How Tennis Scoring Works: Points, Games, Sets and Matches Explained

Tennis rules - Scoring · Updated 2026-09-08

Tennis scoring sounds like a code until you see the shape behind it. A match is four scoring levels stacked inside each other: points build a game, games build a set, and sets decide the match. Every odd word you hear courtside - love, deuce, advantage, tiebreak - belongs to one of those four levels, and none of them changes the shape. Learn the shape first and the vocabulary stops being a barrier.

This guide walks the ladder from the bottom up, with a worked game and a worked set you can follow one line at a time. By the end you should be able to look at a scoreboard reading 40-30, 5-4 and say exactly what it means, what has to happen next, and how to call it out loud so the other side of the net agrees with you.

The four levels: point, game, set, match

A point is the smallest unit. It starts with a serve and ends when the ball stops being in play, so a point can be won with a winner, or handed over by an error or a double fault. Points are collected into a game. Games are collected into a set. Sets decide the match. The reason the score sounds complicated is that you are usually hearing two of those levels at once: the point score inside the current game, then the game score inside the current set, then the sets already completed. Read them in that order and any scoreboard becomes simple. Everything else in tennis scoring is a refinement of one of these four levels, including deuce at the point level, the tiebreak at the set level, and the choice of best of three or best of five at the match level.

Scoring a game: love, 15, 30, 40

Inside a game, points are not counted 1, 2, 3, 4. Your first point is called 15, your second 30, your third 40, and the fourth wins the game. Zero is called love, so a game starts at love all. The reasons behind those particular numbers are historical rather than mathematical, and they are covered in the tennis scoring vocabulary guide. The rule that trips up new players is the two point margin: four points only wins the game if you are two clear. If both players reach 40 the score is deuce, and from there someone has to win two points in a row. Win the first of them and you have advantage; win the next and the game is yours. Lose it and the score goes back to deuce, which is why a single game can run for a very long time. Deuce and advantage have their own guide, including the no-ad variation used in many junior and club events.

A worked game, point by point

Notice that points 7, 8 and 9 moved the game score nowhere: it cycled from deuce to advantage and back to deuce, and only point 10 ended the game. That is the two point margin doing its work. It is also why the point score after deuce is not written as 45 or 50: once both players are at 40 the numbers stop and you track a lead of one point instead.

Scoring a set: 6-4, 7-5 and 7-6

A set is a race to six games, won by two clear games. That makes 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4 all complete sets. The two game margin is the same idea as the two point margin inside a game, one level up. When the set reaches 5-5, nobody can get to six with two clear games any more, so play continues: the next game makes it 6-5, and the leader must win one more game to take the set 7-5. If the player who is behind wins that game instead, the set stands at 6-6 and is decided by a tiebreak, which is recorded as 7-6. Those three endings, 6-4 style, 7-5 and 7-6, are the only ways a standard tiebreak set can finish. A set score of 8-6 or 9-7 belongs to formats that do not use a tiebreak, such as an advantage final set.

What happens at 6-6

At six games all a standard set is decided by a tiebreak. The tiebreak is played as a single game, but its points are counted 1, 2, 3 rather than 15, 30, 40. The first player to seven points wins it, and the two point margin still applies, so a tiebreak can run to 8-6, 9-7 or further. The serve moves in an unusual pattern: one point, then two points each in turn, and the players change ends every six points. Whoever wins the tiebreak wins the set 7-6, and the points won inside the tiebreak are not added to the set score. The full rotation, including who serves first in the next set, is set out in the tiebreak rules guide. Some formats also replace an entire deciding set with a 10 point match tiebreak, which uses the same serving pattern but runs to ten points.

Let a rules engine hold the score. Tennis Score Keeper₊ tracks the whole ladder for you: love, 15, 30, 40, deuce and advantage inside the game, the 7-5 and 7-6 endings of a set, the tiebreak rotation, and who serves next after it. You tap which side won the point and read the score off an iPhone scoreboard or an independent Apple Watch app. It is coming soon. Learn more about Tennis Score Keeper₊.

A worked set, game by game

This is a full set between player A and player B, with A serving first. Only the set score changes in the last column, because each row represents one completed game.

Two things are worth reading off that table. First, A served every odd numbered game and B every even numbered one, all the way through: the serve alternates game by game and never changes hands mid game. Second, at 6-5 the set was not over. B was serving to stay in the set, and losing that game ended it at 7-5. Had B held, the set would have gone to 6-6 and a tiebreak. The players also swapped ends after games 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11, which is the changeover rule.

