Tennis
How Many Sets in Wimbledon? Men's & Women's Match Format
Best of five sets for the men and best of three for the ladies, Wimbledon scoring explained!
A view outside of Centre Court//Getty Images
Throughout the year, both the men and women (through the ATP and WTA tour respectively) play best of three sets per match. The association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) governs most of the men’s tennis tournaments whilst the Women’s Tennis Association organises tournaments for the ladies.
Grand Slams are seen as the crème de la crème of tennis. They have the best players and hold the most ranking points for players – but importantly they are governed by neither the ATP or WTA, but rather the International Tennis Federation in conjunction with the Grand Slam Board.
At Wimbledon – a Grand Slam – the format for the men’s game changes to best of five sets. That means first to three wins. The women’s game remains at best of three sets.
These epic matches can often last hours, and often put on display unbridled athletic sporting ability!
So what do you have to do to win Wimbledon? Male tennis players will need to win three sets to win a match. Female tennis players will need to win two sets to win a match. There is now a tiebreaker in the final set, and this applies across the board. In a nutshell, Wimbledon is arguably the most prestigious tournament, played over two weeks and the overall men’s winner would have had to win 21 sets of tennis, the ladies winner 14, to claim the ultimate prize in tennis.
What Is a Set?
What is a set? What has it got to do with games, and how does it determine whether a player wins the match?
To win a game, a player need only win four points. The points can often confuse novice fans because they are scored 0, 15, 30 and 40. If both players are tied on 40-40, this is called ‘deuce’. At this point in the game, the player who wins the next point goes to advantage and if they win the subsequent point, they win that game. Naturally, if they lose that point, the game returns to deuce until a player wins two points consecutively.
Players who win six games win the set. However, if the games are tied at 6-6, a tiebreaker then commences.
The Tiebreaker at Wimbledon
Essentially a tiebreaker is a one-off game held to decide the winner of a set when two players are locked at 6-6. The tiebreaker is a first to seven points shoutout, that is to say that the player who reaches seven points first wins. However, Wimbledon had a different rule for the tiebreaker.
Historically, the fifth set at Wimbledon was not decided by a tiebreaker, the match was decided by a player reaching a 2-game margin. This resulted in some incredibly lengthy tennis matches, hence many of the longest matches in history are often found at Wimbledon.
On the 16th of March 2022, the International Tennis Federation made a joint announcement in the interest of consistency. The Grand Slam Board agreed a decision to see all tiebreakers at Grand Slams (including Wimbledon) will have a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the final set where players have reached six games each.
So, not only do we now have a guaranteed tiebreaker for matches at Wimbledon, the tiebreaker itself at all Grand Slams has changed from first to seven points, to first to ten points with the necessary advantage.
Ryan Liberty is an experienced sports writer whose articles have featured in some of the biggest sports publications in South Africa. With a strong understanding of all major sports and an in-depth understanding of betting, Ryan consistently delivers insightful content. He's also known for his ability to break down complex topics into engaging, reader-friendly pieces.