Tennis Scoring Explained: Points, Games and Sets
Learn how tennis scoring works, including love, deuce, advantage, tiebreaks, games and sets.
Tennis scoring uses a sequence of points to form games, games to form sets and sets to decide a match.
The familiar point sequence is love, 15, 30 and 40. At 40–40, called deuce, a player usually needs two consecutive points to win the game unless a deciding-point format is used.
Points and games
A player wins a game by reaching the required score with the necessary margin. The scoring call tells you which player is leading within the current game.
Sets and tiebreaks
A set is commonly won by the first player or team to reach six games with at least a two-game lead. A tiebreak may decide a set when the score reaches a specified threshold.
Match formats vary
Some competitions use deciding sets, match tiebreaks or no-ad scoring. Check the event rules rather than assuming every tournament uses the same format.
This article is general information, not a guarantee of outcomes or a substitute for official competition or game rules.