Tennis

Tennis uses the same 78 ft (23.77 m) court length for singles and doubles. Singles courts are 27 ft (8.23 m) wide; doubles courts are 36 ft (10.97 m) wide.

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Dimensions and layouts

A regulation tennis court is 78 ft (23.77 m) long. It is 27 ft (8.23 m) wide for singles and 36 ft (10.97 m) wide for doubles. Those figures come from Rule 1 of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Rules of Tennis, and every one of them is measured to the outside edge of the line. Two more measurements decide the rest of the layout: each service line sits 21 ft (6.40 m) from the net, and the net stands 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) at the posts and 3 ft (0.914 m) at the center strap.

The length never changes. Singles and doubles use the same 78 ft, and only the width moves, because each doubles alley adds 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) outside the singles sideline. The service boxes do not widen for doubles: each stays 13 ft 6 in (4.115 m) by 21 ft (6.40 m). Surface does not change the geometry either, so clay, grass and hard courts share the same Rule 1 dimensions. What does change is the space around the court and the format for young players. The ITF recommends 21 ft between each baseline and the backstop and 12 ft between each sideline and the sidestop for international competition, and 18 ft and 10 ft for recreational and club play, while Appendix VIII permits shorter red and orange courts for 10-and-under competition, with the green ball played on the full-size court. Every figure, with line widths, youth court sizes and total footprints, is in the tennis court dimensions, markings and layout guide.

History

Lawn tennis did not start on a rectangle. In 1874, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patented a boxed lawn game called Sphairistike, played on a court that narrowed at the net into an hourglass shape. The All England Club held the first Wimbledon Championship in 1877 and wrote a new code for the event. Its rectangular singles court measured 26 yards by 9 yards, the same 78 ft by 27 ft in use today.

The rectangle held while the rest of the layout settled. The 1877 net stood 5 ft at the posts and 3 ft 3 in at the center, and the service lines were 26 ft from the net rather than 21 ft. The service line moved in to 21 ft by 1880, and by 1882 the net had been reduced to the current 3 ft 6 in at the posts and 3 ft at the center. Doubles adds a 4 ft 6 in alley on each side, taking the width from 27 ft to 36 ft without changing the singles court.

Overhead plan

The same surface seen from straight above, drawn to scale. Nothing is foreshortened here, so every figure can be read off the drawing the way a tape measure would take it.

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Detail sheet

A rule book fixes more than the shape of the surface, and the rest of it is too small to draw at court scale: a mark a few centimeters long, a post standing a meter off the sideline, the clearance around the whole thing. Each one here has its own frame and its own scale.

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Official sources

The court figures on this page come from the International Tennis Federation, which publishes the Rules of Tennis. Rule 1 sets the court and its lines, Appendix VIII covers 10-and-under courts, and Appendix X gives the recommended clearances. The guide cites these documents:

• International Tennis Federation, 2026 Rules of Tennis, Rule 1 and Appendices VIII-X.
• International Tennis Federation, History of Tennis Courts.
• The Wimbledon Compendium 2022, history of the 1877 court and early rules.
• Wimbledon grass courts, current line widths and court measurements.

How each figure is checked, dated and marked official or derived is set out on the methodology page. If a number here looks wrong, report it through corrections.