When Do You Change Ends in Tennis? The Odd-Game Rule, Set Boundaries and Rest Times

Tennis rules · Changeovers · Updated 2026-09-08

Of everything a courtside scorer has to hold in their head, the changeover is the first thing to slip. Points and games are called out loud, so somebody notices when those drift. Ends get changed quietly, by habit, and once the habit breaks there is nothing on the score sheet to reconstruct it from. Ten minutes later one player has been squinting into a low sun for four straight games and the other side of the court is starting to sound aggrieved.

The rule itself is short. Players change ends after the first game of each set, then after every subsequent odd-numbered game of that set, and at the end of a set only when the total number of games in that set is odd. Everything below is that one sentence unpacked: why odd numbers, what happens at set boundaries, how ends work inside a tiebreak, how much rest you get at each stop, and a courtside method that stops the whole thing from drifting.

The rule in one sentence

Within a set, you change ends whenever the running total of games played in that set is odd. That is after games 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. You do not change after games 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12. At the end of a set you apply the same test to the final total: 6-3 is nine games, an odd number, so you change; 6-4 is ten games, an even number, so you stay where you are, play the first game of the next set, and change then.

Notice what the rule does not depend on. It does not depend on who won the game, who is serving, whether the game went to deuce, or how many games have been played in the match as a whole. Only the count of games in the current set matters. If you can answer the question "how many games have been played in this set", you can always answer the question "do we change now". That is the whole system, and it is why a set that is heading for a tiebreak is no harder to track than a 6-1 blowout.

Why odd numbers and not even

The odd-game pattern is not arbitrary, and it is worth understanding once because understanding it makes the rule almost impossible to forget. Its job is to keep each player's time at the worse end as balanced as it can possibly be, at every moment of the set, not just at the end of it.

Follow one player through a set under the real rule. She plays game 1 at the starting end, then changes. She plays games 2 and 3 at the far end, changes, plays games 4 and 5 back at the starting end, changes, plays games 6 and 7 at the far end, and so on. Count her games at either end after any game you like: the two totals are either level or one apart. Never two apart, never three.

Now imagine the alternative, changing after every even total instead. She would play games 1 and 2 at the starting end, then 3 and 4 at the far end. After two games the count is two to nothing. A set that ends 6-0 would leave her with four games at one end and two at the other, and if the bad end was the sunny one, that is a real and avoidable edge. Sets can finish at any score, so the pattern has to stay balanced continuously rather than only at the finish.

The set-boundary rule is the same idea carried across the gap. After an odd set such as 6-3, one player is a game ahead in exposure to the starting end, so the change happens immediately, at the set break. After an even set such as 6-4, both players are already level, so no change is made and the pattern simply continues into the next set: play one game, then change.

A 6-4 set, game by game

A 6-3 set, game by game

Read the two tables side by side and you can see that nothing changes inside the set. Games 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 are changeovers in both. The only difference is what happens at the finish, and that is decided entirely by whether the last game landed on an odd or an even total.

Ends during a tiebreak

A tiebreak counts as one game in the set score, but the ends inside it are driven by points, not games. You change ends after every 6 points played: at 6 points on the board, at 12, at 18, and onward if the tiebreak runs long. So a tiebreak standing at 4-2 or 3-3 is a changeover, and so is 6-6. A tiebreak that finishes on a multiple of six, as a 7-5 does at twelve points, has its six-point change and its end-of-tiebreak change fall together as one. These swaps are taken on the move, with no rest, and the serve rotation carries on through them unchanged. The full rotation is covered in tennis tiebreak rules.

You also change ends at the end of a tiebreak, and the game count agrees with that: a set decided in a tiebreak finishes 7-6, which is thirteen games, an odd total. So a tiebreak set always ends with a change of ends whenever there is another set to play. The 10-point match tiebreak that replaces a deciding set in many match formats follows the same rule, with ends changing at 6 points, 12 points, 18 points and so on.

How much rest you get at each stop

Changing ends and resting are two separate things, and they do not always happen together. Under the continuous play rule there is a maximum of 90 seconds at a normal changeover and a maximum of 120 seconds at a set break, but two of the changeovers carry no rest at all.

The two no-rest changeovers are the ones players trip over. After the first game of a set you swap ends and get straight on with it, which is exactly why that changeover is the one most often skipped: there is no sit-down to make it memorable. The same applies inside a tiebreak, where a 6-point change is meant to take as long as walking across the court. Junior, club and league events sometimes shorten these allowances or add a longer break between sets, so read the format sheet before the first ball.

Let the scoreboard hold the count. Tennis Score Keeper₊ tracks the game total for the current set and announces the changeover for you, after game 1, after every odd game after that, and at a set end only when the total is odd. On Apple Watch the changeover arrives as a haptic, so you feel it even when you were not looking at the screen. Learn more about Tennis Score Keeper₊.

Why the rule exists at all

A tennis court is only symmetrical on paper. Almost every real court has an end that is harder to play from, and it is usually harder for reasons nobody can fix during a match.

