Love-15! Why Is Tennis Scoring So Weird?

While tennis isn’t exactly one of those weird sports (it’s impressively athletic), it does have the most bizarre concept of score. I have it on good authority the Gatorade jugs on the court are spiked with LSD. It’s the only logical explanation of tennis scoring.

No One Loves a Zero

Well, some do. Darts players covet the big goose egg when playing 301, as the objective is to subtract scores until one lands precisely at zero, but other than that, most sports reward larger scoring numbers. A zero generally means you’re losing and a waste of perfectly good oxygen.

Apparently, tennis players care about hurting opponents’ feelings, as there is no zero in the game. To avoid the emotional trauma of being temporarily shut out, they’ve invented a new, kinder, gentler term to communicate to players and observers alike that you’ve accomplished nothing thus far in the game. But don’t worry; everyone still has positive and affirming feelings for you.

Love Means You Stink

In relationships, love means never having to say you’re sorry. In tennis, love means your opponent isn’t sorry at all. They want you to have all the love for the whole match. That’s because “love” is another way of saying zero. Here’s the proof in indisputable form: a dad joke.

Q: Why should you never fall in love with tennis players?

A: Because to them, love means nothing.

You’re welcome. Use that on your kids if you haven’t earned a good eye roll in a while. One day, after years of learning to cope with embarrassment, they’ll one day remember the moment fondly.

En Français

There is one possible French origin of using “love” to designate zero in tennis.

Although I did flunk 7th-grade French (really), I still remember how to say “egg.” It’s “oeuf.” Take that, Mr. Morgan! In practice, you’d use the masculine definite article “le” before the “oeuf,” but since the French word for egg starts with a vowel, you write it “l’oeuf.”

While I don’t think “oeuf” and “love” sound much alike, enough people do believe this is the origin of saying “love” to indicate zero in tennis. An “egg,” or, more often, “goose egg,” often is used to communicate zero, and “oeuf” sounds a bit like “love,” so people just started calling zero points “love.”

It’s a weak theory in my book; most people believe the true origin lies elsewhere.

It’s Just a Game

A more likely origin story of “love” in tennis derives from the game’s civilized nature. For example, the Wimbledon tournament has been going on for nearly 150 years. In all that time, the organizers have maintained a strict all-white uniform policy, down to players’ underwear. Yes, really. It wasn’t until 2022 that the All England Club allowed women to wear dark underwear underneath white shorts or skirts, provided the shorts or skirt were longer. Why white? Early sport elders didn’t want to tarnish the genteel image of the game, with players’ clothing showing sweat stains. Apparently, it was considered bad form for athletes to perspire during play.

As a refined sport appreciated by high society, it might have been considered low-brow for players to compete primarily for the purpose of winning or (gasp!) earning a victor’s purse. Civilized athletes should play purely for the love of the game, with all after-effects being considered a fringe benefit not to be gloated over. And there you have the most popular origin theory of “love” equating to a score of zero.

Even though you’ve failed to score points, your “love” of the game keeps you on the court faithfully representing the noble sport of tennis.