Today I wanted to figure out how tennis scoring works. It’s always been a bit of a mystery to me, with all the “love,” “15,” “30,” “40,” and “deuce” stuff. So, I started by watching a few tennis matches online.
I paid close attention to how the scores were announced and tried to spot any patterns. It felt confusing at first, especially when the score reached “deuce.” I noticed that “love” means zero, and then it goes up to 15, 30, and 40.
After watching a few games, I decided to do some reading. I found some simple explanations of the basic rules. It turns out that the scoring system has some pretty old roots.
To really get a handle on it, I grabbed a pen and paper and started tracking the score of a match myself. Every time a point was scored, I’d jot it down and say the score out loud, like “15-love” or “30-40.”
It got a little tricky when a game went to deuce. That’s when both players have 40. Then, one player has to win two points in a row to win the game. They call the first point after deuce “advantage” and if they lose that point it goes back to deuce. I had to rewind the match a few times to make sure I was following along correctly.
- “Love” means zero.
- The points go 15, 30, 40.
- “Deuce” is when the score is tied at 40-40.
- You need to win by two points, so after “deuce” comes “advantage”.
- If you win the point on advantage you win the game, otherwise it goes back to “deuce”.
Here’s what I figured out:
After practicing with a few more matches, I felt like I finally understood the basics of tennis scoring. It’s still a bit weird, but at least now I can watch a match and know what’s going on. I might even try playing tennis myself sometime soon!
