Each player on each side, which is known as singles, or both players on each side, which is known as doubles, attempts to hit the ball and send it back over top of the net to the opposing side. .
The server on one team serves the tennis ball by tossing it into the air and hitting it with their racquet. Their goal is to place the ball across the net in a diagonal direction so that it lands in the receiver's deuce court. After the first point if the game is made, both players move to the left and continue play from the advantage court. They continue to alternate between courts after each point is made until the game has been won. .
On May 21, 1881, a small group of tennis club members met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to form the world's first national governing body for tennis: the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. The new organization was created to standardize tennis rules and regulations and to encourage and develop the sport. In 1920, "National" was dropped from the name, and in 1975, the name was further shortened to the current United States Tennis Association (USTA). .
The USTA has evolved through more than a century of expansion and development, yet abided by the constitution of the association:.
".to promote the development of tennis as a means of healthful recreation and physical fitness; to establish and maintain rules of play and high standards of amateurism and sportsmanship; to foster national and international amateur tennis tournaments and competitions; to encourage, sanction and conduct tennis tournaments and competitions under the best of conditions; and to encourage, through tennis, the development of health, character and responsible citizenship.".
The USTA, which encompasses all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam, is composed of 17 geographical sections. Most sections are further divided into districts. Every section maintains its own staff to administer USTA programs, establishes its own tournament schedule and issues its own rankings.
