Tennis Scores v Service Side
As the first service is always from the right side of the court, to the opponents right side, knowing where you are serving from can help you remember the score, and vice versa.
The Ad Court is the left side for the player, and the Deuce Court is the right side (see more tennis terms).
Here are the possible scores based on the serving side:
Ad Court
0/15
15/0
30/15
15/30
0/40
40/0
30/40
40/30
advantage (server or receiver)
Deuce Court
0/0
15/15
30/0
0/30
30/30
40/15
15/40
deuce
Related Pages
- Tennis Scoring
- Tennis Terms
- The Basic Rules of Tennis
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Old Comments
Commenting is closed on this page, some previous comments below which may answer your questions.
- I talked to a coach today about this and his explanation was easy to remember. If it took odd number of turns to get to the current score (ad court scores above) the serve needs to be done from the left court by whoever is serving. For even number of turns to get to the current score (deuce court scores above) the serve needs to be done from the right. Sudhanshu (2019)
- After reading this and other descriptions I'm still unsure of which is the ad court. All descriptions say it's the one on the left but for which player. Here it says it's on the left of "the player" but again, which player? Is it on the left of the serving player or the receiving player? So many descriptions, so little clarity.
- Hi Jeff, I hope you've been able to figure this out. If not, let me try: As players always stand diagonally opposite to each other during a serve, both players are always on their right hand side (or left hand side as the case may be) i.e. when I stand to serve on my right hand (imagine you were standing at the center mark, the portion of the court to your right is your right hand side), you will be standing on the other side of the court which is also your right hand side. For which court is Duece or Ad, I came up with this mnemonic after 4 years of playing tennis: LARD = Left side is Advantage, Right side is Deuce. Nelo Jeff Wilson (2020)
- I find this easier than memory for beginners... if the number of points to play to make the scores equal is even, next serve is on the Deuce side, odd then the Ad side.
e.g. 40/15, two points to 40/40 therefore Deuce side for serving. Tony B (2018)
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