• There's only one right way to play.tennis players image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
  
  The rules of tennis are the same at every level of play, from grade school through the professional circuit. If you're teaching children to play, you might bend the rules to get them used to serving, groundstrokes and reacting to returns. But you should explain the real rules from the beginning.
  
  

Serving

• Players decide who serves first in any fashion, although flipping a coin is common. The winner of the coin toss can elect to serve or receive; the loser chooses which side of the court he will start on.
  
  A game begins when a player serves from behind his right-side baseline. He gets two tries to serve the ball into the service box diagonally across the net. If he misses both attempts, he loses a point; if he makes either, the opposing player must try to return the serve. After a point ends, his next serve is from the left-side of the court. His serves alternate this way until the game is over. Players change sides and the second player serves the next game, and they alternate serving after that. Players change sides after every odd-numbered game.
  
  Tip for kids: Some teachers let younger kids start inside the baseline to get the hang of getting the ball into the service box.
  
  

Playing

• After a player successfully serves, his opponent must return the ball before it hits the ground twice. His return can go anywhere inside the first player's court. The two players then rally, trying to hit the ball back and forth over the net until one player fails to successfully to do so. The ball can never hit the ground twice, although after the serve either player can return the ball before it hits the ground at all. A ball that hits a boundary line is still in play.
  
  Tip for kids: To learn the basics of rallying and anticipating where a ball will land, kids can be allowed two or more bounces before having to return the ball.
  
  

Game Scoring

• A player gets a score of 15 for his first point, 30 for his second and 40 for his third. The server's score is always announced first; thus, if the server has scored two points and his opponent has scored three, the score would be 30-40. A game is over when one player scores four times (15-30-40-game); however, he must be two points ahead to win. If a game is tied at 40, it is known as "deuce" and play continues until one player goes ahead by two points.
  
  Tip for kids: Kids can call out points as 1-2-3 instead of 15-30-40 until they get the hang of the unusual scoring method of tennis.
  
  

Sets and Matches

• Games continue until one player has won six games, although he must be ahead by two games. If the score is tied at six games, players can either continue until one of them is up by two games or play a tiebreaker. In a tiebreaker, the player whose turn it is serves one point from the left side, then his opponent serves two points, starting at his right side. The first player then serves two and they continue this way until one player scores at least seven points with a two-point margin. Matches can be either best-of-three or best-of-five sets.
  
  Tip for kids: Tiebreakers can be confusing and wearying for kids, so it's not unusual to let the winner of the set be the first kid to get to six games.
  
  

Etiquette

• Etiquette in tennis is not a rule, but it's a good thing to teach children. Some of the basics are to call a ball "in" if your opponent hit it into your court but you couldn't see whether it was in or out, not asking for help from spectators and agreeing to go back to a previous score if there is a disagreement about the current score.