Tennis can be a thrilling sport to watch. It’s intense, super fast-paced, and the athleticism required to perfectly place a powerful overhead smash is simply staggering. The flip side: Unless you’ve played the game yourself, it can be pretty confusing to follow along. With terms like “love,” “deuce,” and “ace” casually tossed around, plus a scoring system that starts at 0 and for some reason maxes out at 40, it’s understandable if your brain faults out—you’ll appreciate that tennis pun later—trying to decipher it all.
To make the sport a little more approachable, we compiled an easy-to-digest guide on how tennis scoring actually works. With several big-stage competitions coming up, like Wimbledon in early July and the 2024 Paris Olympics shortly after, now’s the perfect time to study up.
Chances are, you’ve heard the phrase “game, set, match,” before. Well, guess what: It’s a tennis thing! These words describe the three phases of the sport.
Games come first, followed by sets, and, finally, matches. As the United States Tennis Association (USTA) explains it, the goal is to score enough points to win a game, then win enough games to win a set, and then win enough sets to win a match. Still with us? Good.
How do you score a point in tennis?
You’re going to need to score points if you want to win games. The good news is, there are a few different ways to get this done. One is if you hit the ball to your opponent, it lands within bounds of the court, and they fail to hit it back to you. This can be while you’re serving—if it completely whizzes by them and they can’t even get a racket on it, that’s called an “ace”—or just while you’re rallying, or hitting the ball back and forth. Other things that can score you a point: Your opponent misses the ball entirely, allows it to bounce more than once before hitting it back, or whacks the ball out of bounds.
You can also score a point if your opponent smashes a return into the net. But! If you hit back a shot, it glances the net, then bounces over and into bounds, that’s considered a good return. Point, you.
Another cool thing: You can actually score a point—and technically even win a game—without ever touching the ball. If your opponent biffs a serve, that’s called a “fault.” If they do it twice in a row, they’ve just committed a “double fault,” and you’ve scored the point.
How in the world do you keep track of these points?
For tennis tyros, the scoring system is one of the more befuddling aspects of the sport. But it’s actually pretty easy to digest once you learn a few basic terms. First of all, the scoring:
- Love = zero points
- 15 = first point
- 30 = second point
- 40 = third point
- Game = fourth point
The term “all” refers to a tied score. For example, if both players have scored one point each, you’d announce that as “15-all.” If both players have scored three points each (so, 40-40), you use the term “deuce.” Keep in mind: The score is announced with the server’s score mentioned first. So, 30-15, for example, means the server has scored two points and their opponent has earned one, while 15-30 indicates the reverse.
How do you win a game in tennis?
This is where it gets a little tricky. Looking at the score breakdown above, it appears the fourth point wins the game. And that’s true—sometimes.
Yes, a player must score at least four points to win a game. But if you’re at the point of deuce (so you and your opponent have scored three points each, making the score 40-40), then one player has to nab at least two points in a row to win, per USTA.
That’s when two other terms come into play: “ad-in” and “ad-out.” If you’re serving and you win the point after deuce, it’s ad-in (or your advantage). If you score another point while it’s ad-in, you win the game. Flip side: If you lose the deuce point, it’s ad-out, and if your opponent earns the next one after that, then they win the game.
Scoring two points in a row after deuce is a pretty smooth path to victory, but it doesn’t always shake out that way. If you bungle a point when it’s ad-in, it goes back to deuce. If your opponent scores a point next, it’s ad-out. If you fight back with a point after that? Well, then we’re back to deuce again. So the game continues…and continues, until either of you is able to net two points in a row.
Okay, but how do you actually win win?
Glad you asked! Like we mentioned, players need to win enough games to win a set, and then win enough sets to win the match overall.
How many games and sets are “enough”? When it comes to sets, players typically must nab at least six games by a margin of two in order to win a set. So if you’ve come out on top of your sixth game, while your opponent has only eeked out a victory in four or fewer, then you’ve taken the set.
One slight complicating factor, though: If both players each win six games in a set (6-6), then the set becomes a tiebreaker. The rules are slightly different here: A player must win at least seven points by a two-point margin or greater in order to win the tiebreaker and thus the set overall. If the score in a tiebreaker gets to 6-6, the player must nab two points in a row to win. (Tiebreak sets have a bit more nuance, too, depending on whether you’re playing singles or doubles or if you’re in certain big-name competitions. If you’re curious to know more, check out this handy guide from Olympics.com.)
Okay, so that takes care of games and sets. Which brings us to the final piece of the puzzle: the match.
A player needs to win two sets out of three, or three sets out of five, to win the match overall. Women in all the big-name tournaments compete for two sets out of three, and, in most cases, men do three sets out of five (though there are some exceptions—again, Olympics.com has more on these nuances.)
And that’s match point! (a.k.a, a wrap for this guide). While we couldn’t delve into all the little intricacies of tennis here, hopefully you now have a better basic grasp on how the sport works. One of the best ways to put your newfound knowledge to the test? Tune into all the exciting big-name competitions coming up—and liberally sprinkle some of these cool new tennis terms into your watch party.
SELF is your one-click source for all things Summer Olympics. Read our latest coverage of the Paris Games here.
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