Jean-François Pérès, edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP 06:17, May 30, 2023

The fortnight of Roland-Garros began this Sunday. If fans of the little yellow ball do not miss anything of the matches on the Parisian courts, do they know why the points system in tennis (15, 30, 40, game) is so atypical? Europe 1, the official radio station of the tournament, looks at the origins of this particular count.

Players face to face, separated by a net. Rackets, a ball and a referee. Simple concepts to evoke tennis, a game that nevertheless has a point system not so easy to understand... Official radio of Roland-Garros, Europe 1 wonders why the score is counted in 15, 30, 40 and game. In reality, we must go back to the origins of the jeu de paume to understand this system for the least tarabiscoté.

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In this French ancestor of tennis, popularized by Henri IV, each half of the court was divided into three parts, numbered 15, 30 and 45.

A system that has never been questioned

With each point won, the server was allowed to move 15 feet towards the net, that is to say about five meters, to make it easier for him. Logic would have dictated that the sequence would be 30, and then 45, but it was felt that moving forward 45 feet brought the server too close to the net. So we moved the line back to 40 feet to now reach 15, 30 and 40. It was this system that was taken up by Welsh Major Walter Clopton Windfield when he patented tennis in 1874.

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The way of counting points when there is a tie also goes back to the jeu de paume. Indeed, when the two opponents were at 40 everywhere, the referee said in old French "À deus!", which meant that you had to win two consecutive points to win the game. For the English, it has become "deuce" and for the French, "equality". Despite its strangeness, this system has never been questioned until today.