Discover why the tennis scoring system is so strange with a fun and easy explanation perfect for kids.
Alright, imagine we’re playing a game where instead of counting points one by one like in most games, we use special numbers! So in tennis, when you score your first point, you don’t say '1,' you say '15.' I know, weird, right? But let’s try to make sense of it together!
Think of tennis like a secret club with its own unique language. When you score your second point in tennis, instead of saying '2,' you say '30.' You see, it’s like counting in tens, but we started with 15 for some reason, maybe because 15 is a nice number!
Now, if you score again, you don’t say '3,' you say '40.' Since 40 is somewhat close to '45,' which might have made more sense after 15 and 30, but it’s just how the secret tennis club decided to count! They probably thought 40 sounded cooler.
If you score a fourth point, you win the game! But you can't just say '4 wins,' you say ‘Game!’ But wait, there's more! If both players score three points each and are tied, it’s called 'Deuce.' Think of it like a cool name for when things are really exciting!
To win from Deuce, you need to score two more times in a row. First, you get ‘Advantage,’ kind of like saying 'I got this!' and then if you score again, you win the game! There you have it! Tennis has its own fun way to keep score, almost like they wanted to make a game within a game. That wasn't so bad, was it?