MtDewVirus

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.