Understand tennis scoring: games, sets and tiebreaks

As short as possible: Tennis is scored in three layers: points make games, games make sets, and sets make a match. In a game the points go love (0-0), 15, 30, 40 and game, and if both players reach 40 it's deuce, after which you need to win two points in a row.

The first player to win six games wins the set, as long as they're two games ahead. At 6-6 most sets are settled by a tiebreak, the first to seven points with a two-point lead.

Most matches are best of three sets; mens singles at the Grand Slams are best of five.

Those are the rules in the ITF Rules of Tennis, the rulebook every national federation and tour builds on. The big change most tennis fans noticed recently came in March 2022, when the four Grand Slams agreed on a single way to finish a deciding set: at 6-6 in the final set, the players now play a tiebreak to 10 points, reported by AP. Before that, each Slam did something different.

Let's take a look at set and a tiebreak (the 7-point and 10-point tiebreaks), when players change ends, the shorter formats you might see in clubs and pickup matches.

How a game is scored

Each game is played with one player serving the whole game. The score is always called with the server's score first, so "30-15" means the server has two points and the receiver has one. Zero is called "love".

Here's a game where the server wins the first point, loses the second, and then wins two in a row. The calls go "15-love", "15-all", "30-15", "40-15", and then "game". If the receiver had won that fourth point instead, the score would have been "40-30", and the server would need one more point to close it out.

You need 4 points to win a game, but you must also be at least two points ahead. That's where deuce comes in.

Deuce and advantage

If both players win three points, the score is 40-40, which is called deuce. From deuce, the player who wins the next point has the advantage. Win the point after that and you win the game; lose it and you're back to deuce. In other words, after deuce you need two points in a row.

When the server has the advantage, it's usually called "advantage in" or "ad in"; when the receiver has it, "advantage out" or "ad out". Umpires say "advantage" followed by the player's name. A game can go back and forth through deuce many times, which is why some games last ten minutes and others one.

Many club leagues and junior events skip the advantage altogether and play a single deciding point at deuce. We explain this no-ad format below.

How a set is scored

Players take turns serving, one game each. The first player to win six games wins the set, provided they're two games ahead, so 6-4 ends a set but 6-5 doesn't. At 6-5, the leader can win the set 7-5. If the trailing player levels at 6-6, the set goes to a tiebreak in most events.

The ITF rules call this a tiebreak set. The older alternative, an advantage set, has no tiebreak: play continues until someone is two games clear, which is how sets like 70-68 happen. The famous example is John Isner against Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, which ran for more than 11 hours over three days. Today almost every event uses tiebreak sets, and the rules say the format, including how the final set ends, must be announced before the event.

How a tiebreak works

A tiebreak is a single special game played at 6-6. Points are counted simply, 1, 2, 3 and so on, instead of 15, 30, 40. The first player to seven points wins the tiebreak and the set, as long as they're two points ahead. If it reaches 6-6 in the tiebreak, play continues until someone leads by two, so 8-6, 9-7 or 12-10 are all possible. The set is recorded as 7-6.

The serving pattern is what confuses most people. The player whose turn it is to serve serves the first point only, from the right side (the deuce court). After that, each player serves two points in a row, starting from the left side and then the right. Players change ends after every six points, which often falls between the two serves of the same player. Who served first in the tiebreak receives in the first game of the next set.

A tiebreak point by point

Say Anna and Ben reach 6-6 and it's Anna's turn to serve. Anna serves point 1 from the right. Ben serves points 2 and 3, from the left and then the right. Anna serves points 4 and 5, and Ben serves point 6 from the left. Now six points have been played, so they change ends, and Ben serves point 7 from the right at the other end. Anna serves points 8 and 9, Ben 10 and 11, and so on. If the score reaches 6-6 in the tiebreak, they change ends again after point 12 and keep going until one of them leads by two.

In club matches the server usually calls the tiebreak score with their own points first, just like in a normal game. If Ben wins the tiebreak 7-4, the set goes in the book as 7-6 to Ben, often written with the tiebreak score in brackets: 7-6 (7-4).

Is a tiebreak to 7 or 10?

Both exist, and they're used in different places. The standard tiebreak at 6-6 in a set is first to 7 points, win by 2.

