Never watched tennis before? Or watched a few matches but couldn't follow the scoring? This page covers everything you need to enjoy the French Open — even if you've never picked up a racket.
Tennis uses a unique three-level scoring system: points within a game, games within a set, sets within a match.
Each game starts at "Love-Love" (0-0). Points are counted in this sequence:
| Score | Called |
|---|---|
| 0 | Love |
| 1st point | 15 |
| 2nd point | 30 |
| 3rd point | 40 |
| 4th point (game) | Game |
When both players reach 40, it's called Deuce. From deuce, a player must win two consecutive points to win the game: the first point at deuce is called Advantage. If the player with Advantage wins the next point, they win the game. If they lose it, the score returns to Deuce.
The origin is debated, but the most widely accepted explanation traces it to the French word "l'oeuf" (the egg) — a zero written as an egg shape. Tennis has French roots, and the term likely entered English-language scoring through the sport's early French influence.
To win a set, you must win 6 games, with a lead of at least 2 games. So 6-4 wins a set. 6-5 does not — play continues. At 6-6, most sets are decided by a tiebreak (explained below). One exception: at Roland Garros, a tiebreak was introduced for the final set only recently — check the current rules, as the format has evolved.
Grand Slam matches are played in different formats depending on gender:
The best-of-five format for men is what makes Grand Slams especially demanding. A player may win the first two sets, then lose the next two, and the match is level at 2-2. The fifth set becomes an entirely fresh battle under enormous physical and mental pressure.
When a set reaches 6-6, a tiebreak decides who wins the set.
A tiebreak is a mini-game played to 7 points, with a 2-point lead required to win. Points are counted normally (1, 2, 3...) rather than 15-30-40. The first player to reach 7 points with a 2-point lead wins the tiebreak — and therefore the set.
If the tiebreak reaches 6-6 itself, play continues until one player leads by 2. This means a tiebreak can theoretically go on for a very long time — tiebreaks reaching 20-18 or beyond are extremely rare but have happened.
Service alternates in tiebreaks: one player serves the first point, then players alternate every two points. The tiebreak switches service at 6-6 (or any multiple of 6 after that).
The French Open uses a tiebreak at 6-6 in the final set at 10 points (a "super-tiebreak" or "match tiebreak"). This was introduced relatively recently. Before the change, the final set at Roland Garros was played out without a tiebreak — leading to historically long matches. The 2004 first-round match between Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clément lasted 6 hours 33 minutes across two days — at the time, the longest match in Grand Slam history.
The French Open is the only clay court Grand Slam. The surface changes everything about how tennis is played.
On clay, topspin causes the ball to bounce sharply upward — often to shoulder height or above. This gives the defender more time to reach the ball but demands hitting from a physically awkward position. Power players who rely on flat, low-bouncing drives find their advantages reduced.
Average rally length on clay is significantly longer than on hard courts or grass. Serves lose more speed on clay, reducing the advantage of big servers. Points that end in 2 or 3 shots on grass may extend to 15 or 20 shots on clay. Physical endurance becomes a critical weapon.
Clay is the only surface where the ball leaves a visible mark when it lands. This means line calls can be verified by examining the mark — players can challenge a call by asking the umpire to inspect the clay. This is unique to the French Open among the four Grand Slams.
Clay players develop the ability to slide into their shots — using the surface friction to control momentum and set up for wide balls. Hard court or grass players transitioning to clay must learn sliding from scratch. It's a technical and physical skill that takes years to master safely.
Rain affects clay significantly. A wet clay court plays slower and heavier — the ball barely bounces and the surface becomes slippery. Wind creates additional chaos. The retractable roofs on Philippe-Chatrier and Simonne-Mathieu mitigate this, but outer courts are still exposed. A rainy day in Paris can cause significant schedule delays.
Roland Garros's clay surface is made from crushed red brick and stone — called "terre battue" in French. The distinctive red color comes from the brick. Players wear it — after a sliding approach, players will have red clay on their shoes, shorts, and sometimes their shirts. It's a visual marker unique to the clay season.
128 players. One champion. Seven wins required.
Grand Slam singles draws use a 128-player single-elimination bracket. Lose one match, and you're out. Win all seven, and you're champion. The path to the title goes: First Round (R128) → Second Round (R64) → Third Round (R32) → Fourth Round (R16) → Quarterfinals (QF) → Semifinals (SF) → Final.
