Rules reference
Updated
Independent desk. Figures are traced to named sources and corrections are logged — see the editorial policy.
Since 2022 every Slam plays the same 10-point tiebreak at six games all in the final set. Until then, each tournament had its own rule.
_(24874283479).jpg){kind=link}
For most of tennis history, Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Open and the US Open treated the deciding set differently. The change in 2022 made them uniform, and the result is easier to follow.
What the rule is now
If the final set reaches six games all, the players go to a tiebreak. It is a 10-point tiebreak: the first player to reach ten points, by a margin of two, wins the set and the match. The final set is the third set in women's matches and in men's matches that are best of three, and the fifth in the men's best-of-five format used at the Slams.
Before 2022
- French Open: no tiebreak in the final set. Players kept going until one was two games ahead.
- Wimbledon: a seven-point tiebreak at 12–12 from 2019, replacing an open-ended final set.
- Australian Open: a 10-point tiebreak at 6–6 in the final set, which was the model for the common rule.
- US Open: a seven-point tiebreak at 6–6, in use for decades.
How a regular tiebreak is scored
In the first sets, a tiebreak at six games all is a seven-point game, again won by a margin of two points. Service alternates: the player who is due to serve plays the first point, then the opponent serves the next two, and the serve changes after every two points. Players switch ends after every six points.
Why the change was made
Final sets that went to 70–68, as in the 2010 Wimbledon first round between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, lasted more than eleven hours across three days. The Slams adopted the common tiebreak to put a ceiling on the length of matches, and the rule is now written to apply to all four with no regional exceptions.