Basics on Keeping Score in Tennis

Much like the sport itself, the origination of tennis' intriguing scoring system is not entirely clear. Some suggest the 15/30/40 scoring came from the face of a clock, were a match was won once a competitor reached the 12 o'clock position, having worked around the clock face. Others suggest that the French created the scoring system and recognized 60 as a significant number in their culture, and so a tennis player had to reach 60 in four stages before winning a game.

  1. Games

    • Games are played to a total of four points — unless there is a tie — with players moving from 0 — known as "love" — to 15, 15 to 30, 30 to 40 and 40 to winning the game. Games must be won by a margin of two clear points or more, however, so where a player leads 40 to 30 and his opponent scores a point to make it 40 to 40 — which is called "deuce" — the play must then continue until one player has a winning margin of two points. When the game is in deuce and a player scores a point, he is awarded "advantage." If he wins the next point, he wins the game. If he loses the next point, the game returns to deuce. This continues until a winning margin of two is established by one player, who wins the deuce point and then wins the advantage point. The player that is serving has his score denoted first, even if he is behind in the game. So, for example, if a player is serving but losing by two unanswered points, the score is read as love to 30.

    Sets

    • A set is won once a player has won six games, but only if she leads in games by a margin of two — a player cannot win a set 6 to 5, for example. Where the score in a set reaches 5 to 5 in games, it will either conclude with one player winning the following two games to win the set 7 to 5 or the players reaching 6 to 6, at which point a tie breaker is played to decide the winner of the set. As with point-scoring during games, the score in a set is denoted by the player serving. So, if a player is serving but losing the set 2 to 4, this is how it is expressed. When written down on a scoreboard, the player who is serving is shown to have an asterix next to the number of games they have won. For example, if the serving player leads the set *5 to 1, this is how the score is expressed.

    Tie Breaks

    • Tie breaks (also known as tie breakers) are used to determine the winner of a set once it reaches 6 to 6 in games. Tie breaks are simply scored in margins of one, so the player that wins the first point in a tie break takes a 1 to 0 lead. A tie break is won once a player reaches seven, but only if he holds a lead of at least two points. A tie break, therefore, cannot be won 7 to 6. Service alternates during a tie break, with a player serving on the first point before his opponent serves twice. Both players then serve twice in each turn before service alternates.

    Matches

    • Isner's win over Mahut became the sport's longest ever recorded game in 2010.

      Matches are decided by the number of sets that have been won. Sets are commonly played as the first to three, so once a player has won three sets, she has won the match. Longer forms of the sport, such as the men's grand slam tennis that is played at the four major events, is played as the first to five sets. In all forms of tennis, the final set does not use a tie break as a decider. Rather, play continues until one player has a two game lead over the other. In the year 2010, this scoring system led to a remarkable and historic game at the Wimbledon Championships between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner where the fifth and final set was won 70-68 by John Isner.