Comments on: The Tennis Scoring System

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:23:15 +0000

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

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:34:09 +0000

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!

By: barbara

barbara — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:27:07 +0000

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?

By: joaquin

joaquin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:22:37 +0000

great comments. I thought about it but never had a good answer.

By: roadrunrnch

roadrunrnch — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:55:12 +0000

“L’Oeuf” (the Egg) sounds like love. the egg being round. not to criptic. Just the English bastardising French.

By: Petepg

Petepg — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:58:30 +0000

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.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:24:39 +0000

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.

By: brad

brad — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:11:21 +0000

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

By: brad

brad — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:48:47 +0000

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.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:58:38 +0000

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 â€˜hand inâ€™ 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. “