What’s up the the tennis scoring system? You can have Love, 15, 30, 40, and then win a game. You have to win so many games to win a set. If that isn’t enough, you have to win so many sets before winning the match. When you finally win the match, that means you’ve won the game…I mean match. Confused? Not suprising.
In most other sports I can think of, winning a game simply means that. It’s over. We don’t keep playing games, sets, etc. When you win, you win! This topic has bugged me since I first learned about the scoring system.
Is tennis so easy that you have all that extra time to calculate how many points (more on that in a minute), games, sets, and matches you’ve won…before you actually win? You better bring your calculator to the court.
Love points? What the hell is that? Are tennis players too good for the word zero? In a basketball game the score starts out 0-0. The same for football, baseball, bowling, volleyball, and many others. Tennis has to be difficult and start out Love-Love. Why don’t we all just hug, kiss, and forget about playing tennis. Once you score a point (for lack of a better word), you are winning 15-Love. What happened to 1? After 15, comes 30, 40, and then you win the game. What makes the third point worth less than the first two? It’s not any easier to score that third point. Why isn’t the 4th point worth anything? Would it have been so hard to count from 0 to 4?
In basketball you get 1, 2, or 3 points, depending on difficulty of the shot. In baseball, you get 1 run each time a player rounds the bases safely. In bowling you get 1 point for each pin you knock down and bonuses for knocking all ten down. Gymnastics and figure skating are scored by judges on a scale of 0-10. I think tennis just pulled numbers out of a hat for their scoring system.
Seriously, what would be wrong with playing up to a certain number, like volleyball does. Play the best of three games up to 21 or some other number. Start the score at 0-0, not Love-Love, Angry-Angry, Scream-Scream, or anything else. Each time you score, you get 1 point, not 15 once and 10 another, just because you already were given 15 twice.
I’ve never played tennis, although it does look fun to play. Maybe if they could count like the rest of us, it would be a more inviting game. Then again, maybe tennis players don’t want everyone to start playing.
Nick Momrik 
LOVE IT ! Yeah, you just proved my point. Tennis is confusing and about all you can do is either bitch about the scoring or joke about it. Your wit and humor was satisfying to the point i shall look no further for my quest to understand what the heck is going on, why bother. I will just continue to watch Wimbledon and enjoy the hot guys running and grunting chasing a fuzzy little yellow ball around.
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Rod got much of it right. However, the word love comes from the French word l’oeuf, meaning egg. Used in the same sense that we refer to a big goose egg. Interestingly, while the English misprounced l’oeuf as love, the French eventually reverted to saying zero, while the English kept love.
The scoring is actually very easy to keep track of when you use the mental imagery of a clock face – 15, 30, 45, 60. And it would be easy to modify a sundial or clock at the side of the court for easy reference to both the game and set score.
This game was very popular in the French court. I believe Henry VIII of England was a fan – perhaps it was brought over by Anne Bolin’s crowd, much as Mary, Queen of Scots brought Golf to Scotland. Her use of young army officers (cadets) to carry her clubs lead to the term caddy.
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This has confused me even more and i play tennis!! It aint that hard you just hav to be bothered to learn it!!!!!
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Listen….regardless of the history of why tennis uses 15 instead of 1, or zero instead of love.
You need to look up the word “nominal.” You are confusing the scoring system with an actual numerical value. Let go; and understand that “fifteen” is a WORD, as well as a number…and in the case of tennis represents a point (along with thirty and forty). History does not give us a definite origin for the scoring system. However if you rap your head around this concept it becomes irrelevant.
serving 40-love or 3-0. Its still game point.
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”
Shakespeare
hope this helps
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i meant love instead of zero in my first sentence.
sorry.
cheers
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See, even you don’t understand it.
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Love in Tennis has nothing to do with emotions! It is a bastardization of the word ” L’ouf”, which is French for “egg”. Zero is the big goose-egg, so the french called it L’ouf, which we americanized into ‘Love’.
As far as the reason for the 15/30/40/game scoring system,
here’s what the British Lawn Tennis Association has to say….. “In the early days, both rackets scoring and tennis scoring were used for lawn tennis. A rackets scoring game comprised 15 aces, won by the server, who remained ‘hand in’ until the loss of a rally. Tennis scoring was adopted for the first Wimbledon Championships in 1877 and became the standard.
