We normally hear many players comment about the shots that they were successful in playing; however, only some will talk about important shots that they were not able to play or missed. Sometimes shots that are missed turn out to as important as the shots that are played; and under some particular situations, a shot that gets missed by an inch is more important compared to a lame return that your opponent can return easily.

The above statement; however, may require some amount of explanation to do. For instance, think that the opponent player plays an angled shot for that requires you to make a lot of ground; and after reaching it finally, you are able to return it fast and hard along the sideline taking off your opponent fully by surprise. But, unluckily the ball bounces just outside the sideline because of which you lose the point. Your opponent was lucky that the ball landed outside the sideline, if the ball had landed inside the sideline, he would have not been able to play it and you could have ended up winning a point. Your opponent understands that he has escaped the line just by a whisker and the thought sets up in his intellect. He knows that you can repeat that shot and the next time luck might not favor him. So he registers this in his mind that not to give the same opportunity to you. What does this result in? Your opponent’s confidence is broken and his shot selection is restricted; and you have achieved all this because of a missed stroke!

If you had not ran along and taken the pain over that last stroke and returned a simple stroke without having the risk of misplacing it, your opponent would have ended getting a simple point, you could have ended up boosting your opponents confidence while decreasing you own confidence. Either way, if you look at points, you ended up losing one; however, in the first case of a brilliant missed shot you had ended getting all the psychological benefits, but if you had sent a simple return shot to your opponent, he would have straight away lashed on to it and scored points in both the departments i.e. point and mental lead.

Now, let us suppose that you anyhow managed to return the shot and get the ball landed within the sideline of the court instead of outside the court and eventually beating the opponent for the point. However, if your opponent is thinking he lost two points one which he gave away and another one that he must have got in place of giving you that point. It results in a considerable amount of mental fear to your opponent who will be thinking that he is given away something that would be hard to get back.

It may be clear by now that how your psychological thinking can change or affect the result of the matches. Considering the two opponents started equally, when one opponent starts to lead, his confidence increases while the other opponent’s looses confidence. If the player who has got the lead continues in the same manner, then not only he wins points, but also increases his confidence level and improves his psychology and this difference will be clearly visible between the two opponents. However, if the other player starts to catch up and pulls up his confident, than unless the first opponent has a better control over his confidence, the psychological forces that get created can destroy his game and he could end up in the losing side. And on the other side, the second player will have tremendous boost to his confidence by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

The game is moderately easy to learn how to play, only following some very simple rules. But, playing tennis may get progressively harder if you are playing against advanced players.

The game starts out with a serve from one player on one side of the court. The serving player must successfully serve the ball over the net into the opposite side of the court. Then, the receiving player is allowed to let the ball hit the ground one time before returning the ball back to the serving opponent. Points are scored for the unsuccessful and legal return to the other side of the court.

There are many different techniques that players use in their serves to gain the advantage over their opponents, such as aces. But they are not necessary to gain points in the game of tennis.

To return the ball, there are two swings that are acceptable in the game of tennis that you can use to return to your opponent, the forehand and backhand.

The forehand swing requires you to hit the ball with the face of the racket and your palm facing the ball when you are holding the racket. This is the predominant swing used by all tennis players, including professionals.

The backhand swing is used when you are holding the racket with two hands and hit the ball with the back side of the racket. This swing may take a little time to get used to and efficiently use, but keep practicing it.

Once you and your partner are able to perform serves and swing successfully, you should ready to play. Rallying is when the ball is hit back and forth, cross-court, between the players of the game.

Each move may take some time to master, so if you don’t get it on the first try, just keep practicing. Remember, practice makes perfect.

There are six games within an entire match, and the player with the most games wins. Each point that you can earn by offsetting your opponent is based on 15, and you need four points to win the game.

Basic equipment for tennis can be found, generally, at any store that carries sports equipment. All that is needed to play tennis is a sturdy tennis racket, a tennis ball, appropriate clothing, and a partner with the same things.

If you are interested in further training, there are many resources online that you can use that have videos and detailed instructions that can teach you how to play better. Tennis is a sport that anyone that can hold and swing a racket can play and is worth giving a try

Tennis elbow usually occurs at the tendon of the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle, 2cm below the outer edge of the elbow joint. Usually the signs and the symptoms would show immediately. One would experience pain about 1-2cm down from the bony area at the outside of the elbow. If one also has difficulty in performing simple tasks such as shaking hands with someone or opening the door and feels pain, one should go to his or her physician immediately. Pain is also felt outside of the elbow when one tries to straighten the fingers against resistance.

Tennis elbow is usually because of repetitive strain or overused repeated bending back of the wrist against resistance. One can have this injury if he or she is playing sports like tennis, badminton or squash. People who overuse their wrists on a day to day basis also experience this form of injury. So it’s not mainly the athletes who commonly get affected with this mishap. Although majority of the athletes would get tennis elbow because of poor backhand technique in tennis or if the racket grip is too small. Even your racket strings if they are too tight could also be a cause. Wet heavy balls that are used in the game is also another cause.

So it’s all just conjecture really, but it’s still worth having a debate over just for the fun of it and there are many aspects of the sport to choose from.

Some very important aspects are listed. Are there any that you would find most important?

What about volleying? A game that it going too smoothly can become a disadvantage for opponents as point may easily be lost. Just take a look back at players of the past such as John McEnroe.

What about baseline play, is that important? Many experts would say that it is the more modern approach as opposed to playing at the net. Take Rafael Nadal for example, he spends a lot of time hanging at the back of the court rather that up at the net. And other players such as Andy Roddick have changed tactics in favour of the baseline play.

Any player with a powerful serve can easily take control of the court if their opponent is unable to break them and this will give them an overall advantage. Take Roddick as a good example of a big serve.

And what about the speed of the players? It obviously helps out a lot if the player can reach the ball every time and the opponent then has to work that bit harder to gain a point.

What I think is the most important aspect is the x-factor, as in the mental game. Rafael Nadal knows how to play a tough mental game and as a result has some of the toughest in the history of tennis.

During matches, he has the ability to remain composed and calm with a win attitude that seems to work for him.