How To Keep Score In Tennis

If you’re totally confused about how to keep score in tennis, then you’ve come to the right place. It’s arguably one of the oddest scoring systems in mainstream sports, but also one of the most unique and quirky systems that you’ll likely come to appreciate as a member of the tennis community.

Stick with me for a few minutes and you’ll have it mastered in no time at all.

The Tennis Scoring System

For me, I’ve always found it easiest to explain by starting broad and working my way down to the specifics.

First off, when you step out on the court to play tennis against an opponent it’s referred to as a match. For comparison’s sake, the word “match” is equivalent to the word “game” in football, baseball or basketball. So when you tell your friends that you’re going to watch a friend play tennis, please don’t say, “I’m going to watch my friend’s tennis game.” Instead, make sure you refer to it as a “match,” unless you want to sound like a complete noob.

Typically a tennis match is played as best of 3 sets, which simply means the first person that wins to 2 sets wins the match. This is the most common format, however some professional men’s tennis tournaments, such as the US Open, are played as best of 5, or the first person that wins 3 sets wins the match.

Each set is played to 6 games, however, you must win by 2. If you end up tied at 6, you play a tiebreaker (we’ll cover this in a bit). Within each tennis game, there are a bunch of unique point values.

Quick review:

• When you play tennis against an opponent, it’s called a match
• A match is played as best of 3 sets (or in some cases best of 5)
• Each set is played to 6 games, but you must win by 2 (if tied at 6 you play a tiebreaker)

Now let’s get into the specifics about each individual game that is played in tennis.

Point Values In A Tennis Game

To simplify, each game in tennis is played to 3 points, but just like a set, you must win by two. The confusing part for most new tennis players is that we don’t simply use the point values such as 0,1,2,3… instead, we assign special point values:

• 0 points = Love
• 1 point = 15
• 2 points = 30
• 3 points = 40
• Tied at 1 point = 15 all
• Tied at 2 points = 30 all
• Tied at 3 points = Deuce

That covers the basics, but there’s also what’s referred to as “ad scoring” when you get to deuce, so let’s run through this as if you were serving:

• Deuce and you win a point, then the score is “ad in” (short for advantage in)
• Ad in and you win the next point, then you win the game
• Ad in and you lose the next point, then the score goes back to “deuce”
• Deuce and your opponent wins a point, then the score is “ad out” (short for advantage out)
• Ad out and your opponent wins the next point, then your opponent wins the game
• Ad out and you win the next point, then the score goes back to deuce

Remember, the above “ad scoring” is from the perspective of YOU serving and it would be flipped if your opponent was serving.

It’s also important to note that the server always calls their points out first before every point. So, for example, if you’re serving and you win a point, the score is 15/Love. This is key to remember and it’s one of the minor details that tend to get beginners tripped up, especially when they’re watching a tennis match and trying to follow along.

If you’re still scratching your head a bit, don’t worry, it’s confusing at first. Let’s walk through an example to clear things up.

An Example Tennis Game

Here’s an example tennis game where you’re serving.

• Before you serve the first point of the game
  – If it’s the very first point of the match, you don’t need to call out any points. There’s no such thing as “Love/All” in tennis.
  – If it’s the first point and you’ve already played a game(s), then you call out the score in games. For example, say you’ve played 3 games and you won 2 and your opponent won 1. You’d say “2 to 1.”
• You win the first point of the game
  – The score is now “15/Love”
• You win the following point
  – The score is now “30/Love”
• Your opponent wins the following 2 points
  – The score is now “30/All”
• You win the next point
  – The score is now “40/30”
• Your opponent wins the next point
  – The score is now “Deuce”
• You win the next point
  – The score is now “Ad In”
• Your opponent wins the next point
  – The score is now back to “Deuce”
• You win the next point
  – The score is now back to “Ad In”
• You win the next point
  – The game is over, no need to call out any points

Playing A Tiebreaker

Now that you have a good handle on how an individual game (which is part of a set) is played in a tennis match, let’s talk about tiebreakers. If you’re playing a set, remember that it’s first to 6 games, and you must win by 2. However, if you tie the score at 6 games apiece, or 6/All, you’re going to need to play a tiebreaker to determine who wins the set.

The best way to think about a tiebreaker is that it’s simply an extended game with more points. The odd part here is that we’re going to go ahead and break all the scoring rules I just taught you. That is, instead of using love, 15, 30, 40, Deuce, Ad In and Ad Out, we’re now going to use simple point values, i.e. 0,1,2,3… In addition, instead of first to 3 points, win by 2 like a normal game, a tiebreaker is first to 7 points, win by 2.

Let’s take a look at another example:

• You serve the first point of the tiebreaker
  – It’s 0-0, but again there’s no need to call this score out… it’s assumed
• You win 5 points in a row
  – The score is 5/0
• You win the next point
  – The score is now 6/0
• Your opponent wins 6 points in a row
  – The score is now 6/6
• You win the next point
  – The score is now 7/6 (not over yet, remember you have to win by 2)
• Your opponent wins the next point
  – The score is now 7/7
• You win the next 2 points
  – The game is over and the score is 9-7

There you have it! At first glance, tennis scoring can seem ridiculously confusing, but hopefully, after breaking it down you’ve started to master it.

If you’re looking to get even more comfortable with how to keep score in tennis I recommend playing as much as possible and watch as much tennis as you can. There’s no better way to learn then to just get out there and do it, so what are you waiting for?

Sill have questions? Feel free to post a comment, I’d love to help clear things up.

(Photo Credit: Flickr – Johnny Lucas)

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