Tennis scoring system
The tennis scoring system is a standard widespread method for scoring tennis matches, including pick-up games. Some tennis matches are played as part of a tournament, which may have various categories, such as singles and doubles. The great majority are organised as a single-elimination tournament, with competitors being eliminated after a single loss, and the overall winner being the last competitor without a loss. Optimally, such tournaments have a number of competitors equal to a power of two in order to fully fill out a single elimination bracket. In many professional and top-level amateur events, the brackets are seeded according to a recognised ranking system, in order to keep the best players in the field from facing each other until as late in the tournament as possible; additionally, if byes are necessary because of a less-than-full bracket, those byes in the first round are usually given to the highest-seeded competitors.
A tennis match is composed of points, games, and sets. A set consists of a number of games, which in turn each consist of points. A set is won by the first side to win six games, with a margin of at least two games over the other side. If the set is tied at six games each, a tiebreak is usually played to decide the set. A match is won when a player or a doubles team has won the majority of the prescribed number of sets. Matches employ either a best-of-three or best-of-five set format. The best-of-five set format is usually only used in the men's singles matches at Grand Slam tournaments.
Game score
Description
A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving. A game is won by the first side to win at least four points and have a margin of two points or more over their opponent. Normally, the server's score is always called first and the receiver's score second. Score calling in tennis is unusual in that each point has a corresponding call that is different from its point value. The current point score is announced orally before each point by the umpire, or by the server if there is no umpire.| Number of points won | Corresponding call |
| 0 | "love" |
| 1 | "15" |
| 2 | "30" |
| 3 | "40” |
| 4 | "game" |
For instance, if the server has won three points so far in the game, and the non-server has won one, the score is "40–15".
When both sides have won the same number of points within a given game—i.e., when each side has won one, or two, points—the score is described as "15–all" and "30–all", respectively. However, if each player has won three points, the score is called as "deuce", not "40–all". From that point on in the game, whenever the score is tied, it is described as "deuce" regardless of how many points have been played.
However, if the score is called in French, the first occurrence of "40–all" in a single game may be called as such. Thereafter, "deuce" is used for all other occurrences when the score returns to "40–all" within the same game.
In standard play, scoring beyond a "deuce" score, in which the players have scored three points each, requires that one player must get two points ahead in order to win the game. This type of tennis scoring is known as "advantage scoring". The side that wins the next point after deuce is said to have the advantage. If they lose the next point, the score is again deuce, since the score is tied. If the side with the advantage wins the next point, that side has won the game, since they have a lead of two points. When the server is the player with the advantage, the score may be called as "advantage in". When the server's opponent has the advantage, the score may be called as "advantage out". These phrases are sometimes shortened to "ad in" or "van in" and "ad out". Alternatively, the players' names can be used: in professional tournaments, the umpire announces the score in this format.
In the USTA rule book, there is the following comment: "'Zero', 'one', 'two', and 'three' may be substituted for 'Love', '15', '30', and '40'. This is particularly appropriate for matches with an inexperienced player or in which one player does not understand English."
History
The origins of the 15, 30, and 40 scores are believed to be medieval French. The earliest reference is in a ballad by Charles D'Orleans in 1435 which refers to quarante cinq, which gave rise to modern 40. In 1522, there is a sentence in Latin, "we are winning 30, we are winning 45". The first recorded theories about the origin of 15 were published in 1555 and 1579. However, the origins of this convention remain obscure.Some believe that clock faces were used to keep score on court, with a quarter move of the minute hand to indicate a score of 15, 30, and 45. When the hand moved to 60, the game was over. However, in order to ensure that the game could not be won by a one-point difference in players' scores, 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 had 40, the first player to score would receive ten, and that would move the clock to 50. If that player scored a second time in a row, they would be awarded another ten and the clock would move to 60, signifying the end of the game. However, if the player failed to score twice in a row, then the clock would move back to 40 to establish another "deuce".
Although this suggestion might sound attractive, the first reference to tennis scoring is in the 15th century, and at that time clocks measured only the hours. It was not until about 1690, when the more accurate pendulum escapement was invented, that clocks regularly had minute hands. Therefore, the concept of tennis scores originating from the clock face could not have come from medieval times.
However, the clock at the Wells Cathedral in England, which dates from 1386, had an inner dial with 60 minutes and a minute indicator and chimed every quarter hour. Likewise, the clock erected in 1389 at Rouen, France, chimed every fifteen minutes. By the end of the 14th century, the most advanced clocks would have marked minutes and chimed on the quarter hours. Clock faces like these would likely have been familiar to the English and French nobles by 1435 and 1522. It is not hard to imagine that they might have used a mock-up of a clock face to keep score, and that they would score by quarter hours since that is when the clocks chimed.
Another theory is that the scoring nomenclature came from the French game jeu de paume. Jeu de paume, now known in English as real tennis, was very popular before the French Revolution, with more than 1,000 courts in Paris alone. The traditional court was 90 feet in length with 45 feet on each side. The server moved 15 feet closer after scoring, another 15 feet after scoring again, and an additional 10 feet by scoring a third time. This theory also lacks plausibility, as multiple reliable sources indicate that there was no standard length for real tennis courts in medieval times nor indeed in the ensuing centuries.
More plausibly, the use of base 60 for counting, accounting and games has been used in many societies for thousands of years, including the use of Sexagesimal for counting in the very earliest civilisations, and the Carolingian monetary system used widely Europe between the 8th and 18th centuries. In medieval times, players and spectators regularly wagered on tennis, so alignment with the then prevailing money system is a likely cause of the game scoring system using 4 x 15 to achieve 60.
The use of "love" for zero probably derives from the phrase "playing for love", meaning "without stakes being wagered, for nothing". Another explanation is that it derives from the French expression for "the egg" because an egg looks like the number zero. This is similar to the origin of the term "duck" in cricket, supposedly from "duck's egg", referring to a batsman who has been called out without scoring a run. Another possibility comes from the Dutch expression iets voor lof doen, which means to do something for praise, implying no monetary stakes. Another theory on the origins of the use of "love" comes from the notion that, at the start of any match, when scores are at zero, players still have "love for each other".
Alternative ("no-ad") game scoring
A popular alternative to advantage scoring, nowadays used at exhibition matches as well as professional tournaments in doubles, is the "no-advantage" or "no-ad" scoring, created by James Van Alen in order to shorten match playing time. No-advantage scoring is a method in which the first player to reach four points wins the game in all circumstances. No-ad scoring eliminates the requirement that a player must win by two points after a tie. Therefore, if the game is tied at deuce, the next player to win a point wins the game. This method of scoring was used in most World TeamTennis matches. When this style of play is implemented, at deuce the receiver chooses from which side of the court he or she desires to return the serve. However, in no-ad mixed doubles play, each gender always serves to the same gender at game point and during the final point of tiebreaks.Handicap scoring
In the early 20th century, it was common for tournaments to have handicap events alongside the main events. In handicap events, the lesser-skilled player is given a certain number of points in each game. This is done so that players of different skill levels can have a competitive match. These handicaps consisted of two numbers separated by a period: "A.B", where "A" is the player's starting score and "B" is the number of games where the player receives an extra point.For example, a player with a handicap of "15.2" would start every game with a score of "15". In each series of six games, the player would also receive an extra point in two of the games. Therefore, they would start two out of every six games with "30" and the remaining four out of six games with "15".
These handicap ratings where a player receives points can be denoted with an "R" in front, where the "R" indicates the player is receiving points. It is also possible to have a handicap system where the player owes points due to being higher-skilled, in which case the same two-number system is also used. These owed handicaps are denoted with an "O" in front that is short for "owed".