Tennis Match Score and Sets Interpreter

Enter the sets and the games in the set being played and this says whether the match is already decided, how many sets are left, and whether the next one is the deciding set — the set whose format differs between tournaments.

Last updated 12 Oct 2026

Is the match decided, and what is left?

Sets ⇄ match state

Match lengthITF Rule 7 gives both: “The first player/team to win two sets, in a best of three sets match” or three in a best of five. Grand Slam Tennis Article I Section L makes men’s singles main draw best of five at the four majors and everything else best of three unless a tournament decides otherwise, and ATP Section 1.02.B.1 makes every ATP Tour singles match best of three.

Sets won by Player ACompleted sets only. A set in progress belongs in the two games boxes below, not here.

Sets won by Player BAs for Player A. The page refuses a pair that could not have arisen — a match stops the moment one player reaches the number of sets the format needs, so two sets each cannot happen in a best of three.

Games won by Player A in the set being playedGames in the set currently in progress, not games in the whole match. Leave both at nought if no set has started. A completed set score belongs in the sets boxes above, so the page refuses one here.

Games won by Player B in the set being playedAs for Player A. This page reads the set in progress as an ITF tie-break set — six games with a margin of two, and a tie-break at six games all, ITF Rule 6(a). When the set in progress is the deciding set the page stops reading the games and says why, because that is the one set whose format is not universal.

Player A wins the match by winning the next gameExample

Best of three. Player A leads one set to nil and leads the current set six games to five

The four deciding-set rules that ran at the same time, 2019 to 2021

The brief for this batch said the four tournaments ran four different rules “as recently as 2018”. They did not: in 2018 three of them played an advantage final set and only the US Open had a tie-break, which is two rules. The four-at-once era is 2019 to 2021, and it ended at Roland-Garros in 2022. Dates and bodies are given for every row because this is the part a reader is most likely to have half-remembered.
Tournament	Deciding set	From	Where this was read
US Open	Seven-point tie-break at six games all	1970, as a nine-point sudden-death tie-break in every set; the modern design dates from 1975	Tennis Majors on the 1970 USTA announcement; Tennis Now, 21 Dec 2018; Tennis365, 16 Mar 2022
Australian Open	Ten-point tie-break at six games all	January 2019, announced by tournament director Craig Tiley	Tennis Now, 21 Dec 2018; TNT Sports, 1 Jul 2022
Wimbledon	Seven-point tie-break at twelve games all	2019, announced by AELTC chairman Philip Brook on 19 October 2018	The Week, 19 Oct 2018; Tennis Now, 21 Dec 2018
Roland-Garros	No tie-break. The set ran on until a two-game margin	Unchanged until 2022 — “the only major that does not employ a final-set tiebreak”	Tennis Now, 21 Dec 2018; Tennis365, 16 Mar 2022
All four	Ten-point tie-break at six games all	Roland-Garros 2022, on a Grand Slam Board trial; now the standing rule in Article I Section L of the 2026 Grand Slam Rule Book	Tennis365, 16 Mar 2022; TNT Sports, 1 Jul 2022; GST 2026 Rule Book

What the calculator above returns, and the state it refuses

Row seven is the one worth reading twice. In a best of five at one set to nil, leading 6–5 is one game from the SET and still two sets from the match, and the page says so rather than letting “one game from it” stand for both. The same 6–5 at two sets to nil in a best of five IS one game from the match, because that third set is the last one needed. Every reading in this table is what the panel above returns for those inputs.
Match	Sets	Set in progress	Reading
Best of three	1–0	6–5	Player A wins the match by winning the next game
Best of three	1–0	6–6	Player A wins the match by winning this tie-break
Best of three	1–1	6–6	What happens now depends on the tournament — four published answers
Best of three	0–0	6–6	A tie-break is played now, and the match goes on
Best of three	2–0	any	Player A has won the match. The games boxes are not read
Best of five	2–2	4–3	This set decides the match. Below six games all every format agrees
Best of five	1–0	6–5	Neither player is one set from the match. One game from the set, two sets from the match
Best of three	2–2	any	Refused. The match would have ended at two sets to one
Best of three	1–0	6–4	Refused. That is a finished set, not one in progress

Two sets or three, and the one set nobody agrees about

Tennis scoring is a nest of three thresholds, and all three are exact. A game is the first to four points with a margin of two, counted love, 15, 30, 40 and game, with the score at three points each called deuce and a two-point margin needed from there (ITF Rules of Tennis 2026, Rule 5(a)). A set is the first to six games with a margin of two, with a tie-break at six games all in a tie-break set and no tie-break at all in an advantage set (Rule 6). A match is the first to two sets in a best of three or three in a best of five (Rule 7). Nothing in that is a judgement: from any part-finished score you can say exactly whether the match is over and exactly what is left, which is what the panel above does.

