US Open, Hold the Americans Please Share26 August 2010 The US Open is the last in a series of four major tennis
tournaments held every year. The US Open, Australian
Open, Wimbledon, and the French Open are referred to as the
“grand slam” tournaments. The tournament will be held
over the next couple of weeks from August 30th-September
12th. Barring the unusual or noteworthy, don’t
expect a lot of coverage from us unless you ask for it.
Tennis tournaments can be a real snooze-fest, especially
because of the lack of star power or compelling storylines
at this year’s tournament. The BasicsTennis is a game with its roots in England where you hit a ball over a net to your opponent, hoping he will either hit it to you, out of bounds, or miss the ball, allowing it to bounce more than once on his side of the net. The scoring is simple, but like many things English, it’s unnecessarily complex. Most tournaments require a player to win a best of 3 or 5 sets. Each set requires a player to win six “games,” with at least two more games then his opponent. A game is decided by a player earning at least four points with a two point advantage. This is where the absurdity starts. Zero points is called “love”, one point is scored as “15,” two points is “30,” and three points is “40.” Four points is called “game.” If two players both have at least 40, it’s called “deuce.” After this, if a player scores a point, he’s said to have “advantage,” and must score another consecutive point to win. If the other player ties, it’s called deuce again. See what I mean? In actuality, the scoring has French origins, which probably makes most of us say, Ok, now I get it. The bizarre explanation of the origin of the scoring system is too lengthy for me to get into it here, but if you must know, shoot me an email and I’ll try to break it down for you. Send comments to: Leroy@notasportsguy.com |
Terminology:Deuce: A tie when each player has at
least 30 points. Leave a comment for Leroy
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