Play Tennis Online with a Friend
How it works: one player creates a room and shares the six-character code or invite link. The other player joins, you both press Ready, and the match starts five seconds later.
Start an online match in four steps
- Pick your player. From the home page, press Play with friends, then choose a name and one of the ten players.
- Create a room. You get a six-character room code made of letters and numbers.
- Invite your friend. Use Copy invite link and send it in any chat app, or read out the code. Opening the link takes your friend through player select and straight into your room; otherwise your friend presses Play with friends and types the code or pastes the link under Join a room.
- Ready up. When both players press Ready, a five-second countdown starts and the match begins.
What an online match is like
- Same rules as solo play: first to three games, win by two, with a tiebreak at three games all. See scoring.
- Always your view: both players see the court from their own baseline, so the controls feel the same for each of you.
- A fair referee: the match runs on our server, which decides every bounce, fault and point for both players.
- Hard court: online matches are played on the New York hard court.
- Rematches: after the final point, both players ready up again to play another match in the same room.
- Any device: a laptop player can take on a phone player. Both keyboard and touch controls work.
Connection and leaving
If your connection drops, ProTennis reconnects you to the room on its own, and reloading the page takes you back into the same room. Online matches don't pause: opening the menu leaves your player standing still while play continues. Leaving the room during a match counts as a forfeit, and your opponent is awarded the win.
If your friend can't join
- Check the code: it is exactly six letters and numbers. Pasting the whole invite link into the code field works too.
- A room holds two players. If it is already full, create a new room and share the new code.
- Use a recent version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari with WebGL turned on.
- Still stuck? Contact support with the room code and roughly when it happened.
Online play questions
Is online play free?
Yes. Online matches are free, with no account, subscription or download.
Can I play against random people online?
Not yet. Online matches are private rooms you share with a friend. To play right now without a partner, start a quick match against the computer.
Can more than two people play?
Online matches are singles only, one player on each side of the net.
No one to play right now?
Warm up with a quick match against the computer on Easy, Normal or Hard, or read how to play to sharpen your timing before you challenge a friend.