Women's Tennis Rules
Women's tennis, though similar in technique and skill set as men's tennis, has its own set of rules and regulations that set it apart from the men's tennis circuit. Although some of these rules are designed to make the woman's game less physically taxing than the men's game, many of the rules seen in women's tennis are as a result of very old, sometimes archaic forms of etiquette which many clubs and tournaments cling to.
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Set Scoring
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Women play three set matches, and men play five set matches The women's professional tennis league, known as the Women's Tennis Association, establishes for almost every WTA sanctioned match that women play what's called a "best of three" match. The three set match means that the first player to win two sets, or "the best of three" wins the match (each set is played to six games, and must be won by two, and each game consists of four points, and also must be won by two). This differs from the "best of five" match scoring used in the men's league, which often results in much longer, more endurance-based match play.
High School Advantage Scoring
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At amateur USTA and high school level play, many women's leagues play with "no advantage" scoring. This means that, unlike the professional league's use of ad scoring, which can often feature extremely long sets that alternate between ad-in (or one more point until the server wins the game), deuce (or two consecutive points must be won by either player in order to win the game), and ad-out (or one more point until the player receiving serve wins the game), high school women's leagues stop the game after one deuce point. This rule is intended to alleviate the taxing level of endurance that ad scoring can call upon a player.
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Dress Codes and Formalities
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Wimbledon is well-known for its strict dress codes and etiquette Many professional tennis tournaments have very strict dress codes and formalities which they require the women who participate in the tournaments to abide by. Although often these forms of etiquette exist in the men's game as well, they are typically more stringent in women's play. Wimbledon, for example, requires that all women who participate in the tournament must wear white skirts. Wimbledon also requires that all women who play in the tournament must curtsy to the Queen of England whenever she is present.
Prize Money
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Since the women's tennis league generally receives less public attention than the men's game, women's tournaments typically offer substantially less prize money to the winner than men's tournaments. In 2006, for example, the men's Wimbledon winner won $1.170 million, while the women's winner won $1.117 million. Although there has been a substantial increase in women's prize money particularly in major slams over the last several decades, the disparity is still evident in smaller tournaments, largely due to a disparity in media coverage.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit tennis image by Snezana Skundric from Fotolia.com tennis image by razorconcept from Fotolia.com Tennis ball and the shadow of tennis net image by Elzbieta Sekowska from Fotolia.com
