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A tennis match is composed of points, games, and sets. A match is won as soon as a player or doubles pair wins the majority of prescribed sets, or reaches the prescribed total points in a tiebreak (usually extended if the total is reached without a two-point advantage).

Traditionally, a match is the best of three sets (or five for men in a top-level tournament such as a Grand Slam, Davis Cup, or second-tier final). Doubles matches now commonly consist of two sets and, if required, a Match Tiebreak to ten points (or more as required to win by a two-point margin). Tennis scoring rests on the premise that serving is advantageous over receiving, hence it is only possible to win a set or match by 'breaking' (winning) the opponent's service game at least once, before a tiebreak is required. Likewise, it is not possible to win a tiebreak without winning at least one point during an opponent's turn at serve (called a 'mini-break').

Contents 1 Scoring a game 1.1 Alternative game scoring 2 Scoring a set 2.1 Scoring a tiebreak game 2.2 History of the tiebreak 3 Scoring the match 3.1 Total points won 3.2 Total games won 4 Announcing the score 4.1 Announcing the score in different languages 5 Notes 6 References

[edit] Scoring a game

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving, and is won by the first player (or side) 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. In other words, in the first point the server serves from the right-hand side of the court into the left-hand side (from his or her point of view) of the opponents' court.

The running score in each game is described in a manner unique to tennis. Scores of zero to three points are described as "love" (or "zero"), "15", "30", and "40", respectively. The origins of the 15, 30, and 40 scores are believed to be medieval French^{[citation needed]}. It is possible that a clock face was used on court, with a quarter move of the hand to indicate a score of 15, 30, and 45. When the hand moved to 60, the game was over. However, it was realized that the game could then be won by luck, so the idea of "deuce" was introduced. To make the score stay within the ""60"" ticks on the clock face, the 45 was changed to 40. Therefore, if both players have 40, the first player to score receives ten and that moves the clock to 50. If the player scores a second time before the opponent is able to score, they are awarded another ten and the clock moves to 60. The 60 signifies the end of the game. However, if a player fails to score twice in a row, then the clock would move back to 40 to establish another "deuce"^[1].

Another theory is that the scoring nomenclature came from the French game jeu de paume (a precursor to tennis that substituted the racquet for a hand). Jeu de paume was very popular before the French revolution, with more than 1,000 courts in Paris alone. The traditional court was 90 ft in total with 45 ft on each side. When the server scored, he/she moved forward 15 ft. If he/she scored again, he/she would move another 15 ft. If he/she scored a third time, he/she could only move 10 ft closer.^{[citation needed]}

The origin of the use of "love" for zero is also disputed; it is possible that it derives from the French word for the egg (l'œuf) because an egg looks like the number zero. "Love" is also said to derive from "l'heure" or "the hour" (more likely to be translated as "the time") 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'.^[2]

If each player has won three points, the score is described as "deuce" (from French deux meaning two [more points]) rather than "40-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 may be stated by him before the next point as "advantage in." When the server's opponent has the advantage, the server may state the score as "advantage out." These phrases are sometimes shortened to "ad in" and "ad out." Alternatively, the server may simply use players' names; in professional tournaments the umpire announces the score in this format (e.g., "advantage McEnroe" or "advantage Borg").

Note that except when the "No-Ad" scoring variant (see below) is in use, a score of "30-all" is functionally equivalent to "deuce", and "40-30" is equivalent to "advantage". These equivalences are not used in a professional match where the judge states the score. A score of "30-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 judge, or by the server if there is no judge. When stating the score, the server's score is stated first. If the server (or the judge) announces the score as "30-love," for example, it means that the server has won two points and the receiver none.

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] Scoring a set

A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating from one player (or side) 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 judge 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. Players of the receiving team receive the serve on alternating points, however, except that in mixed doubles the player who is of the same sex as the server will always receive.

The set is won by the first player (or team) 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 no maximum number of games. 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. (When the tiebreak was first introduced in 1971, it was invoked at 8–8 rather than 6–6.)

[edit] 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. 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 list only 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. The first of each two-point service starts from the server's advantage court and the second starts from the deuce court. In this way, the sum of the scores is even when the server serves from 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 point and then after every four points. This approach allows the servers of doubles teams to continue serving from the same end of the court as during the body of the set.

[edit] 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 created partially 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.^[3] The fans attending the matches preferred the traditional rules, however, and in 1957 the tournament reverted to the old method of scoring.

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.