The origins of the 15, 30, 40 scores are thought to have medieval and French roots. It is possible a clock face was used on court, with a quarter move of the hand to indicate a score of 15, 30, and 45. When the hand moved to 60, the game was over. “
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Nick, I understand it very well…I was just drunk and had to correct a typo…but, i suspect that you actually get the concept and you are just ranting…to be honest its an amussing rant. Which is why everyone wants to impress you with the history behind it.
To Rich, you really seem to miss the concept of the question or responses. History is great, and people enjoy knowing it….but, it has little to do with making the scoring system less “confusing.” Again, call it one or fifteen….they are just words…they represent a point. You could call it farfignugen, but its still just a point.
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just re-read plantephillip’s comment from june 1st…a great insight into further understanding. I stand by my view for the basics on unerstanding individual points. but, phillips articulates very well the overall reasoning for how the game is played.
cheers
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I play tennis quite a bit and I know the scoring system well — but I still think it is non-intuitive and should be changed (such as no-ad scoring 1,2,3 etc). Do you know what really irritated me though? When I was playing doubles last weekend and also this weekend, some people were saying ‘five’ instead of ‘fifteen’! I asked them what the hell is ‘five’? They said it was a short way to say ‘fifteen’ — Wow that is annoying. I said to them: so why don’t you say ‘three’ for thirty or ‘four’ for forty?? They didn’t know why.
So here we see the spreading of another esoteric scoring term in the world of tennis.
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I can’t agree more, tennis scoring system is way too complicated. I’m put off by the scoring system to take up the game.
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“L’Oeuf” (the Egg) sounds like love. the egg being round. not to criptic. Just the English bastardising French.
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great comments. I thought about it but never had a good answer.
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you forgot to mention the whole “deuce and advantage” bs! forget the other scores being confusing, what’s up with having to win 2 other points if you’re tied at 40? why not just one?
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I have to agree tennis scoring system is difficult, that is why i have to say you done an ok job, but you could of done way better.
You left out the whole ”deuce and advantage” which it is a very big part of the scoring system,
if you wanted to explain it simply then you should of just said:
one must win:
– Four points to win a game
– Six games to win a set
– Two (or, more rarely, three) sets to win a match.
And To win a game you can have Love, 15, 30, 40 and then win the game or you may even go to Deuce and Advantage.
well i hope my comment hasnt upset you because you still did a very good job.
Thank you!
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I’m a freshman in highschool. and I use to want to eventually play tennis. and now that im in highschool we went straight to playing tennis and gym, and all I can say is WHAT THE FUCKING HELL. I got so pissed off today as a matter of fact, 2 people on one court and someone who was obviously better than me as a partner, and I just sat there on the top line by the net, sick, and i attempted somewhat to play, i hit the ball when it comes right to me, and i get ” why would you do that?!?!” and then they complain when im not hitting the ball. What the fuck
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To answer your question, the use of ‘advantage’ after a ‘deuce’ brings excitement and tension into the game, if proves if a player is good enough to take two points in a row when the pressure is on. This is what differentiates the great players from the ones who buckle under pressure. The tennis scoring system is actually pretty straight forward, and the use of 15, 13, 40 is actually more appealing than 1,2,3 because it contains a pyschological element, it is ‘appears’ easier to get from 30-40 than from 15-30.
This 2 point advantage is used in the games as well (1 to 6), again the reason being that you have to convincingly beat your opponent, not just get lucky on one shot. This is what gives tennis the consistency and excitement.
Im sorry that you do not appreciate the use of ‘foreign’ words but tennis is an old and cultured game, this is part of its charm.
Tennis is very different to football, basketball, rugby and other sports. Its a one on one game, and sometimes games can last 4 hours. its a test of endurance, consistency, skill, sharpness, fitness and talent. when you observe the ability displayed by players like Roger Federer, someone who doesnt understand the sport would not understand how incredibly gifted he is.
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I cannot believe this debate carried on for almost 5 yrs!!!……… and you talk about tennis “stringing things out” longer than they should
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