Tennis Talk

A common tennis saying is game, set, match! When scoring a game of tennis, there are scores for games and scores for sets. There are doubles and singles teams that generally play a total of 6 games. However, that player or team must be ahead of the other side by 2 games. A tie break will happen if both sides reach 6 games won each.

Players win a match when that player or team wins the majority of sets played. When it comes to winning points, there is a different kind of scoring system. Zero points is called “love”, both teams start off at love. Once the ball is served, the players will hit it back and forth until a ball is missed, hit too far, or hit into the net.

Once a team wins the first point, the score is then 15-love. If the other team were to score on the team with 15 points already, the score would then be 15-all. The next point to be won goes from 15 to 30. After 30 comes 40 and after someone gains another point, the game is won. However, if both teams happened to have the same score of 40-40, then that is called a deuce. If the teams reach a deuce, one player or doubles team must get two points ahead of the other side to win the game. The side to win the next point after a deuce has “advantage”. If that side loses the point then the score goes back to deuce. If that side were to score a point after having the advantage, then the game is over and they win.