Wimbledon 2022: Why are tennis points 15, 30 and 40? Scoring system explained

Wimbledon 2022 has begun and new viewers of the tennis championship might justifiably be baffled at the sport’s scoring system.

The truth is that there are multiple contested theories – none of which have proven conclusively correct – about why players score 15, 30, and 40 points.

But here, we break down how a full match is played and the theories about why points are counted in such an odd way.

A match of tennis is split into sections – the match, the sets, the games, and the points. To win a single match at Wimbledon, male players must secure three sets (two for women) of six games, which require four points each. Are you still with me? Let’s break it down.

Players need to score four points to win a game – but rather than a simple 1-4 scoring system the scores are counted as 15, 30, and 45, followed by the winning point. The theories about why this is come later.

Players will often find themselves tied at 40 points each – called a ‘deuce’ – meaning one player has to score twice consecutively to win a game.

Once a player has won a game, they must do this six times to win a set. But there is a twist – a player must win two more games than their opponent to secure the set. For example, you could not win 6-5, you would need to win another game and make it 7-5 to get the set.

This means some matches can last an extraordinarily long time. The longest in history was the Wimbledon 2010 match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, which took 11 hours and five minutes and spanned across three days. Ironically, it went on for so long the scoreboard broke.

Once a player has secured three sets (two for women), they have won the entire match. The very same John Isner managed it earlier this week, defeating UK favourite Andy Murray