[edit] Scoring the match

Most singles 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 and doubles matches may consist of up to five sets (the winner being the first to take the majority of total allocated sets) while women's singles matches are usually best of three sets. Doubles matches (including mixed doubles) are usually best of three sets, with a Super Tiebreak to ten points played if the score reaches a set all.

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 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 tiebreaker game is treated as a single game for the purposes of this alternation. Since tiebreakers always result in a score of 7-6, there is always a court change after the tiebreaker.

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 (7–4), 6–4, 7–6 (8–6)". (As noted above, an alternate form of writing the tiebreak score lists only the loser's score—e.g., "6–7 (4)" for the second set in the example.) This match was won three sets to one, with the match loser winning the second set on a tiebreaker. The numbers in parentheses, normally included in printed scorelines but omitted when spoken, indicate the duration of the tiebreaker following a given set. Here, the match winner lost the second-set tiebreaker 7–4 and won the fourth-set tiebreaker 8–6.

[edit] Total points won

Because tennis is scored set by set and game by game, a player may lose a match despite winning the majority of points and/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.

[edit] Total games won

Likewise, a player may lose a match despite winning the majority of games played (or win a match despite losing the majority of games). Roger Federer won the 2009 Wimbledon final over Andy Roddick (5–7, 7–6 (8–6), 7–6 (7–5), 3–6, 16–14) despite Roddick's winning more games (39, versus Federer's 38).

[edit] Announcing the score

If there is no judge 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. (In any game, including tiebreak games, 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 is an odd number.) The server would say, "Love, 40." 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.

[edit] Announcing the score in different languages

Language	0	15	30	40	40-40	A	X-X
English	love1,6	fifteen (sometimes informally shortened to "five")	thirty	forty	deuce	advantage	(X)-all
French	zéro	quinze	trente	quarante	égalité 2	avantage	(X)-à
Spanish	cero	quince	treinta	cuarenta	iguales	ventaja	(X)-iguales
Portuguese	zero	quinze	trinta	quarenta	iguais	vantagem	(X)-iguais
German	null	fünfzehn	dreißig	vierzig	Einstand	Vorteil	(X)-beide
Italian	zero	quindici	trenta	quaranta	parità	vantaggio	(X)-pari
Polish	zero	piętnaście	trzydzieści	czterdzieści	równowaga	przewaga	po (X)
Romanian	zero	cincisprezece	treizeci	patruzeci	egalitate	avantaj	(X)-egal
Serbian/Croatian	ništa	petnaest	trideset	četrdeset	izjednačenje	prednost	(X)-oba (singles)/svi (doubles)
Dutch	nul	vijftien	dertig	veertig	gelijk[4]	voordeel	(X)-gelijk
Hungarian	semmi3	tizenöt	harminc	negyven	egyenlő	előny	(X)-mind4
Czech	nula	patnáct	třicet	čtyřicet	shoda	výhoda	(X) oba
Hebrew5	אפס ('Efes)	חמש עשרה (Chamesh 'esre)	שלושים (Shloshim)	ארבעים (Arba'im)	שוויון (Shivyon)	יתרון (Yitaron)	(X)-לכל (Lakol)
Swedish	noll	femton	trettio	fyrtio	lika	fördel	(X) lika
Danish	nul	femten	tredive	fyrre	lige	fordel	a (X)
Tiếng Việt	Không	Mười lăm	Ba mươi	Bốn mươi	Bốn mươi đều	Lợi thế	(X)-All
Japanese	rabu (ラブ?)	fifutīn (フィフティーン?)	sātī (サーティー?)	fōtī (フォーティー?)	dyūsu (デュース?)	adobantēji (アドバンテージ?)	(X)-ōru ((X)-オール?)
Russian5	ноль (nol')	пятнадцать (pyatnadtsat')	тридцать (tridtsat')	сорок (sorok)	ровно (rovno)	больше (bol'she) for ad-in, меньше (men'she) for ad-out	по (X) (po (X))
Turkish	sıfır	on beş	otuz	kırk	berabere	avantaj	(X)-(X)

¹ In English, a tiebreak score of 0 is announced as "zero".
² At the French Open the first deuce is announced as "quarante-à".
³ In Hungarian, a tiebreak score of 0 is announced as "nulla".
⁴ Formerly "(X)-egyenlő" was also used but "(X)-mind" is stated in current rules.
⁵ Phonetic pronunciation in parenthesis.
⁶ This may derive from the informal French expression "l'œuf" (the egg) for 0.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

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