An Olympic gold medal is the only major title missing from Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic’s trophy cabinet, while Coco Gauff is going for gold for Team USA, but how exactly does the tennis event at the Olympics work?
The men’s and women’s singles events feature a field of 64 players, half the number of players who compete at Grand Slams including the U.S. Open. Both fields will play best of three sets with the winner of a set being the first to reach six games (winning by at least two games). That means to win a match, you need to win two sets.
If the scores are tied at 6-6 in a set, a tiebreaker is played where the first player to seven points, winning by two, wins the set.
To win a game, a player needs to win four points before their opponent does. Having no points in a game is referred to as “love.” One point is “15,” winning a second point gets you to “30” and a third point is “40.” Winning a fourth point means you win the game.
Why the scoring system came to be is a mystery, but it is meant to represent the quarters of a clock face (15, 30, 45 with game at 60), but ‘forty-five’ was deemed to be too long to say, so was truncated to 40. Among the possible explanations for the non-romantic use of “love” is that it’s a loan word from l’oeuf, French for egg.
If a game is level at 40-40, the score is referred to as “deuce.” To win a game from deuce, a player needs to win at least two points in a row. Winning a point at deuce gives a player ‘advantage’ — if they win that point, they win the game. If the player with advantage loses the point, the score returns to deuce.
The doubles events follow the same rules. The only exception is that if the match is level at one set all, a tiebreak is played in place of a third set.
The tennis tournament is a straight knockout bracket. The winners of each semifinal play for gold and silver, and the losers play for bronze.
