When a match starts, one player begins the points by serving for a whole game. Two or three sets wins the match, depending upon the format. 6 games give them a set, but they must have a 2-game lead.Ī ‘tie-break’ game is played at 6-6. In that case, they would need to win two successive points to win the game. If a player wins the next point when they are on 40, they score 1 game – but only if their opponent is not on 40 too. In brief, within each game scores increase from 0 to 15 to 30 to 40 as points are won. So how do we read the scores in a tennis match? Whatever the real reason is, the quirky and archaic scoring system seems to be here to stay. Some have suggested that the scores represent positions on a clock face, whilst others believe that they represent how far you were allowed to move forward into the court when serving in a precursor of the modern game. There is a lot of debate as to the origin of the tennis scoring system.

In tennis, whilst all points are in truth worth the same, they are not represented by the addition of a consistent number to the scoreboard. In most racquet sports, one point is awarded when a rally is won. In almost every other sport there is a consistent number of points awarded for a particular method of scoring. For someone who is not familiar with the game, the scoring system used in tennis must seem very strange.