Rossmoor Tennis Club

located in Walnut Creek, California

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Thu, Mar 28, 2024

We now take the tiebreaker for granted, but in 1959 >>>

When did tennis players start using the tiebreak?

From Inside Tennis Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014:

"We now take the tiebreaker for granted.  But in 1959, Jimmy Van Alen- the 14th richest man in America, who was known as 'the Newport Bolshevik,' wrote a letter to World Tennis Magazine detailing an arcane scoring system which included a 9-point tiebreak.

It eventually morphed into the current 12-point tiebreak we know so well."

From Wikipedia and GQ: The tiebreaker format was introduced in 1973.   However, among the Grand Slam tournaments, only the US Open uses the tiebreaker format in the final set.   The Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and Olympic Tennis instead use the advantage set rules in the final set, in which there can be an indefinite number of games until there is a winner.    For example, this resulted in the record-obliterating Isner/Mahut match at Wimbledon 2010, which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes over 3 days. John Isner eventually defeated Nicolas Mahut with a passing double-handed backhand to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.    The match also broke records for the longest set, the most games in a set (138), the most aces in a match by one player (Isner: 113), total aces (216), and most points scored (Mahut: 502).    One more interesting statistic is that, in the final set,  Mahut served to stay in the set 64 games in a row- an amazing display of fortitude.