Tennis Geometry – The Cross Court Hypotenuse

The Hypotenuse – Cross Court Advantage

If you look at a tennis court a lot of people just see lines and a net but did you ever try to create some shapes or use geometry. Geometry and angles can play a big role in tennis and can work to your advantage if used properly. The Pythagorean Theorem states that the longest side of a triangle is the hypotenuse. On a tennis court the singles lines are 27 feet from sideline to sideline and for doubles is 36 feet. From one baseline to the other baseline is 78 feet. Therefor the hypotenuse is 82.5 feet for singles and 86 feet for doubles. (Singles lines 27sq + baseline to baseline 78sq = 82.5sq) (Doubles lines 36sq + baseline to baseline 78sq = 86sq). Having an extra 4.5 ft – 8 ft to work with is a huge advantage when hitting cross court versus down the line. The tennis net is also 3 feet at the center versus 3.5 feet at the net post. So not only do you have more feet to work with by hitting along the hypotenuse but also the net is lower. Now you can see why a lot of the rally exchanges are cross court until someone earns a higher percentage down the line opportunity.