Tennis scoring system

Score during Andy Roddick vs Cyril Saulnier at the start of the third set

A tennis match is composed of sets. The winner of a specified number of sets (typically two or three) wins the match. A set consists of a number of games (typically at least six), which in turn consist of points.

Scoring each game

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same players serving, and is won by the first player to have won at least four points and at least two points more than his or her opponent. The half of the court used for service alternates between sides, beginning with the right-hand half, known as the deuce court, and continuing with the left-hand side, known as the advantage court.'

As simple as this scoring appears, the running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis. Scores of zero to three points are described as "love" (or "zero"), "fifteen", "thirty", and "forty", respectively. The origins of the fifteen, thirty, and forty scores are believed to have medieval and French roots. It is possible that a clock face was used on court, with a quarter move of the hand to indicate a score of fifteen, thirty, and forty-five. When the hand moved to sixty, the game was over. Another explanation is that the scoring system was copied from the game sphairistike, which was played by British officers in India during the 19th century. That game's scoring system was based on the different gun calibres of the British naval ships. When firing a salute, the ships first fired their 15-pound guns on the main deck, followed by the 30-pound guns of the middle deck, and finally by the 40-pound lower gun deck.

The origin of the use of "love" for zero is also disputed; it is possible that it derives from the French word for an egg (l‘oeuf) because an egg looks like the number zero. "Love" is also said to derive from "l'heure" or "the hour" in French. Another possibility of the origin comes from the Dutch "iets voor lof doen," which means to do something for nothing. The word ('lof' nothing) has changed over time to 'love'.

If each player has won three points, the score is described as "deuce" (from French deux meaning two [more points]) rather than "forty-all". From this point on, whenever the score is tied, it is described as "deuce" regardless of how many points have been played. The player who wins the next point after deuce is said to have the advantage. If the player with advantage loses the next point, the score is again deuce, since the score is tied. If the player with the advantage wins the next point, that player has won the game, since the player now leads by two points. When the server is the player with the advantage, the score is stated by him before the next point as "advantage in." When the server's opponent has the advantage, the server states the score as "advantage out." These phrases are sometimes shortened to "ad in" and "ad out."

Note that during the final of Montréal's Rogers Cup in 2008, only one point was needed to win a game after a deuce.

Note that except when the "No-Add" scoring variant (see below)is in use, a score of "thirty-all" is functionally equivalent to "deuce", and "forty-thirty" is equivalent to "advantage". These equivalences are not used in a professional match where the umpire states the score. A score of "thirty-all" means that the players have won exactly two points each, while a score of "deuce" means that the players have won at least three points each.

The current point score is announced orally before each point by the umpire, or by the server if there is no umpire. When stating the score, the server's score is stated first. If the server (or the umpire) announces the score as "thirty-love," for example, it means that the server has won two points and the receiver none.

Scoring a set

A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating between games, ending when the count of games won meets certain criteria. The players also swap ends of the court after each odd-numbered game. The score of games within a set is counted in the ordinary manner, except that a score of zero games is read as "love". The score is written using digits separated by a dash. The score is announced by the umpire or server at the start of each game.

In doubles, service alternates between the teams. One player serves for an entire service game, with that player's partner serving for the entirety of the team's next service game. In addition, players of the receiving team receive the serve on alternating points.

The set is won by the first player to have won at least six games and at least two games more than his or her opponent. Traditionally, sets would be played until both these criteria had been met, with an indefinite number of maximum games. In order to shorten matches, James Van Alen created a tie-breaker system, which was widely introduced in the early 1970s. If the score reaches 6-5, one further game is played. If the leading player wins this game, he wins the set 7-5. If the trailing player wins the game, the score is tied at 6-6 and a special tiebreaker game is played. The winner of the tiebreak wins the set by a score of 7-6. The tiebreak is sometimes not employed for the final set of a match, so that the deciding set must be played until one player or team has won two more games than the opponent. This is true in three of the four major tennis championships, all except the United States Open where a tiebreak is played even in the deciding set (fifth set for the men, third set for the women) at 6-6. A tiebreak is not played in the deciding set in the other three majors - the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon.

