Tennis is a sport played between either two players (singles) or two teams of two players each (doubles). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a ball, a hollow rubber sphere covered in felt, over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis used to be called lawn tennis to distinguish it from its predecessor real tennis (also known as royal tennis, court tennis or jeu de paume), a form of the game played indoors on a different kind of a court. Originating in England in the late 19th century, the game spread first throughout the English-speaking world, particularly among the upper classes. Tennis is played in the Summer Olympic Games and at all levels of society, by individuals of all ages many countries around the world. Its rules have remained largely unchanged since the 1890s. Along with its millions of players, tennis claims millions of people who follow the sport as spectators, being particularly interested in the four Grand Slam tournaments.

In tennis, an official is a person who insures that a match or tournament is conducted according to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Rules of Tennis and other competition regulations.

At the highest levels of the sport a team of up to ten officials may be on court at any given time. These officials are broken up in to categories based on their responsibility during the match. Contrastingly, many tennis matches are conducted with no officials present.

The Chair Umpire "is the final authority on all questions of fact during the match." Questions of fact include whether or not a ball was in, the calling of a service let or the calling of a foot-fault.

The Line Umpire "calls all shots relating to the assigned lines." Line umpires work on court as part of a team of between three and nine line umpires. Each line umpire is assigned by the chair umpire to one line or, in the case of a short handed crew, a position in a system. For example, a line umpire on the receiver's side may have to cover the center service line then, following the serve, move to one of the sidelines.

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Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks and a total of 302 weeks. He has been ranked inside the top 10 since October 2002 and the top 20 since April 2001. Federer has won a male record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of seven male players to capture the career Grand Slam and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so on three different surfaces (clay, grass and hard courts). Many sports analysts, tennis critics, former and current players consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.

Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 22 career Grand Slam finals, of which 10 were consecutive appearances, and he has appeared in 18 of 19 finals over the four and a half years from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open, excluding the 2008 Australian Open. He holds the record of reaching the semi-finals or better of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments over five and a half years from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. In the 2011 Australian Open he reached his 27th consecutive quarter-finals in the grand slam tournaments, equalling the record set by Jimmy Connors.

Federer has won a record 5 ATP World Tour Finals (shared with Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras) and 17 ATP Masters Series tournaments. He also won the Olympic Gold Medal in doubles with his compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. He has been year-end top 2 in the rankings, 8 years in a row (2003–2010).

As a result of Federer's successes in tennis, he was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record four consecutive years (2005–2008). He is often referred to as The Federer Express or abbreviated to Fed Express, the Swiss Maestro or simply Maestro.

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“	I know I play boring tennis, or "solid" as the euphemism is.	”
— Sjeng Schalken, after winning a Davis Cup dead rubber against Canada's Simon Larose

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• April 1, 2018 - Sloane Stephens won the title at the Miami Open, defeating Jeļena Ostapenko in straight sets. It was Stephens' sixth career singles title, first Premier Mandatory title, and first title since winning the US Open in September 2017. On the men's side, John Isner won his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title, defeating Alexander Zverev in three sets.

Portal:Tennis/Did you know/02 2025

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