The deciding set is the exception, and it is a large one. Everything above the deciding set is settled: at the four Grand Slam tournaments every ordinary set has been a tie-break set for decades, and Grand Slam Tennis’s 2026 Official Grand Slam Rule Book says in Article I Section K that the ITF Rules of Tennis apply except where the Grand Slam rules say otherwise. The deciding set is where they say otherwise, and the table above has the history: four tournaments, four different rules at the same time from 2019 to 2021, and convergence on a ten-point tie-break at six games all only from Roland-Garros 2022. Article I Section L is terse about it — “including the final set where a 10 point tie-break will be played” — and does not say at what game score, because that comes from ITF Rule 6: six games all. Two documents, one rule.

So this page asks for the games in the set being played and then does something a calculator rarely does, which is stop. While both players still need more than one set, the set in progress is an ordinary tie-break set and the page reads it. The moment both players are one set from the match, the set in progress is the deciding set, and below six games all every published format gives the same answer while at six games all they give four different ones. Rather than quietly implement one tournament’s rule and present it as the rule, the page hands that score to the tie-break and set format interpreter, which takes the format as an input and shows the same games score resolving differently under two of them.

Two states are refused rather than answered. A set score that is already complete — six games to four, say — cannot be a set in progress, and a reader who types it has put a finished set in the wrong pair of boxes; the panel says so instead of reading it as something in play. And two sets each in a best of three cannot have happened, because the match would have ended at two sets to one. Both are the same class of mistake as entering more shoot-outs scored than taken, and the same answer applies: a calculator that reads an impossible state as though it were real is worse than one that stops. For the points inside a tie-break — who serves which one, and when the players change ends — see the tie-break serving order interpreter, and for what a part-finished game is worth as a probability rather than as a state, the game and set win probability calculator works the published closed form. Every rule quoted on this page is printed with the body that publishes it and the edition or year it belongs to. A tennis rule is a regulation rather than a fact: the deciding set was changed at two of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2019 and at three of them in 2022, and in between those two years the four ran four different deciding-set rules at the same time.

Frequently asked questions

How many sets do you need to win a tennis match?

Two in a best of three and three in a best of five, under Rule 7 of the ITF Rules of Tennis 2026. Grand Slam Tennis’s Article I Section L makes men’s singles main draw matches at the four majors best of five and “All other matches shall be the best of three (3) sets unless otherwise determined by each Grand Slam Tournament”. Section 1.02.B.1 of the 2025 ATP Official Rulebook makes every ATP Tour singles match “the best of three (3) tie-break sets”.

Can a tennis match be level at two sets each in a best of three?

No, and the panel above refuses it. The match ends the instant a player reaches the number of sets the format needs, so in a best of three the only finished scores are two–nil and two–one. Two sets each is only reachable in a best of five, where it means the fifth set is the deciding set.

What is the deciding set and why does its format matter?

It is the last possible set — the third in a best of three, the fifth in a best of five — and it is the only set whose rule is not universal. From 2019 to 2021 the four Grand Slam tournaments ran four different deciding-set rules at once: a ten-point tie-break at six games all at the Australian Open, a seven-point tie-break at twelve games all at Wimbledon, no tie-break at all at Roland-Garros and a seven-point tie-break at six games all at the US Open. All four have played a ten-point tie-break at six games all since Roland-Garros 2022.

Does this page work out who wins the next game?

No. It works out what the next game would be worth, which is a different and answerable question: whether winning it takes the set, the match, or neither. Who wins it is not decidable from a score, and the nearest honest thing is a probability from a stated assumption about points, which is on a separate page.

Where does the games score go if a set has finished?

In the sets boxes, as a set won. The two games boxes are only for the set currently in progress, which is why the page refuses a games score that is already a completed set. A tennis scoreboard shows the finished sets and the current games side by side and the distinction is easy to lose.

Is a retirement or a walkover handled here?

No, and nothing on this page should be read as covering one. A retirement, a default or a walkover ends a match at whatever the score was, so the arithmetic of what is left stops applying. The panel reads completed play only.

