After a long period in the shadows, tennis is making a comeback

There was a time when tennis was the hottest sport on the scene in America. Unfortunately for tennis fans, no one under 40 remembers that time, which was also highlighted by disco, pet rocks and leisure suits.

We’re talking, of course, about the period from the mid-1970s to the early ’80s, before Bjorn Borg retired and John McEnroe started dating actresses and lost his spot as the top player in the world.

For many people that was tennis’ golden age and nothing that has happened since has been as satisfying. That feeling is perfectly understandable because it was a great period for the sport.

There were glamorous stars, not just Borg and McEnroe, but also Jimmy Connors and on the women’s side Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Their personalities and rivalries created interest among people who had never cared about tennis before.

There was also a very practical reason for the growth in interest: Tennis rackets became easier than ever to use, so the sport was easier to pick up. New materials replaced wood as the basic building block of rackets, making them lighter and allowing for much larger hitting surfaces.

But the craze fizzled out and the retirement of these stars was only part of the reason why. A bigger reason is that going out and smacking balls is pretty easy, but learning how to really play takes work and commitment.

In order to play a tennis match, players must be able to hit serves, forehands, backhands, volleys, half-volleys and overheads.

Some instruction is really helpful in learning these strokes and a lot of practice is needed to improve them.

But the good news is that getting started and finding out if you like the game is as easy as ever. Think of it this way, even if you don’t have 18 players and a big-league ballpark, you can still go out and play catch with a friend in the yard.

Beginning tennis can be just like that, using forehands to "play catch" so to speak. (The pictures below can help you pick out a grip to get started.)

As you hit, there are just a few things to keep in mind, said Tim Layman, the teaching pro at the Albany Tennis Club:

- Use a short swing. It’s easier to control and less likely to spray the ball.

- Keep the ball in front of you. As you make contact, try to do so just in front of your body.

- Keep your eye on the ball. That means keeping your head steady.

- And finally, stay in balance.

"You don’t want a lot of body movement on your swing," Layman said.

As you begin, you don’t even have to go all the way back behind the baseline. You can start out with mini-tennis, keeping the ball in the front service boxes to build your sense of control.

(You don’t ever have to outgrow this as a drill, actually. Two good players can create a very intense workout with a game of mini-tennis.)

If you do decide to take up tennis, you might find yourself in the middle of the next wave of interest. Layman said there has been real growth in the number of people playing the game and a second golden age could be on the way.

The cause? A couple of guys named Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who are reminding some of us of the good old days.

What’s love got to do with it?

One thing that keeps some people away from tennis is that the scoring system seems crazy and confusing. There are points, games, and sets to keep track of and for some reason everyone starts out, not at zero, but at love.

In reality, it’s not that hard. You win individual points in order to win games. If you win a certain number of games you win the set, and if you win enough sets, you win the match.

We’ll start out with how to score games. Each player does begin at love. The first player to win a point is then at 15. So if the server wins the point, the score would be 15-love. If the returner wins the first point, the score is love-15, since the server’s score always goes first.

You then go to 30, 40 and game. So if the server wins four straight points, the score would proceed like this: 15-love, 30-love, 40-love, game.

Of course the server won’t win every point. So the scores could be 15-15, 15-30, 30-30, 30-40, and then game, if the returner wins the last point.

If the score goes to 40-40, that is known as deuce. The winner of the next point is then said to have the advantage. If that players wins the following point, she wins the game. If the player with the advantage loses the point, you’re back at deuce.

This can go on forever, but the concept stays the same and the idea is basic to the playground — you have to win by two.

It takes six games to win a set, and again you have to win by two. So you can win a set by scores such as 6-4 or 6-1. If both players get to 5 games, you can also win a set 7-5. But if a set goes to 6-6, you play a tiebreaker. As you can see, I’m out of room and don’t even have space to explain how these work.

You have to win a certain number of sets to win the match. Most matches are two out of three sets, but men play three out of five sets during the Grand Slam tournaments and in Davis Cup (which is an international team competition, sort of like soccer’s World Cup).

OK, I lied. It is kind of hard.

But here’s an idea. Play some video-game tennis and pay attention to how the game keeps score. Soon enough, you’ll have it down.