Best of three sets and best of five

A match is won by taking the majority of a fixed number of sets. Almost all tennis is best of three, so the first player or pair to win two sets wins the match and the third set is only played if the first two are split. Men's singles at the four Grand Slam tournaments is best of five, where you need three sets. Club, school and junior tennis often shortens things further, most commonly by playing two normal sets and replacing a third set with a 10 point match tiebreak, so a whole match fits a court booking. Pro sets, Fast4 and short sets are other common abbreviations. All of them are compared in the match formats guide. Whatever the format, a completed match score is written set by set from the winner's point of view, such as 6-4, 3-6, 7-6.

Who serves, and when the serve changes

1. Decide who serves first: Before the match, spin a racket or toss a coin. The winner chooses to serve, to receive, or to pick an end, and the other side gets the remaining choice.
2. One player serves the entire game: The same player serves every point of that game. They start each game serving into the deuce court, which is the receiver's right hand side, and alternate sides after every point.
3. The serve changes hands at the end of each game: Whoever received in game one serves game two, and so on. That is why the serve alternates strictly odd and even through a set, and why breaking serve matters so much.
4. Carry the order into the next set: Whoever did not serve the last game of a set serves the first game of the next one. After a tiebreak, the player who received the first point of the tiebreak serves first in the next set.

How to say a tennis score out loud

In a match without an umpire, the server calls the score before every point, loudly enough for the other end to hear. That single habit prevents most scoring disputes, because a wrong score gets corrected while the game is still short.

• The server's score always comes first, in the point score and in the game score. The same position is called 30-15 by the server and 15-30 by the receiver.
• Zero is love, so 0-0 is love all and 15-0 is fifteen love.
• Equal point scores below 40 use all: fifteen all and thirty all, not fifteen fifteen.
• 40-40 is deuce, not forty all. After deuce you say advantage plus a name, or ad in when the server leads and ad out when the receiver leads.
• Call the game score at the start of each game, server's games first, as in four three or five all.
• When a set finishes, call the completed set score and who won it before the first point of the next set, as in six four, first set.
• Announce the running match score at each new set, such as one set all, so nobody is tracking it from memory.

Put the pieces together and a scoreboard reading 40-30, 5-4, one set all tells you the whole story: the server leads by a point in the current game, leads by a game in the current set, and the players have taken one set each. If the server wins the next point they win the game, the set 6-4, and the match if it is a best of three. That is the entire system, and it is the same on a park court as it is on centre court. If you are following a self officiated junior match, the junior scorekeeping guide covers who is responsible for the score and what to do when the two sides disagree.

Frequently asked questions

How does tennis scoring work for beginners?

Points make a game, games make a set, and sets decide the match. Inside a game your points are called 15, 30, 40 and then game, and you need a lead of two points to close it out. A set is the first to six games with a two game lead, and a match is normally the first to win two sets.

What does 40-30 mean in tennis?

40-30 means the server has won three points in the game and the receiver has won two, because the server's score is always said first. The server is one point from winning the game, which makes it a game point. If the receiver wins the next point the score becomes deuce.

Why is zero called love in tennis?

Love is simply the traditional word for a score of zero in tennis, used at every stage of a game, as in fifteen love or love all. Its origin is not settled, and the most repeated explanations link it either to the French word for egg, the shape of a zero, or to playing for love rather than for stakes. The vocabulary is covered in the guide to tennis scoring terms.

How many games do you need to win a set?

You need six games with a lead of at least two, so 6-4 wins a set but 6-5 does not. At 5-5 the set continues until someone leads 7-5, or until it reaches 6-6. At 6-6 a tiebreak decides the set and it is recorded as 7-6.

How many sets are in a tennis match?

Most tennis is best of three sets, so the winner is the first to take two sets and a third set is only needed if the first two are split. Men's singles at the Grand Slam tournaments is best of five, where the winner needs three sets. Many club and junior events shorten the format further, often by replacing the deciding set with a 10 point match tiebreak.

Do you say your own score first in tennis?

You say the server's score first, so you lead with your own score only when you are the one serving. When you are receiving, the server calls the score and their number comes first. Calling the score before every point is the standard way to keep two players in agreement in a match with no umpire.

What happens at 6-6 in a tennis set?

At 6-6 a standard set is decided by a tiebreak, played as one game with points counted 1, 2, 3 and won by the first to seven points with a two point margin. Because of that margin a tiebreak can reach 8-6 or beyond. The winner of the tiebreak takes the set 7-6.

Keep reading

• What Is Deuce in Tennis? Advantage, Ad In, Ad Out and No-Ad Scoring Explained
• Tennis Tiebreak Rules: The 7-Point Set Tiebreak and the 10-Point Match Tiebreak
• Tennis Scoring Terms Explained: Love, 15, 30, 40 and the Words You Hear Courtside