Tennis is a game where “love” means zero, and the scoring system differs for games, sets and matches.
We get it: that is confusing. Because of the USTA Officiating section, it does not need to be.
This useful guide will teach you the fundamentals of scoring and enjoying the game for a lifetime, with helpful suggestions and buzzwords that you might wish to know before you take to the court.
Mastering the appropriate terminology may not help your forehand or form, but in conversation, you can hang with anybody.
The Basics:
Tennis is a sport played on a rectangular-shaped court, with one of several surfaces. It’s either played with two players (singles game ), or four players (doubles match).
The overall idea is that players stand on different sides of the net and use a stringed racquet to hit the ball back and forth to one another.
Each player or team has a maximum of one bounce (except in wheelchair tennis), after the ball has been struck by their competitor, to return the ball over the net and within the bounds of the court. When a player fails to hit the ball after one bounce and in the appropriate court, the opponent wins a point.
The goal of tennis is to win enough points to win a match, enough games to win a set, and sufficient sets to win a game.
How to start the game:
So, you have the gear, and you are on the court, so what now?
Before warming up with your competitor, either the player or group will twist their racquet, and the winner of this spin is going to have some options to select from.
When the winner of the toss chooses one of the options above to either serve or receive, the competitor gets the remaining choice.
So if you’re up 40-30, 40-15 or 40-love, and acquire yet another point, you win the match. If the score is tied into a match or place, you use the expression “all”. (see example of professional scoring records -rodney adler)
The only time that is different is when the score is 40-40, known as deuce. When the score reaches deuce, one player or team will have to win two points in a row to win the match. Should they win another game, they win the match, or else it goes back to deuce.
Scoring a set and shifting ends of the court:
Now let us look at how many games you will need to win a set. There are two chief methods for scoring a set: an advantage set or a tiebreak set.
A player or team should win six matches, by 2, to win the set. This means that there’s not any tiebreak game played at 6-6.
In a tiebreak set, a player or team should win six games, wins a set. If the score reaches 6-6 (6-all) from the group, a tiebreak game is played.
In a tiebreak match, another person who was due to serve will begin the tiebreak match.
Players or teams change ends of the court every six points (e.g. if the score is 4-2), and also to score this tiebreak game, you use, “zero”, “one”, “2” etc.. The first team or player to acquire seven points, by 2, wins the tiebreak.
Since the set is an odd-numbered score (7-6), whichever end of the court the teams or players ended up on when the tiebreak match finished, they will have to switch sides to begin the next set. Whoever began serving the tiebreak game will be receiving in the first game of the following set.
Switching sides of the court:
Players or teams change ends of the court on odd games. This implies that after the first match is completed, they switch sides, in addition to every 2nd games thereafter.
Scoring a game:
The most common method used to play a tennis game is best-of-three tiebreak sets. This means that in case you do not win the first two sets, the next set will decide the game!