# Tennis scoring question **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 23, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennis-scoring-question/500712 "2009-06-23T13:50:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennis-scoring-question/500712/21 "2009-06-29T19:09:34Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Real sports don’t base the entire scoring system around flowery, arty concepts or make up funny names for point totals. Please don’t explain cricket. 😛 Incidentally I don’t think the idea of games and sets is any more arty than at-bats and innings in baseball. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennis-scoring-question/500712/22 "2009-06-29T19:12:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Please don’t explain cricket. **The Rules of Cricket** You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game! ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennis-scoring-question/500712/23 "2009-06-30T06:46:31Z")
> [@Kiber](#): > > Well - to be fair - in baseball, a ball that has been hit ONCE is taken out of play. Compare that to the punishment a fuzzy little tennis ball gets over 9 games. And you want to talk about quiet - let’s talk about golf. Golfers hit a ball that is just sitting there doing nothing - yet they need silence? Meanwhile, an Andy Roddick serve is coming at your head at 140 mph - tell me what other sport has 140 mph balls heading towards you. A baseball is hit with a hard lump of wood with no give in it. A golf ball is hit with a stick that has a lump of metal stuck on the end, again no give A tennis ball is struck with a faggoty bat with strings on it that has loads of give. Tennis balls get relatively little punishment compared to the other two. “Fault”…“First service” heh ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennis-scoring-question/500712/24 "2009-06-30T08:36:06Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Some of the older debenture holders would be bound to get shirty. Oh, the relief of the occasional lob. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennis-scoring-question/500712.md?page=1)