The Diabolical Scoring
System of Tennis

By Allen Fox, Ph.D.

What makes the scoring system in tennis diabolical?

The tennis scoring system is different from most other sports. It uniquely increases the stress of competition, because throughout the match some points are substantially more important than others. In fact this system is diabolical.

In other sports the score is generally cumulative throughout the contest, and whoever has the most points at the end wins. In baseball, for example, you simply keep adding up the runs, and the winning team is the one that has the most after 9 innings. It's very straightforward.

Football, soccer, and basketball are essentially the same except that the game is over when time runs out. Still, each team just keeps adding up their points. Even golf is the same except the numbers are backwards. The winning player has fewer points (strokes) than the others.

Of course there is a great deal of pressure in all sports if the scores are close toward the end of the contest, but none are as continuously stressful as tennis.

Consider the situation in tennis. Say are playing a close set, say you are up 5-4 and you reach game point. There is a huge swing in the match if you win that one point.

You will have won about as many total points as your opponent, and should, for all intents and purposes be about even. But winning the next point gives you the set, and you suddenly have half the match under your belt. At the same time, you've wiped out all of your opponent's points.

Essentially, you have half a match, and your opponent goes back to zero. That's an enormous discrepancy hinging on the outcome of a single point, especially when the two players are actually about even.

Moreover, since the play is so evenly balanced you are well-aware of the danger looming behind the loss of that set point. Lose it, and it would take very little for your opponent to turn the tables on you. He could win that game by winning two points, tie the set, and then take the set with only eight more.

Instead of being up half a match, you would be the one going back to zero and your opponent who would be up half a match. This puts extraordinary pressure on the outcome of a single point.

There will be even more pressure on the players if the score reaches 6-all, and they play a tie-breaker. Now the points are all very important, and it becomes a sprint to the finish under a constant load of mental pressure.

When one of the players gets to set point in the breaker, say at 6-5 or 7-6, the pressure ratchets up yet another notch. If you're up, you are one point away from winning the set but only three point away from losing it.

And all of this is happening in the middle of the match, not at the end. In a two out of three set contest the whole drama can go on twice before culminating in the big showdown in the third set.

As if this were not enough, the same thing is actually happening on a lesser scale in each game. If you reach game point and win it, the usual tennis outcome occurs - you get the entire game while your opponent gets nothing.

All the points he won in the game having been eliminated. The game could be extremely close and hard-fought, swinging back and forth many times from deuce to ad. But if one player wins the game point, he gets the entire game and the other player gets zero.

What if every 5 minutes the next basket counted for 10 points, not 2?

This creates pressure since the game point is obviously more important than any other point within the game. So the pressure within the game ratchets up as the score approaches game point. The deuce point gets tense just because it gives the winner game point.

That's very different from the other sports. Try to imagine duplicating the tennis scoring system in basketball. In basketball the real pressure is normally at the end of a close game.

You could make the pressure similar to tennis by making the rule that every five minutes the next basket would counts for 10 points instead of two--and at the same time, the other team would also lose five points. That would add huge pressure periodically to the middle of the game--the way it is all the time in our sport.

These features of the tennis scoring system (as well as its one-on-one, personal aspect) make the game fraught with emotion, pressure, and choking. It is simply mentally tougher than most of the other sports.

So what do you do about it? If you are not particularly confident (which most people players in fact aren't), you have to resist thinking about the score. Getting heavily involved with the score and winning the big points will make the unconfident player extremely nervous.

Assuming something good will happen increases the chance it will.

Of course you will rarely be able to totally forget about the score. It's a problem you can't completely solve, but you can make it better or worse. Work to keep pushing the score to the back of your mind, rather than focusing on it. Unless you are deeply confident of winning, resist highlighting big points with thoughts like, "Ok, it's set point! I've got to win this one." This thinking will just make you more nervous, and lead to choking.

Instead, concentrate narrowly. Do your best to lose yourself in watching the ball, staying relaxed, not reacting too strongly any point, creating good emotions, and executing your game plan. I've written more extensively about all of these factors in another Tennisplayer article called "Becoming a Great Competitor." (Click Here.)

The secret is a paradox. To treat all the points the same, even though they aren't. Take the stance that all points are important, but none too important. Plug along, one point at a time.

Try to ride over the big points by keeping your head into what you will be doing in the next few seconds. Then, simply assume something good will happen. This type of thinking about our diabolical scoring system will increase the chance that it will.