Luasc / Scoring rules

Advantage set or tiebreak set?

Tiebreak set

First to six games with a margin of two. 6-4 and 6-3 are sets; 5-5 goes to 6-5 and then either 7-5 or six games all. At 6-6 you play a seven-point tiebreak, first to seven by two, and the set is written down as 7-6.

Almost all the tennis you will play or watch is scored this way.

Advantage set

The same six games, the same margin of two, and no tiebreak waiting at the end of it. Six all becomes 7-6, which becomes 7-7, and it keeps going until somebody takes two games in a row from level. That is where scores like 8-6 and 12-10 come from.

Which one you are playing

Rule 6 says it has to be announced in advance of the event, not decided at six all with two pairs standing at the net. If you are playing tiebreak sets there is a second announcement to make with it: whether the final set is also a tiebreak set or an advantage set.

Clubs usually settle both on the league sheet. It is worth reading before the first serve rather than during the argument.

If the wrong one gets started

The rule book has an answer for both directions. A tiebreak started at six games all when an advantage set was agreed is corrected immediately if only one point has been played; once the second point is in play, the set carries on as a tiebreak set.

The other way round, if a standard game is started at six all when a tiebreak set was agreed and it is not caught in the first point, you keep playing and take the tiebreak at 8-8 instead. Miss that one too and it is 10-10, and so on: the next even score with both sides level.

The option in between

Some clubs and leagues play tiebreak sets throughout but run the deciding set's tiebreak to ten points instead of seven. It is still a tiebreak set and the set is still written 7-6. The rule book has it as Appendix VI.5, the final-set tiebreak, and all four Grand Slams have played a deciding set that way since 2022, under their own rule book rather than the ITF's.

Plenty of club and league tennis skips the deciding set altogether and plays a ten-point match tiebreak in its place instead. If your sheet says “third set is a breaker”, that is the one it means.

In the rule book

ITF Rules of Tennis, Rule 6, Score in a Set:

There are different methods of scoring in a set. The two main methods are the “Advantage Set” and the “Tie-break Set”. Either method may be used provided that the one to be used is announced in advance of the event. If the “Tie-break Set” method is to be used, it must also be announced whether the final set will be played as a “Tie-break Set” or an “Advantage Set”.

Common follow-ups

Is an advantage set the same as advantage scoring in a game?

No, and the words do not help. Advantage in a game is the point after deuce. An advantage set is a set with no tiebreak at six games all. A match can have one, both or neither.

How long can an advantage set run?

There is no limit in the rules. That is the reason nearly everybody plays tiebreak sets: a set with no ceiling is a court booking with no ceiling.

Which does my club play?

Whatever the league sheet says. Plenty of sheets do not say, though, so ask your captain, and if nobody knows, settle it at the toss. Rule 6 actually puts the decision earlier than that, in advance of the event, so the toss is the last chance rather than the proper moment.

Advantage sets are a switch in Luasc, off unless you turn it on, and a set that runs to 8-6 is scored and recorded as 8-6. The formats it plays.