how did tennis scoring come about

February 18, 2026

Tennis’s strange scoring (love, 15, 30, 40, deuce) grew out of medieval French versions of the game and gambling culture, then was frozen into place when lawn tennis took off in the late 1800s. No single origin story is 100% proven, but historians have pieced together a few strong theories about why it looks so weird today.

How the 15–30–40 pattern started

Most evidence points to medieval France and an ancestor of tennis called “jeu de paume.” Several ideas overlap:

A money / points theory: players gambled and used units of 15 in the local money system (15, 30, 45), which later morphed into 40.

A clock face theory: scores advanced around a clock in quarter turns (15, 30, 45, 60), with 60 meaning game. This is popular in modern explanations, but historians note early forms of the game predate common use of clock faces with minute hands, so it’s likely only part of the story at best.

A document trail : poems and texts from the 1400s–1500s show people actually saying 15, 30, 45 in real matches, which proves that odd sequence was already normal by then.

By the 16th century, French sources show speakers shortening “quarante-cinq” (45) to “quarante” in casual speech, which is the most widely accepted explanation for why the progression ended up as 15, 30, 40 rather than 45.

Why “love” means zero

“Love” almost certainly came later and is simpler than the numbers:

The leading idea is that it comes from the French word “l’oeuf” (egg), because an egg looks like a zero. English speakers likely turned “l’oeuf” into the more familiar word “love” over time.

A softer, more romantic theory is that it refers to playing “for the love of the game,” meaning you have nothing (zero points) but are still playing. This one fits modern storytelling nicely but has less historical backing.

Either way, “love” for zero was firmly established by the time modern lawn tennis rules were being formalized in the 19th century.

From royal courts to modern tennis

The scoring traveled with the game as it evolved:

Medieval royal/real tennis in France and later England used the 15–30–45 pattern, already mixed with betting, court customs, and aristocratic slang.

As the indoor game spread across Europe’s courts, the quirky scorekeeping was simply part of the culture, not something people felt a need to “fix.”

When lawn tennis was codified in England, the first Wimbledon in 1877 deliberately imported the old royal tennis scoring system, including 15–30–40, “deuce,” and “advantage,” instead of inventing a fresh, simple system.

By the early 20th century, this scoring had become a core part of tennis’s identity, which made later reform attempts politically and culturally difficult.

Deuce, advantage, and tiebreaks

Once you have 15–30–40, you still need a way to handle close games:

Deuce : When both players reach 40–40, the term “deuce” (from French “à deux,” roughly “to two”) signals that a player must win two consecutive points to take the game.

Advantage : After deuce, one player leads by one point (advantage), but if the opponent wins the next point, it returns to deuce. This makes game length highly variable and dramatic.

That variability became a problem as tennis moved into the TV era:

Matches could balloon into marathon sets like the famous Gonzales–Pasarell Wimbledon match in 1969, which went 22–24, 1–6, 16–14, 6–3, 11–9 and lasted more than five hours over two days.

To keep broadcasts manageable, the tiebreak was introduced: the US Open added a 9‑point tiebreak in 1970, then the now‑standard 7‑point tiebreak was widely adopted by mid‑1970s.

So modern tennis is a hybrid: ancient scoring structure, plus 20th‑century patches to fit TV and tournament schedules.

Modern debates and “latest news” angle

Even in the 1960s, some officials claimed the strange scoring hurt tennis’s popularity because newcomers found it confusing. That tension still shows up today in coaching blogs, forums, and think‑pieces:

Coaching sites and blogs in the 2020s still publish explainers titled things like “Why it’s so weird” and “Serving up the basics of tennis scoring,” acknowledging how baffling it looks to beginners.

Online forum discussions frequently revisit the same questions—“ELI5 why is tennis scoring so odd?” or “Why is tennis scoring so baffling?”—often blending historical theories (money, clocks, medieval counting) with popular myths.

A few organizers and coaches occasionally experiment with alternative formats (simple race‑to‑21 points, no‑ad scoring, fast‑4 sets) for local leagues or junior events, but the traditional system remains dominant at the professional level because it is deeply ingrained in fan expectations and the sport’s brand.

Quick forum‑style recap

So how did tennis scoring come about?

It started in medieval France , where players used 15‑point increments (15–30–45) in early handball‑style games.

“45” likely got shortened in speech to “40,” giving the modern 15–30–40 sequence.

“Love” for zero probably comes from “l’oeuf” (egg), which looks like 0.

The whole medieval system was imported into 19th‑century lawn tennis and kept for tradition, then later modified with tiebreaks to suit TV and big events.

TL;DR: Tennis scoring wasn’t designed to be logical; it’s a layered fossil of medieval French gambling games, aristocratic court customs, and modern TV‑era tweaks that the sport never had the heart (or courage) to replace.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.