Anybody know how the scoring of : 15 - 30 - 40 game originated? And why was it devised this way? Why not just say... 1 - 2 - 3 - Game! I have wondered this all my life, and hope someone knows the true reasoning behind this scoring mystery.
2007-02-02 14:40:48 · 4 answers · asked by ♥Billy Ray♥ Valentine 7 in Sports ➔ Tennis
I was told that the scoring relates to a clock. Love is roughly translated from a french word meaning zero. The beginning of the game is straight up (zero hour). 15 is a quarter after, 30 is half past, 45 (the original score but now its 40 (don't know why)) is 3/4 hour, then back to straIght up- game. Now if you go to advantage in or out I don't know how that relates to the clock explanation- but of course you must win by two.
2007-02-02 15:13:33 · answer #1 · answered by ferdi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can only provide a partial answer: the score was indeed copied from a clock and assuming 4 points per game, it was devided equally in 15, 30 and 45. Then they realized that they could need some extra counting and moved the last one down to 40, just in case.
As you all know, what followed did not divide further the counts between 40 and 60, but used a different schema.
One more thing: people often ask why the score zero is called 'love'. One story is that it come from French.
French kids will say "L'oeuf" to say zero (that "the egg"), and when tennis took its modern form in England, that was too hard to say and became 'love', a close enough sound.
Yet one more thing: it is said that many years ago when tennis was played in France, it was called 'Tennez' which is "Take this" and again, when the game took its modern flavor, the name close enough became tennis.
It is not important of those stories are true or not, but if you love the game, all those stories are nice enough.
2007-02-03 00:59:18 · answer #2 · answered by jeanh10s 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I took a look on line. Here's one of the things I found:
The origins of the 15, 30, 40 scores are thought to have medieval and French roots. It is possible a clock face was used on court, with a quarter move of the hand to indicate a score of 15, 30, and 45. When the hand moved to 60, the game was over.
Hope this helps.
2007-02-02 23:11:45 · answer #3 · answered by trombass08 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
good question i would also like to know the answer. have a star for your good question
2007-02-02 22:51:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