As is becoming the custom for this exercise, several days after first moving into a new rule section, I finally get around to actually writing about the rule.
The rules then immediately continues “except that if…” and this is the thing that makes tennis scoring so difficult for those new to the game. It is very straight forward, but with a lot of exceptions.
Deuce is the first such case in the scoring system which arises when each player/team has won three points in a game. The standard game must be won by a margin of two points. Deuce communicates that each player needs to win the next two consecutive point to carry the game.
Winning the deuce point creates the score of “Advantage” to the player/team that won the point. The formal way to call the score in this case is “Advantage – Player Name/Team.” That pretty much is only seen when a match is played with a chair umpire or official on court.
When an official is not present, the players in a match use the verbal notation of “Ad In” if the deuce point went to the server and “Ad Out” if the receiver prevailed. Also in common use is the conversational “My Ad” or “Your Ad” variant.
If the advantage point is lost by the player holding the advantage, the score reverts back to deuce. Play continues until one player or the other wins consecutive deuce and ad points.
Throwing out the tennis terminology, the winner of a standard game is the first to reach at least four points by a margin of at least two points. This seems more straight forward. Sometimes the vocabulary and language of tennis makes it seem seem harder than it actually is.
United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