A 10-point tiebreak (first to 10, win by 2) is used in two situations. First, the Grand Slams use it at 6-6 in the final set, since 2022. Before that change, the Australian Open already played to 10, the US Open played a normal 7-point tiebreak, Wimbledon played a 7-point tiebreak only at 12-12, and Roland Garros had no final-set tiebreak at all, according to the AP report on the Grand Slam Board's decision.

Second, many events replace the whole third set with a 10-point tiebreak, called a match tiebreak or super tiebreak. When the sets are one each, the players take the usual set break and then play one first-to-10 tiebreak to decide the match. The ITF rules allow this, as well as a 7-point version, and it's common in doubles and in club and junior leagues. The serving pattern is the same as in a normal tiebreak and the original order of service continues.

How many sets are in a tennis match?

A match is either best of three sets, where you need two sets to win, or best of five, where you need three. Almost all professional and club tennis is best of three. Best of five survives mainly in men's singles at the four Grand Slams. Women's singles at the Slams are best of three.

So when you see a result like 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-5), the winner took the first and third sets and the match went the full three sets. A Grand Slam men's result such as 6-3 4-6 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 7-6 (10-8) went to five sets and finished with the 10-point final-set tiebreak.

When do players change ends?

Players change ends after the first game of each set and then after every odd game: the third, fifth, seventh and so on. So if you lose track, a quick check is the total number of games played in the set: after an odd total, you change.

At the end of a set, they change ends only if the set had an odd number of games, such as 6-3 (nine games). After an even set, such as 6-4, they stay where they are for the first game of the next set and change after it. In a tiebreak they change after every six points, as we described above. The ITF also lists an approved alternative, changing after the first point and then every four points, which some events use.

Scoring formats you'll meet in club play and camps

Recreational tennis often uses shorter formats to fit a match into an hour or a court booking. They're all approved alternatives in the ITF rules, and once you know the standard system they're easy to pick up.

No-ad scoring removes advantage. At deuce, one deciding point is played, and the receiver chooses which side to receive on. In mixed doubles, the player of the same gender as the server receives the deciding point. Whoever wins it wins the game.

Short sets are played to four games instead of six, still two games clear, with a tiebreak at 4-4, or at 3-3 if the organiser decides so. They're common in junior tennis and in some doubles leagues.

The match tiebreak instead of a third set, described above, is probably the format you'll meet most often in league and social play. Combined with no-ad games, it makes match length much more predictable.

Coaches often use these formats in training on purpose. A match tiebreak trains you to start fast and handle pressure, and no-ad games make every deuce a big point. If you're not sure where your game sits for match play, our guide to tennis levels explained helps you find the right group.

Why is tennis scored 15, 30, 40, and why "love"?

Nobody knows for certain. The most common explanation is that scores were once shown on a clock face, moving a quarter of the way round for each point: 15, 30, 45 and then 60 for the game. In that story, 45 was later shortened to 40, perhaps because it was quicker to say, or to leave room on the clock for deuce. Another explanation links the numbers to the French game of jeu de paume, the ancestor of tennis, where references to scores like 15 and 45 appear in the 15th century. Neither theory is proven.

"Love" for zero has the same problem. A popular story says it comes from the French "l'oeuf", an egg, because of the shape of a zero. Another says it comes from the English phrase "playing for love", meaning for nothing. Both are guesses. What matters on court is that love means zero and that 40 is simply the third point.

How to keep score in your own match

Most club and camp matches have no umpire, so the players keep score themselves. The simplest habit is the one the rules already describe: the server calls the score, server's score first, loudly enough for the opponent to hear, before every first serve. It takes two seconds and prevents nearly every argument about the score.

A few more habits help. Say the game score when you change ends ("4-3 to me" or "3-4"), and at the start of a tiebreak agree who serves first and remember that you change ends after six points. If you lose track, go back to the last score you both agree on and replay from there. And if you're unsure which format you're playing, settle it before the warm-up: tiebreak at 6-6 or not, no-ad or advantage, and whether a third set is a full set or a match tiebreak.

Play your first matches with a coach

Scoring is easy to learn on paper and easier to learn on court. If you're new to the game, our beginner tennis programs in Spain combine technique with match play, so you learn to serve, keep score and play tiebreaks in real points with a coach watching.