Wimbledon 2025: Why is tennis scoring 15, 30, 40?

Tennis’s historic scoring system has been in place for hundreds of years while the All England Club prepares to host the singles finals at a later time than usual

The highlight of the tennis year – at least for British fans – is upon us with Wimbledon finals weekend. Amanda Anisimova will face Iga Swiatek in the women’s showpiece on Saturday, while the top two male players on the planet, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, will do battle on Sunday.

In a change to tradition, both finals will begin at 4pm BST, two hours later than the usual start time of 2pm. The doubles finals, which used to be played after the singles matches and trophy presentations had concluded, now starts at 1pm.

All England Club CEO Sally Bolton said the decision was made to attract the “largest possible worldwide audience.” However, one tradition that will never be altered is the unique scoring system, which sees games go 0, 15, 30 and 40, plus deuce and advantage if necessary.

The format has led to plenty of questions and no little confusion over the years. If you ask most tennis followers, they would probably not know how or when it originated.

It is widely believed that clock faces were originally used to keep score with a quarter move of the minute hand to indicate a score of 15, 30 and 45. It was game over when the hand got to 60.

The idea of deuce was later introduced to ensure that the game could not be won by a single point. Meanwhile, the 45 was changed to 40 to keep the score within the 60 ticks on the clock face.

At deuce, the first player to score would receive 10, which would move the clock to 50. If that player scored a second time in a row, they would be awarded another 10 and the clock would move to 60, signalling the end of the game.

However, if the player failed to score twice in a row, the clock would move back to 40 to establish another deuce. Other theories about the origins of tennis’s scoring system exist, including some that date back to the 1500s, before clock hands were widely used.

However, that is unlikely to be on the minds of the four singles finalists. In the women’s showpiece, Anisimova and Swiatek are both striving for their maiden Wimbledon crowns. Anisimova is chasing her first grand slam title of any sort.

Meanwhile, two-time defending champion Alcaraz beat Taylor Fritz to reach his third consecutive SW19 final, where he will face Novak Djokovic’s conqueror and world No.1 Sinner.

The two dominant players in men’s tennis over the past two years finally met in their first grand slam final at the French Open last month, where Alcaraz saved three championship points before winning an epic five-setter lasting five hours and 29 minutes.

Centre Court will host the rematch, as 23-year-old Italian Sinner bids for a first Wimbledon title and attempts to gain revenge for that devastating defeat.