Tennis is a beautiful sport, the more you learn about it that is. While the excitement of watching Rafael Nadal slide on clay or Roger Federer’s elegance on grass can be instantly captivating, understanding tennis scoring, the unique terms, and strategies can be confusing to say the least. So, let’s break it down to make sense of the game and enhance our appreciation for this sport.
Love, 15, 30, 40, Game!
Tennis scoring has an old-world charm rooted in history. Points in tennis are scored as love, 15, 30, and 40, with an additional point winning the game. The origin of this system is debated; one theory being that it was based on the quarters of a clock face (15, 30, 45, and 60), though the “45” was changed to “40” over time for simplicity or reasons unknown.
Another theory involves medieval French history, suggesting that the scoring system comes from an early version of tennis played in France called jeu de paume. In this game, points were marked by moving a hand on a clock face, with each point being a quarter (15, 30, 45, and 60 for the win).
These theories cannot definitively be proven, nevertheless they add history and intrigue to the sport’s unique scoring system.
The tennis scoring system goes from a point to a game, to a set, and finally to a match. In other words, winning a single point helps win a game, winning games helps win a set, and winning sets wins the overall match.
Points: Points are scored as love (0), 15, 30, and 40, and an additional point wins a game. When a player wins a point after 40 (if they both reached 40 at the same time- deuce) and leads by two points after that, they win the game.
Game: Points make up a game. A game is a smaller unit in a set. One game is equal to one unit of scoring within a set. To win a game, a player must score four points
1 point = 15
2 points = 30
3 points = 40
4 points = Game
(Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
However, if the score reaches deuce (40-40), the player must win two additional points in a row to win that game.
Set: A set is made up of typically 6 games, therefore a player wins a set by winning six games (e.g. 6-4 or 6-3) with at least a two-game lead (e.g. 6-4 or 7-5). So, if the score is 6-5 in a set, the player who is leading (6 games) must win one more game to win the set. If both players reach six games each at the same time, they play a tiebreaker- where the players play to 7 points in the tiebreak to determine the winner of the set.
In the Grand Slam tournaments, men’s matches are played in a best-of-five sets, meaning that the first player to win three sets wins the match. Women’s matches are played in a best-of-three sets, meaning that the first player to win two sets wins the match.
Deuce: When both players reach 40, the score is called deuce. The next player to win a point after deuce goes to advantage, meaning they need to win by two consecutive points/two points in a row after the point of 40 to win the game. Therefore if the player with the advantage wins the next point, they win the game. However, if the player with the advantage loses the next point, the score goes back to deuce.
This goes on until eventually there’s a win from either player. Deuces in matches add drama, suspense, and excitement to the game, creating nail-biting moments as each player tries to one-up the other to take the lead. The back-and-forth nature of deuces can lead to long, tension-filled games, where players are under immense pressure, while the audience is on edge, rooting for their favourite to come out of the battle victorious.
Advantage: Advantage is the crucial step between deuce and winning a game, requiring a player to win two consecutive points after deuce in order to win the game. If a player wins a point after deuce, they move to advantage. However, if the player with the advantage loses the next point, the score returns back to deuce, tying the players at 40-40/deuce yet again. The player who has the advantage has a chance to win the game should they win the next point.
Tiebreaks: A tiebreak is a quick way to decide the winner of a set when both players reach 6 games at the same time. Instead of playing more games, players go into a special round to break the tie- hence “tiebreak”. How it works is that players earn points in a normal sequence (1, 2, 3, etc), as opposed to the typical game score of 15, 30, 40. The first player to reach 7 points with at least a two-point lead wins the tiebreak, and therefore the set. If the score reaches 6-6 in the tiebreak, the game continues until one player is ahead by two points (e.g., 8-6 or 10-8). When a player wins the tiebreak, they win that set. If it’s the deciding set (for example, the third set in women’s matches or the fifth set in men’s matches), they also win the match.
I believe that’s quite a mouthful, it’s plenty to digest so we’ll leave it here for now. There’s more to unpack in this wonderfully exciting (yet sometimes complicated) game. As you continue to watch tennis, understanding the scoring will not only make the game more exciting, it will also give you clarity on what’s actually happening during a match. Hopefully, you’re starting to catch on—and the game is slowly making sense to you.
Cheers to a life well-lived,
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