Scoring a tiebreak game

At a score of 6-6, a set is often determined by one more game called a "seven point tiebreak." Points are counted using ordinary numbering. The set is decided by the player who wins at least seven points in the tiebreak but also has two points more than his opponent. For example, if the score is 6 points to 5 points and the player with 6 points wins the next point, he wins the tiebreak and the set. If the player with 5 points wins the point, the tiebreak continues and cannot be won on the next point, since no player will be two points better than his opponent. Since only one more game is played to determine the winner of the set, the score of the set is always 7-6 (or 6-7). Sometimes the tiebreak points are also included, for example 7-6 (7-4). Another way of listing the score of the tiebreak is to just list the loser's points. For example, if the score is listed as 7-6 (8), the tiebreak score was 10-8 (since 8 is the loser's points, and the winner must win by two points).

The player who would normally be serving after 6-6 is the one to serve first in the tiebreak, and the tiebreak is considered a service game for this player. The server begins his service from the deuce court and serves one point. After the first point, the serve changes to the first server's opponent. Each player then serves two consecutive points for the remainder of the tiebreak. Furthermore, the first of each two-point service starts from the server's advantage court and ends in the deuce court. After every six points, the players switch ends of the court. At the end of the tiebreak, the players switch ends of the court again, since the set score is always odd (13 games).

An alternative tie-break system called the Coman tie-break is sometimes used by the United States Tennis Association. Scoring is the same, but end changes take place after the first game and then after every four games. This approach allows the servers to continue serving from the same end of the court as during the body of the set.

History of the tiebreak

The tiebreak was invented by James Van Alen in 1965 after an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to speed up the game by the use of his so-called Van Alen Streamlined Scoring System (VASSS). For two years before the Open Era, in 1955 and 1956, the United States Pro Championship in Cleveland, Ohio was played by VASSS rules. The scoring was the same as that in table tennis, with sets played to 21 points and players alternating 5 services, with no second service. The rules were partially created in order to limit the effectiveness of the powerful service of the reigning professional champion, Pancho Gonzales. Even with the new rules, however, Gonzales beat Pancho Segura in the finals of both tournaments. Even though the 1955 match went to 5 sets, with Gonzales barely holding on to win the last one 21-19, apparently it took only 47 minutes to play. The fans attending the matches preferred the traditional rules, however, and in 1957 the tournament reverted to the old method of scoring.

The tiebreak was then invented by Van Alen in 1965 and was introduced at the United States Open in 1970 after a successful trial period at Newport, Rhode Island. Originally, the winner of the tiebreak was the first player to reach five points, and there was no requirement that someone win by two points.

Impetus to use the tiebreak gained force after a monumental 1969 struggle at Wimbledon between Pancho Gonzales and Charlie Pasarell. This was a 5-set match that lasted five hours and 12 minutes and took 2 days to complete. In the fifth set the 41-year-old Gonzales won all seven match points that Pasarell had against him, twice coming back from 0-40 deficits. The final score was 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9.

In 1971 the tiebreak was introduced at Wimbledon when the score in any set except the final set reached 8-8 in games.

In 1979 the tiebreak was changed to be in effect when any set reached 6-6 in games, except the final set.

Scoring the match

Most matches consist of an odd number of sets, the match winner being the player who wins more than half of the sets. The match ends as soon as this winning condition is met. Men's singles matches may consist of five sets (the winner being the first to win three sets), while most women's matches are three sets (the winner being the first to win two sets).

While the alternation of service between games continues throughout the match without regard to sets, the ends are changed after each odd game within a set (including the last game). If, for example, the second set of a match ends with the score at 6-3, 1-6, the ends are changed as the last game played was the 7th (odd) game of the set and in spite of it being the 16th (even) game of the match. Notably in such situations where a set ends with an odd game, back to back games see change of ends i.e. ends are changed before and after the first game of the following set. A tie-breaker game is treated as a single game for the purposes of this alternation. Since tie-breakers always result in a score of 7-6, there is always a court change after the tie-breaker.

The score of a complete match may be given simply by sets won, or with the scores of each set given separately. In either case, the match winner's score is stated first. In the former, shorter form, a match might be listed as 3-1 (i.e. three sets to one). In the latter form, this same match might be further described as "7-5 6-7 (4) 6-4 7-6 (6)". This match was won three sets to one, with the match loser winning the second set on a tie-breaker. The numbers in parentheses, normally included in printed scorelines but omitted when spoken, indicate the duration of the tiebreaker following a given set, and specify the number of points that the loser of the tiebreaker won. Here, the match winner lost the second-set tiebreaker 7-4, and won the fourth-set tiebreaker 8-6.

