Article 1 – Foreword
1. As a national authority for tennis in all its forms and variations, FIT intends to authorize some sperimental competitions of tandem tennis, defined below, played with the traditional tennis rules, with the exception of the following regulations.
2. For the coordination of such an activity, the federal Board can elect one or more national trustee.
Article 2 – Definition
1. Tandem tennis is played in couples in a singles tennis court; the players of each team have to hit the ball just once each, alternately, keeping the same order for the whole duration of the match.
2. The ball put into play by the server and hit by the receiver is then hit by the teammate of the server, then by the teammate of the receiver, then again by the server, and so on.
Article 3 ‑ Members and membership recruitment
1. Participants to tandem tennis competitions, individuals or teams, are requested to own and show the card “tennis” – agonistic athlet.
Article 4 – Server and receiver
1. At the beginning of each set the team that serves must specify wich player will serve first, and the team that receives will specify which partner will receive the first point of the game; that same rotation can be kept or changed at the beginning of the following set.
2. After the first point, the two players who have not hit the ball in the previous two shots will be server and receiver.
Article 5 – Players’ positions
1. Server and receiver can stand as in traditional tennis, whereas their partners must stand behind the base line, until the ball is put into play by the server.
Article 6 – Player loses a point
1. In addition to cases indicated in the general rules, a player loses a point:
a) in case he/she violates the rule of article 5;
b) in case he/she hits the ball twice consecutively.
Article 7 ‑ Matches’ limit
1. Every match, in any kind of competition, will be competed at the best of three sets (two sets out of three), following the rule of the seven points tie-break, if the score is six games for each team, in the first two sets, and a ten points tie-break instead of the third set.
2. Only in case of limited duration competitions, it is allowed to adopt the four games short match, with a seven points tie-break when the score is 4 games for each team and with ten points tie-break instead of the third set.
Article 8 – Competitions’ formulation
1. Competitions can occur with the direct elimination formula or, completely or partly, with the rounds’ system, at the referee’s discretion.
2. The competition’s program must specify wich formula is in use, as well as the minimum amount of participants that allows the adoption of the rounds’ system.
Article 9 – Referring law
1. For whatever is not considered in the present guideline, rules to be applied are the regulations of the other FIT guidelines, in particular tennis Rules and sport’s technical Guideline.
Tandem TEnnis 