I.3.1. Main rules
The court
The court shall be a rectangle, 16 m long and 8 m wide. For singles matches, the court shall be 4.5 m wide.
The court shall be divided across the middle by a net attached to two net posts at the minimum height of 1.7 m. The net shall be fully extended so that it completely fills the space between the two net posts and it must be of sufficiently small mesh to ensure that a ball cannot pass through it. The height of the net shall be a minimum of 1.7 and a maximum of 1.8 m.
The lines of the court shall be between 2.5 cm and 5.0 cm wide. All court measurements shall be made to the outside of the lines and all lines of the court shall be of the same colour clearly contrasting with the colour of the surface.
Balls
Play and Stay (i.e. low compression “orange”) balls, approved for play by the ITF.
(http://www.online-teniszakademia.com/beach_tennis.html)
The Racket
The racket is 50 cm long, 26 cm wide and 38 mm thick. The hitting surface of the racket can have an unrestricted number of holes of 9 to 13 mm in diameter. The hitting surface must be flat and has to be 30cm in length and 26 cm in width.
Scores in beach tennis
A matches is played until 2 or 3 sets are won by the same team. The organiser has to announce in advance if the sets have to be won with a lead of two, or the match is decided r in a tie-break format. In standard format, the first player/team to win six games wins that “Set”, provided there is a margin of two games over the opponent(s). If necessary, the set shall continue until this margin is achieved. If tie break has to decide, the same rules apply as in tennis after result 6-6. Scores within the game are counted as in tennis.
Server and Receiver
The player/team shall stand on opposite sides of the net. The server is the player/team that puts the ball into play for the first point. The player/team that are ready to return the ball served by the server shall be the receiver(s). Members of the receiver team may take any position on their side of the net.
Choice of Ends and Service
The choice of ends and the choice to be server or receiver in the first game shall be decided before the match. If there is an umpire, choice shall be made by toss.
Change of Ends
The player/team shall change ends at the end of the first, third and every subsequent odd game of each set. During a tie-break game, a player/team shall change ends after the first point and thereafter every four points.
The Service
Before the service, the server has to stand behind the baseline. The server shall then release the ball by hand and hit the ball with the racket. The service motion is completed at the moment the player’s racket hits or misses the ball. A player who is able to use only one arm may use the racket for the release of the ball. There shall be no second service, and if the ball touches the net, the serve still counts. The service shall pass over the net before a receiver returns it. The server shall not serve until the receiver is ready. However, the receiver shall play to the reasonable pace of the server and shall be ready to receive within a reasonable time of the server being ready.
Receiving
The receiver may take any position and may change it during a game.
Beach tennis gameplay in the video below: