The invention provides a new tennis backboard design. The backboard includes a firm backing layer underlying a soft deadening layer. The rebound of a tennis ball from the backboard is reduced as compared to rebound from a rigid hard-surface backboard. This allows a player to stand fairly close to the backboard, which reduces misses. The player can stand fairly close and hit balls hard against the backboard. Because the rebound is reduced, the ball simply bounces back softly and easily to the player, allowing the player to hit hard again from a fairly short distance. Thus, long rallies without missing are easily achieved. Since the bounce is reduced, the player can stand closer to the backboard, and therefore the backboard can be smaller than conventional backboards without the player missing the backboard. This allows the backboard to be light, portable, and easily stored. Because of the addition of a soft deadening layer, the firm backing layer of the backboard can also be thin and made of lighter and weaker material than a conventional backboard, reducing the weight of the backboard.