 1975. One of the most difficult accomplishments in professional tennis is winning all four of these tournaments. These tournaments are therefore known as the Grand Slam tournaments, and rank as the most important tennis tournaments of the year in the public mind as well as in terms of the ranking points and prize money awarded for performances in them.

Though it may seem like tennis is entirely too complicated, it can be one of the most fun sports to play. Even if you " re not that good at the game, you still get great exercise, keeping you in shape. If you " ve never played tennis, start. And if you " ve played before, don't ever stop.