Total points scored

Tennis scoring game by game leads to the surprising fact that a player may lose a match despite winning the majority of points or games played.

Consider a player who wins six games in each of two sets, all by a score of game-30. The winner has scored 4x12 = 48 points and the loser 2x12 = 24. Suppose also that the loser wins four games in each set, all by a score of game-love. The loser has scored 4x8 = 32 points and the winner zero in those games. The final score is a win by 6-4, 6-4; total points 48-56. It is also possible to win more games, but lose the match, e.g. 6-4, 0-6, 6-4.

Announcing the score

If there is no umpire to announce the score of a match, there is a specific protocol for stating the score. During a game, the server has the responsibility to announce the game score before he serves. He does this by announcing his score first. If, for example, the server loses the first three points of his service game, he will serve from the advantage court. (Please note that in any given game, considering tiebreak games as well, a serving player always serves to the deuce court when the number of points played out so far in that game is an even number, and to the advantage court when it's an odd number.) The server would say, "Love, forty." This convention is used consistently. After a set is complete, the server, before serving for the first game of the next set, announces the set scores so far completed in the match, stating his scores first. If he has won the first two sets and is beginning the third, he would say, "Two, love, new set." If he had lost the first two sets, he would say, "Love, two, new set." Finally, after the completion of the match, either player, when asked the score, announces his scores first. For example, if a player says the score of his match was 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, he won the first set but lost the next two to lose the match.

Announcing the score in different languages

Language	0	15	30	40	40-40	A	X-X
English	love1	fifteen	thirty	forty	deuce	advantage	(X)-all
French	zéro	quinze	trente	quarante	égalité 2	avantage	(X)-à
Croatian	ništa	petnaest	trideset	četrdeset	izjednačenje	prednost	(X)-oba (single)/svi (double)
German	null	fünfzehn	dreißig	vierzig	Einstand	Vorteil	(X)-beide
Spanish	cero	quince	treinta	cuarenta	iguales	ventaja	(X)-iguales
Swedish	noll	femton	trettio	fyrtio	lika	fördel	a (X)
Danish	nul	femten	tredive	fyrre	lige	fordel	a (X)
Portuguese	zero	quinze	trinta	quarenta	iguais	vantagem	(X)-igual
Italian	zero	quindici	trenta	quaranta	parità	vantaggio	(X)-pari
Polish	zero	piętnaście	trzydzieści	czterdzieści	równownaga	przewaga	po (X)
Hungarian	semmi3	tizenöt	harminc	negyven	egyenlő	előny	(X)-mind4
Dutch	nul	vijftien	dertig	veertig	gelijk	voordeel	(X)-gelijk

¹ In English, a tie-break score of 0 is announced as "zero".
² At the French Open the first deuce is announced as "quarante-à".
³ In Hungarian, a tie-break score of 0 is announced as "nulla".
⁴ Formerly "(X)-egyenlő" was also used but "(X)-mind" is stated in nowadays' rules.

Alternative game scoring

Some tennis matches or leagues employ "No-Ad" scoring. Each game proceeds as in regular tennis scoring, but if the score reaches deuce, then the winner of the next point, the seventh in the game, wins the game. The receiver, or receiving team in doubles, selects which court to receive in, with the exception of mixed doubles (in which the receiver of the same gender as the current server always receives). No-ad scoring is most notably used in World Team Tennis, and in many recreational leagues, and some Major Mixed doubles events. The primary reason for using no-ad scoring is to speed up play, and it is often used in conjunction with an early tiebreaker (at 4-4, rather than 6-6).

In most doubles tennis, the third set is replaced by a "match tiebreak". This is played with rules similar to the standard tiebreak, with the exception that a minimum of 10 points must be won. Notably, the international Davis Cup tournament for men still uses 5-set doubles matches. These rules are not used in ATP or WTA tour singles events, though the junior singles events at Wimbledon used these rules in 2007.

References

Faulkner, Trish & Lemelman, Vivian, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tennis. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1999.