Doubles function in the same way. Tiebreaks follow the set's established order of play, thus whomever is scheduled to serve next at the end of game twelve serves first in the tiebreak. This may repeat until there are no ties left in the match.
In a one-game match, the person who served last will be server first in the tiebreaker. This may cause some confusion since most people expect the person who was not serving to go first in a one-game match. But since the server doesn't affect which player goes first, they can be considered equal partners and will switch positions before beginning their service games.
Example: Let's say the men's singles final of the NCAA tennis tournament is tied at five sets all. There are two women's matches remaining in the day with all of the points won by the same team. The men's champion will be determined by a tiebreaker since it's necessary to win by two victories to take home the title. Since all five sets are still close, the champions will wait until the end of the day to see who wins them. If they remain tied, then the champion would be determined by a single match between the two players.
Since this situation never happens during a normal year, we need to know how it would be handled if it did.
If the set remains tied, then the same player would be expected to serve again.
In fact, it has happened twice before in major tennis events: once at the 2005 Wimbledon Championships during the second-round match between David Nalbandian and Andre Agassi and again at the 2007 US Open during the quarterfinals match between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. In both cases, the deciding set went to tiebreak, and each time it was Nalbandian who served first.
The reason this happens is that if the set is not finished in regular play, then it follows protocol for a tiebreaker to continue into sudden death time restrictions. Under these rules, if the first server fails to win a point within 15 minutes, then the opponent gets a new opportunity to serve. This can happen once or several times, depending on how many points were won by either side in the original set.
For example, let's say the first server wins the first two points of the breaker but loses the next three points while his or her opponent takes five games from the rack to finish off the first set.
In doubles, the opposing team's member who is scheduled to serve will serve these points. Every six points (e.g., when the score is 4-2), players or teams trade ends of the court, and to score this tiebreak game, you use "zero," "one," "two," "three," and so on. The tiebreak is won by the first player or team to win seven points by two points.
The important thing for beginners to know about doubles scoring is that there are always two sets of scores. One set of scores is for each player individually, while the other set of scores applies to both players combined. For example, if Player A wins a point but Player B loses it, then B has lost one point instead of Player A. This means that even though A won the game, B earned a share of the prize money because they had more winning shares than A. Shares are explained below.
At the end of each match, the total number of games played determines how many points each team earns. If one team wins more games than the other, they earn more points. Teams play a maximum of two matches per day with a three-hour time limit between matches. If a third match is needed to determine the champion, it is played immediately after the second match as long as all the teams agree to the continuation.
If a player or team fails to serve within the allotted time, an automatic zero is added to their score.
The opening point of the tiebreaker is served by the player who received in the previous game. The serve occurs and is performed from the deuce court (the right side of the center mark). They only serve the first point, while the opponent serves the following two. When the player who received reaches match point, he or she immediately wins the point and the entire match.
There are several ways to win points in tennis. You can win by score, 1-0, 2-1, or 3-3. If you lead by two games each after an appropriate number of games have been played, then you can force the third game by winning the second with a score of 3-1 (or 2-2 if it's past the normal serving time). If there is a fifth game needed to determine a winner, then the match is considered unfinished and there is no winner by default.
As long as a player is still able to compete they can continue to serve until one person reaches match point. Once match point is reached, the player cannot be saved by any further service winners. A match will often go to a fifth set to decide a winner, but this is not mandatory.
A match may also end in a tie if the players are still tied at five sets all. In this case, a tiebreak is used to determine a winner. See below for more information about how a tiebreak is played.
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