The 2026 edition of the ITF Rules of Tennis was published a few days early and is available for free public download directly from the ITF. This early release was likely made possible by the absence of substantive changes for 2026. The only (loosely) material difference between the 2025 and 2026 editions is the year printed on the cover.
In previous years, I have used a PDF comparison tool to identify changes between editions of the various tennis rulebooks. That can be tedious, as pagination sometimes creates “differences” without any substantive update to the rules. This year, that comparison was conducted using generative AI.
This is a good moment to reiterate that I use AI as a tool to support the production of this site. To be clear, AI does not write my posts. The voice, structure, and conclusions remain my own. What I do use AI for is idea generation, sanity checks, and critique. It often serves as a muse when I am thinking through a topic, and as an editor when I want to strengthen clarity or logic. Any time you see a summary on this site of one of my previous posts, the first draft of that was most likely generated by AI. Behind the scenes, I also use it for SEO, including keyword development and metadata summaries, which should help the site reach readers who might not otherwise find it. Generative AI was also used to create the banner image for this post, which is an embellished landscape riff of the boring standard cover of the ITF Rules of Tennis.
The lack of changes in the 2026 rules also provides an opportunity to reiterate something that is easy to lose sight of amid the alphabet soup of tennis governance. The International Tennis Federation Rules of Tennis is the supreme authority for how the game itself is played. Everything else flows downhill from that document. Rulebooks published by national associations and professional tours do not rewrite the game. Instead, they interpret the ITF Rules within their own competitive contexts and supplement them with implementation details, procedures, and policies.
In the United States, that downstream document is the USTA Friend at Court, which integrates the ITF Rules of Tennis and layers on USTA-specific regulations, procedures, and interpretations. On the professional side, the ATP and WTA rulebooks serve the same function for their tours. Importantly, these documents are not peers of the ITF Rules, but rather derivatives. The ITF Rules of Tennis are the foundation of our sport.
The 2026 edition of the USTA Friend at Court has not yet been released. It traditionally lags the publication of the ITF Rules, since it must reflect any changes adopted at the international level before adding domestic context and guidance. Although the baseline rule did not change, the USTA may still add new interpretations, policies, and procedures. We may even get an updated version of “The Code,” which is the part of the rulebook we will continue to break down next Wednesday.
For now, the takeaway is simple. No news is good news. The foundational rules of the game remain stable and familiar, and that continuity is something we should all appreciate.
- ITF Rules of Tennis, International Tennis Federation, 2026