Tennis Time

Tennis Time!

Story By: Andrew Frinkle

Tennis Time!

Tennis Time! Cara played tennis. It was her favorite sport. She really enjoyed all kinds of similar sports, like ping pong, volleyball, and badminton, but she really liked tennis the most. There was something about running back and forth on that green court and delivered a great backhanded return that really made her smile.

Use the information in the story to answer the questions below

Multiple Choice

1. What sport does Cara play?

• A. Pickle ball

• B. Tennis

• C. Badminton

• D. Ping Pong

Scoring is strange in tennis. You need to get to 4 points to win, and you have to win by 2 points. However, they call the points strange thing. Instead of saying 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 points, they say: love, 15, 30, 40, game. A lot of games get stuck at 3-4 or 4-4, and they have to keep playing to get a 2 point win. So even though it seems easy to score 4 points and beat someone by 2, strong players can go back and forth a long time. Usually you play a set of several games. 

Multiple Choice

2. What is it called when you have 0 points in tennis?

• A. love

• B. 15

• C. 30

• D. 40

When you serve, you have to serve from a certain area on the court. You have to hit the ball over the net and into a specific area of the court marked by white lines. If you hit the net on the way over, you get a redo. If you hit the net and it stops, your serve is done. If you hit the ball out of bounds, your turn is also done. The receiving team or player gets to stand wherever they want, and they’re supposed to hit it back toward the serving player’s side of the court. They want to get it to touch once and skip out of bounds so the other player can’t send it back their way again. They can also try to get two bounces in on the other person’s side, but that can be hard. These volleys can go back and forth pretty quickly, and they might go for several strokes before one player is put in a position where they can’t return the ball, giving their opponent a point.  

Fill in the Blank

In a tennis team, there are always ___ players.

Cara liked playing doubles games. She had a really good partner, and they worked well as a team. She was best at returning, while her teammate was great at serving. They worked well together. Still, Cara knew that her game wasn’t as popular in America as some other sports. In Europe it was a big deal, and there were some very famous tennis players and matches you might have even heard of. Are you going to try to watch or play tennis? 

Poll

what in your opinion is the most interesting sports?

• football

• basketball

• judo

• tennis

Open Ended

Where is tennis more popular, the United States or Europe?

Multiple Choice

What does a game of tennis begin with?

• Pass

• Serve

Multiple Select

Choose the correct ones:

Cara...

• likes playing doubles

• has a teammate who's bad at serving

• is good at returning

• and her teammate work well together