Tennis Scoring Explained: Points, Games, Sets and Tiebreaks

Tennis scoring has three layers: points make games, games make sets, and sets make a match. The unusual names for points are what confuses newcomers. Once you know them, the rest is simple.

Points within a game

Points won	Called
0	Love
1	15
2	30
3	40
4	Game (if at least two points ahead)

The server's score is said first: "30–15" means the server has two points and the receiver one.

Deuce and advantage

At 40–40 the score is deuce. A player must then win two points in a row to take the game. Winning the next point gives advantage ("ad"): "ad-in" or "advantage server" if the server won it, "ad-out" if the receiver did. Win the following point and you win the game; lose it and the score goes back to deuce.

Games and sets

• A set is won by the first player to win six games, with a margin of at least two (6–4, 7–5).
• At 6–6, most sets are decided by a tiebreak.
• Players change ends after odd-numbered games.

The tiebreak

In a standard tiebreak, points are counted normally (1, 2, 3...). The first player to 7 points with a two-point lead wins the set 7–6. Serve alternates every two points after the first, and players change ends every six points.

Since 2022, all four Grand Slams play a 10-point tiebreak at 6–6 in the final set: first to 10, by two.

Matches

• Most matches are best of three sets.
• Men's singles at the Grand Slams are best of five.
• In many doubles events, a match tiebreak (first to 10) replaces the third set.

No-ad scoring

Used in college tennis and many doubles and recreational formats: at deuce, a single deciding point wins the game, which keeps matches shorter.

Why 15, 30, 40?

No one knows for certain. A popular theory says medieval scorers used a clock face, moving the hand to 15, 30 and 45, and 45 was later shortened to 40. "Love" for zero may come from the idea of playing for love rather than for stakes, or, according to another theory, from the French "l'œuf", egg, for its zero shape. Neither is proven.

Table tennis is different

Table tennis counts points simply: games are played to 11, by two, and matches are usually best of five or seven games.