The top 32 players in the world rankings are "seeded" — placed in the draw in a way that prevents them from meeting each other too early. Seeds 1 and 2 are placed on opposite halves of the draw, meaning they can only meet in the final. Seeds 3 and 4 are placed in opposite quarters, meaning they can only meet in the semifinals at the earliest.
Players ranked below 32 (or outside the top 32 entering the tournament) are unseeded and drawn randomly into the bracket — which is why a lower-ranked clay specialist can end up facing a top seed in the second round.
Tournament organizers can award "wild cards" — invitations to players who wouldn't otherwise qualify. Wild cards are typically given to local French players, former champions, or promising juniors. A wild card player enters the first round just like any other competitor.
Qualifying rounds take place in the week before the main draw. Players who lose in the final round of qualifying but whose opponent withdraws through injury become "lucky losers" — they enter the main draw in place of the withdrawing player. Lucky losers are occasionally dangerous; they arrive having just played several competitive matches and may be in sharper form than seeded opponents who haven't played in days.
Each day, the tournament publishes its "Order of Play" — the list of matches scheduled for that day, in the order they'll appear on each court. Matches start one after another; if a match runs long, the next match on that court is delayed. Top seeds and popular players are typically scheduled on the main show courts. The order of play is published the evening before each day of play.
Tennis beginners often struggle to identify when the important moments happen. Here's a guide.
In professional tennis, holding serve — winning your own service game — is expected. A player who loses their service game has been "broken." A break of serve is the decisive moment in most sets. Watch for when the score shifts to a break point: the server is vulnerable, and the returner has the chance to change the course of the set.
A break point occurs when the returner needs one more point to win the server's game. This is the most critical moment in a game — commentators will heighten their voice, the crowd noise will shift, and the server will be under maximum pressure. Players who can consistently convert break points, or who can save break points against them, win sets at the critical moments.
Every service point begins with two serve attempts. A fault (missing the first serve) leads to a second serve — typically slower and safer. If the second serve is also a fault, that's a double fault, and the point is automatically awarded to the returner. Great servers maximize first-serve percentage to avoid the vulnerability of second serves. On clay, where the serve loses speed, the first serve is even more important.
A "golden set" is when a player wins a set without losing a single point — winning every point 6-0 and every game within it without a single point dropping to the opponent. It has happened only a handful of times in professional tennis history and is one of the rarest statistical feats in sport. You're very unlikely to see one at Roland Garros — mention it to impress any tennis expert you're watching with.
The score tells you who's winning. These four concepts tell you why.
A winner is a shot the opponent cannot touch — it lands in the court and wins the point outright. A passing shot down the line that beats a rushing opponent, a serve the returner can't reach, an overhead smash — all winners. They signal a player has found a groove. Watch for winner streaks: they often mark the exact moment a match turns in one player's favor.
An unforced error is a miss the player had no excuse for — they were in position with time to hit, and sent the ball into the net or out anyway. At professional level, a player can hit 30 winners and still lose by committing 38 unforced errors. Broadcast stats show both numbers side by side; it's one of the most revealing pairs of figures in any match.
A forced error falls between the other two: the player missed, but only because the previous shot was so good it left no clean option. Credit belongs to the player who created the pressure, not the one who missed. Learning to identify forced versus unforced errors is what lets you see who is actually controlling a rally — not just who won the point.
When a player moves forward from the baseline toward the net, they are attacking — cutting off the opponent's response time and opening sharp angles. It's a calculated risk: the court behind them is exposed to a passing shot. On clay, net approaches are relatively uncommon because the high bounce gives the defender more time to set up a clean pass. When a player does come forward at Roland Garros, they've usually hit an excellent approach shot and seen a real opening.
On grass, the first four shots decide roughly two-thirds of all points — matches are shaped by big serves, quick returns, and short exchanges. On clay that same share falls below half. The ball slows on the surface, bounces higher, and points routinely stretch to 15 or 20 shots. Winners become harder to hit cleanly because the opponent can track down balls that would be unreachable elsewhere. Unforced errors therefore carry more weight: a careless shot at the end of a long rally wastes every well-constructed shot that came before it. The central tension of Roland Garros is patience versus the temptation to go for too much, too soon.
For a first-time viewer, the most approachable approach is to pick one match per day and watch it from the beginning — rather than flipping between many matches. Following a single match lets you understand the rhythm of scoring, see how a player's game plan evolves across sets, and feel the emotional arc of a competitive match. The French Open is on for two weeks — there's plenty of time to go deeper once you've got the basics.