• Sun. In the morning and late afternoon the sun sits low behind one baseline, which turns the ball toss at the other end into a guess.
• Wind. Wind runs the length of a court more often than across it, so one player is serving into it while the other is serving with it.
• Background. A dark hedge or fence behind one baseline makes the ball easy to pick up. A bright wall, a car park or a busy walkway behind the other makes it much harder.
• Shadow and surface. Shadows from a clubhouse or a tree creep across one baseline first, and outdoor surfaces wear unevenly, so bounces are not identical at both ends.
• Lighting. Under floodlights the two ends are rarely lit to the same standard, and one service box often sits at the edge of a light's reach.

None of that can be removed, so the rules share it out instead. The odd-game pattern is the sharing mechanism, and it is a tight one: at no point in a set does either player carry more than one extra game of exposure to the difficult end. Skip a changeover and you have quietly handed somebody an advantage that the rules were written to prevent.

A courtside method that does not drift

1. Track one number, the set total: After every game, update a single running number in your head: games played in this set. At 4-3 you are not holding "four and three", you are holding "seven". The score line is for the players. The total is for you.
2. Say the number out loud: Call the score and then the count when the game finishes: "4-3, seven games, change ends." Saying it makes a mistake audible, and somebody will correct you within one game rather than within four.
3. Use the same trigger every time: Pick a moment in the routine and make the change happen there every time: balls collected, score called, then players move. When the change always sits in the same place, a missing one feels wrong straight away.
4. Reset at every set boundary: The moment a set ends, apply the odd or even test to the total you just closed out, then reset your count to zero. A count that carries on across sets is the single most common cause of a broken changeover schedule.
5. Switch to points in a tiebreak: During a tiebreak the number you are tracking is total points played, and the trigger is every 6 of them. Call the running total after each point, which the server should be doing anyway, and the changeovers fall out of it.

The mistakes that cause it to drift

• Counting games in the match instead of games in the set. After a first set of 6-4 the match total is ten, but the second set starts at zero and its first change is due after one game.
• Expecting the first change after two games. Every set starts the pattern again with a change after game 1, and because it carries no rest it is the easiest one in the match to walk past.
• Assuming every set ends with a changeover. Roughly half do not. 6-0, 6-2, 6-4 and 7-5 are all even totals, and the change waits until the first game of the next set.
• Treating a tiebreak like an ordinary game. Ends there change on points, every 6 of them, not when the game ends.
• Sitting down at a no-rest changeover. After game 1 of a set and inside a tiebreak, the change is made on the move.
• Trying to even up a missed change with an extra one. Points already played stand. Correct the ends at the end of the game being played when somebody notices, then go straight back to the schedule the game count gives you.

Changeovers are one of the few parts of tennis scoring that a person can get wrong without anybody realizing until much later. If you already have the scoring basics in place, holding one extra number per set is a small addition, and it is the difference between a match that feels fairly run and one that quietly is not. If you would rather not hold it at all, Tennis Score Keeper keeps the count and tells you when to move.

Frequently asked questions

When do you change ends in tennis?

You change ends after the first game of each set and then after every subsequent odd-numbered game of that set, so after games 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. At the end of a set you change only when the set's total number of games is odd. If the set finished on an even total such as 6-4, you stay where you are, play the first game of the next set, and change then.

Do you change ends after every set in tennis?

No. You change at the end of a set only when its total number of games is odd, such as 6-3 (nine games), 6-1 (seven) or 7-6 (thirteen). After an even set such as 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 or 7-5 you take the set break at the ends you are already on. The change then comes after the first game of the next set.

Why do tennis players change ends after odd games?

Because it keeps each player's time at the harder end balanced to within a single game at every moment of the set. Sun, wind, background and shadow make one end tougher than the other, and the odd-game pattern splits that disadvantage as evenly as it can be split. If ends changed after even totals instead, a player could sit at the bad end for two games in a row and a short set would finish badly unbalanced.

How often do you change ends in a tiebreak?

Every 6 points. You change at 6 points played, then at 12, then at 18, and again at the end of the tiebreak. Those changeovers carry no rest, so players swap ends and keep playing. The 10-point match tiebreak uses the same 6-point rule.

How long do players get at a changeover?

Up to 90 seconds at a normal changeover and up to 120 seconds at a set break. There is no rest at all after the first game of a set or during a tiebreak, where players change ends on the move. Junior, club and league events sometimes shorten these allowances, so check the format sheet for the event you are playing.

Do you change ends after the first game of every set?

Yes. Every set restarts the pattern, so the first change comes after one game, not two, and that applies to the second and third sets exactly as it does to the first. It is the most commonly missed changeover in a match, partly because it is taken without a rest and nothing about it forces a pause.

What happens if you forget to change ends in tennis?

Points already played stand, so nothing is replayed. Correct the ends at the end of the game in progress when the mistake is spotted, then follow the schedule the current set's game count gives you rather than adding an extra change to even things out. Recount the games played in this set, and change again at the next odd total.

Keep reading

• Tennis Tiebreak Rules: The 7-Point Set Tiebreak and the 10-Point Match Tiebreak
• How Tennis Scoring Works: Points, Games, Sets and Matches Explained
• Tennis Match Formats Explained: Best of 3, Best of 5, Pro Set, Fast4 and Short Sets