Related calculators

References

International Tennis Federation. Rules of Tennis 2026, Rules 5, 6, 7 and 10. itftennis.com/media/7221/2026-rules-of-tennis-english.pdf. Rule 5(a), the standard game: Love, 15, 30, 40, “Deuce” at three points each, then “Advantage”. Rule 5(b), the tie-break game: first to seven with a margin of two; “The player whose turn it is to serve shall serve the first point”; “The following two points shall be served by the opponent(s)”; then two consecutive points each; and the player due to serve first becomes “the receiver in the first game of the following set”. Rule 6, the advantage set and the tie-break set. Rule 7, best of three or five. Rule 10: “During a tie-break game, players shall change ends after every six points.”
Grand Slam Tennis. 2026 Official Grand Slam Rule Book. itftennis.com/media/5986/grand-slam-rulebook-2026-f.pdf. Article I Section K: the ITF Rules of Tennis apply except where the Grand Slam rules say otherwise. Article I Section L: men’s singles main draw “shall be the best of five (5) sets”, everything else best of three “unless otherwise determined by each Grand Slam Tournament”, and the tie-breaks of the Rules of Tennis may be used “including the final set where a 10 point tie-break will be played”. Section L does NOT state the game score that starts it; that is six games all, from ITF Rule 6. Section C describes GST as a collaboration of the four tournaments.
ATP. 2025 ATP Official Rulebook, Chapter 1 — ATP Circuit Regulations, Section 1.02.B. atptour.com/-/media/files/rulebook/2025/2025-rulebook-chapter-1_atp-circuit-regulations_20may.pdf. Singles (1.02.B.1): “the best of three (3) tie-break sets”. Doubles (1.02.B.2): “two (2) tie-break sets with a deciding Match Tie-break (10 point) at one (1) set all”, and “Games shall be decided using the No-Ad scoring method”. The file states no publication date and calls itself the 2025 rulebook at 1.07.A.1.
Tennis Now. “Australian Open Adopts Final Set Tiebreaks”, tennisnow.com, 21 December 2018. “The final set will be decided after six-games-all with the longer of the tiebreak formats—first to 10 points”, announced by tournament director Craig Tiley for 2019. It records the other three majors at that date: Wimbledon’s “first-to-seven point final-set tiebreak when the score reaches 12-12”, the US Open’s “first-to-seven point final set tiebreak when the score is six-all”, and “Roland Garros is the only major that does not employ a final-set tiebreak”.
The Week. “Wimbledon: final-set tie-breaks to be introduced in 2019”, theweek.com, 19 October 2018. The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s announcement, attributed to chairman Philip Brook: “the tie-break will come into effect when the scores reach 12-12 in the final set”, won by “the first player to reach seven points with an advantage of two or more points”, from 2019. It gives the two matches behind the change: Isner–Mahut in 2010, whose final set “finished 70-68”, and the 2018 semi-final in which Anderson won “the deciding set 26-24”.
Tennis365. “Wimbledon and other three Grand Slams confirm uniformity as they will use 10-point tie-breaks in final set”, tennis365.com, 16 March 2022. A Grand Slam Board decision: “A 10-point tie-break will decide the final set at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open”, which “will commence at the 2022 edition of Roland-Garros” and “will first run on a trial basis”, “based on a strong desire to create greater consistency in the rules of the game at the Grand Slams”. It states the four rules it replaced, one per tournament.
TNT Sports (published as Eurosport). “What are the new tie-break rules at Wimbledon this year?”, tntsports.co.uk, 1 July 2022. A second, independent account: “a 10-point tie-break has been introduced to decide all final sets when the score reaches 6-6”, the winner being “the first player(s) to win 10 points with an advantage of two or more points”. It confirms the Australian Open “has had first-to-10 points tie-breaks in the final set since January 2019” and that Wimbledon had “introduced a traditional tie-break after 12-12”, under which Djokovic beat Federer 13–12 in the 2019 final set.
Sokolowski A. “July 25, 1970: The day the USTA announced the introduction of the tiebreak”, tennismajors.com. The US Open adopted a “sudden-death nine-point tiebreak” at “six games all” in “every set”, first used at the 1970 championships, where “26 nine-point tiebreaks would be played on the very first day”. It credits the modern design to “Peter Jones, from the LTA” in 1975 and does not call it the twelve-point tie-break, so neither does this batch.