Scoring each game

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving, and is won by the first player to have won at least four points and at least two points more than their opponent. The half of the court used for service alternates between sides, beginning with the right-hand half, known as the deuce court. (The left-hand side is known as the ad court.)

As simple as this scoring appears, the running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis: scores of zero to three points are described as "love" (or "zero"), "fifteen", "thirty", and "forty", respectively. When stating the score, the server's score is stated first. Thus, for example, the phrase "thirty-love" means that the server has won two points and the receiver none.

If each player has won three points, the score is described as "deuce" rather than "forty-all". From this point on, whenever the score is tied, it is described as "deuce" (or "40-40") regardless of how many points have been won. When a player is one point ahead, that player is said to have the advantage. If the player with advantage loses the next point, the score is again deuce, since the score is tied. If the player with advantage wins the next point, that player has won the game, since the player now leads by two.

Note that a score of "thirty-all" is functionally equivalent to "deuce", and "forty-thirty" is equivalent to "advantage". These equivalences are not customarily used in describing the score: "thirty-all" means that the players have won exactly two points each, and "deuce" means that the players have won at least three points each.

The current point score is announced verbally before each point by the umpire, or by the server if there is no umpire.