In tennis how to find out the service side in the middle of the game?

Question

I am new to tennis, both as a viewer and a player. I hope this is not the wrong place to ask a beginner question.

So what happens is, after serving the ball I am too invested in the game and I don't remember which side I served from last. That means I can't figure out where to serve from next. This is also true for when I am on the receiver end. I can't figure out which side of the court to stand on.

I couldn't find any trick for this on the internet after a quick search. How do you do it? Is there a way to "calculate" the service side from the current score?

Answer 1

The rules of tennis are that:

• The first point of a game is served from the right-hand side of the court.
• After that, sides alternate.

Therefore:

• Anything with an even number of points played (0-0, 15 all, 30 all, deuce, 30-0, 0-30, 40-15 and 15-40) is served from the right-hand side of the court - this is why it is sometimes known as the "deuce court".
• Anything with an odd number of points played (15-0, 0-15, 40-0, 0-40, 30-15, 15-30, 40-30, 30-40 and advantage for either player) is served from the left-hand side of the court - the "advantage court".

Answer 2

Consider 40 as 45 as it should be (since it used to be 3/4 of an hour on a clock).

If the two numbers have the same parity (both odd or both even) then you will serve/receive from the right side.

For example,

Score	Parity	Service
30-15	even-odd	left
0-30	even-even	right
15-40	odd-odd°	right

° because 40 is treated like 45