Tennis scoring explained: points, games, sets and matches

Points: love, 15, 30, 40, game

Every game starts at zero for both players. Zero is called love. Each point you win moves you one step up the ladder below, and winning a point from 40 wins the game – as long as your opponent is not also on 40.

Equal scores below 40 are called “all”: 15–all, 30–all. Equal at 40 is never “40–all” in standard tennis – it is deuce.

A worked example: the server wins the first point (15–love), loses the next two (15–30), then wins two in a row (40–30). One more point for the server wins the game. If the receiver wins it instead, the score is 40–40 – deuce – and the game carries on.

A game won without the opponent scoring a point is a love game. When the receiver wins a game, the server has been broken, which is why a point that would give the receiver the game is called a break point.

Why is tennis scored 15, 30, 40?

Nobody knows for certain. The scoring is centuries old, and no surviving source explains where the numbers came from, so every explanation you will read is a theory.

The most popular one is the clock face. The idea is that a score was once kept on a dial with a hand moving a quarter of the way round per point: 15, 30, 45, and then 60 for the game. At some point 45 was supposedly shortened to 40, perhaps to make room for deuce or simply because “forty” is quicker to say. It is a tidy story, but it is not proven, and historians treat it as a guess rather than a fact.

The word love for zero has similar folklore. One common claim is that it comes from the French l’œuf, “the egg”, because an egg looks like a zero; another links it to playing “for love”, meaning for nothing. Neither is established.

What matters on court is simpler: the numbers are labels, not a running total. 40 is just “three points”, and the gaps between the labels mean nothing. Some formats for juniors and beginners use plain counting instead, but the traditional calls are what you will hear in nearly every club and on television.

Deuce, advantage and no-ad scoring

A game has to be won by two clear points. If both players reach 40, the score is deuce, and from there it works like this:

• Win the next point and you have advantage (“advantage server” or “advantage receiver”, often just “ad in” and “ad out”).
• Win the point after that too, and you win the game.
• Lose it, and the score goes back to deuce.

There is no limit. A game can go back to deuce as many times as it takes, which is why one long game can decide a tight set.

Example: at deuce, the receiver wins a point – advantage receiver, and that is a break point. The server saves it, back to deuce. The server then wins two in a row: advantage server, then game.

No-ad scoring (deciding point)

Many formats skip advantage altogether. Under no-ad scoring, the point played at deuce simply decides the game. Under the ITF’s no-ad method, the receiver (or the receiving team in doubles) chooses which side of the court to receive that point from. It is common in doubles, college tennis, leagues and social play because it keeps matches to a predictable length; whether it applies depends entirely on the event, so agree it before you start.

Padel players will know the same idea as the golden point – see the padel scoring guide for how it works there.

Games and sets: six games, win by two

A set is won by the first player to win six games with a lead of at least two. So 6–4 ends the set, but 6–5 does not: the set continues to 7–5, or to 6–6.

At 6–6, most sets are decided by a tiebreak. Points in a tiebreak are counted 1, 2, 3 rather than 15, 30, 40, and the first player to seven points with a two-point lead wins it. The set is then recorded as 7–6, often with the loser’s tiebreak points in brackets – for example 7–6 (5).

Tiebreaks have their own serving order and change of ends, which is where most scoring mistakes happen. Our tennis tiebreak rules guide walks through them point by point.

Some typical final set scores:

• 6–0: one player won every game.
• 6–4: a two-game margin, so the set ends there.
• 7–5: at 5–5, one player won the next two games.
• 7–6: the set went to a tiebreak.

Not every event uses a standard tiebreak in every set. Historically, some deciding sets were played as advantage sets, carrying on until someone led by two games, and some tournaments use a longer tiebreak in the deciding set. Shorter formats, such as sets to four games, also exist in junior and social tennis. If you are playing a league or tournament, check its rules rather than assuming.

Match formats: best of three, best of five, match tiebreak

A match is won by the first player to win a set number of sets:

• Best of three: first to two sets. The standard for most professional events, club matches and leagues.
• Best of five: first to three sets. Used in men’s singles at the Grand Slams and in some team competitions.
• One set: common for social games, round robins and when court time is short.

The match tiebreak

Many formats replace a full deciding set with a match tiebreak(sometimes called a super tiebreak or champions tiebreak). At one set all, the players play a single tiebreak to 10 points, win by two, and the winner takes the match. It counts as the final set and is usually written with its points, for example 6–4 3–6 [10–7].

It is widely used in professional doubles, in club and league play, and in many junior and senior events. Like no-ad scoring, it is a choice made by the organiser, not a universal rule.

Formats can also be combined. A typical club doubles match might be best of three sets with no-ad games and a match tiebreak instead of a third set – quick to play, and still fair to both sides.

How to call the score: server first

The golden rule: the server’s point score is always called first. In casual matches without an umpire, the server is expected to call the score clearly before each first serve, loud enough for the opponent to hear. It settles disagreements before they start.

Note that 40–15 and 15–40 are very different situations. In the first the server needs one point to hold; in the second the receiver needs one point to break.

For the games score, practice varies. Umpires typically announce the set score with the leading player first (“Smith leads 4–2”), while in social tennis many players call the server’s games first. Either is fine as long as everyone on court knows which convention you are using.

If you would rather not keep it all in your head, a tennis score keeper app such as Voleo lets you tap the side that won each point and tracks games, sets, tiebreaks, serve and change of ends with the right rules.

Serve rotation and changing ends

In singles, one player serves a whole game, then the other player serves the next game. Serve alternates game by game for the rest of the set.

Within a game, the first point is served from the right side of the baseline (the deuce court) into the opponent’s diagonal service box. The next point is served from the left (the ad court), and the server keeps alternating. A quick check: on an even number of points played – love–love, 15–15, 30–love, deuce – you serve from the right; on an odd number – 15–love, 40–30, advantage – from the left.

When to change ends

Players change ends after the first, third and every following odd game of each set. So you switch when the total number of games in the set is odd: at 1–0, 2–1, 3–2, 4–1 and so on.

At the end of a set, look at the total number of games in it. If it is odd (6–3, 6–1), change ends straight away. If it is even (6–4, 6–2), stay where you are and change after the first game of the next set.

Tiebreaks are the exception: players change ends after every six points. A tiebreak set counts as odd for this purpose, so ends change before the next set begins. The player who received first in the tiebreak serves first in the following set.

Getting this wrong is common and harmless – if you notice a mistake, correct it at once and carry on with the score as it stands.

Scoring in doubles: what changes

The scoring itself is identical in doubles: the same points, games, sets and tiebreaks. What changes is who serves and who receives.

• Serving order: the team serving first decides which partner serves the first game. The other team decides who serves the second game. The partner of the first server serves the third game, and so on, so all four players serve in rotation. Teams can choose a new order at the start of each set.
• Receiving order: each team decides which partner receives in the deuce court and which in the ad court, and keeps that arrangement for the whole set. Partners alternate receiving points, but they do not swap sides mid-set.
• The court: the doubles alleys (the tramlines) are in play during rallies, but not on the serve – a serve must still land in the singles service box.

Changing ends follows the same odd-game rule as singles. In a tiebreak, the serving rotation simply continues: each player serves in turn, two points at a time after the first.

Doubles is also where you are most likely to meet no-ad games and a match tiebreak instead of a third set. In mixed doubles under the ITF’s no-ad method, the player of the same gender as the server receives the deciding point.

Voleo supports singles and doubles, and an Apple Watch app for scoring from the wrist is on the way – the app itself has not launched yet.

Frequently asked questions