Check the duration of tennis set including the longest ever played tennis set in the world that marked history.
A tennis set refers to the number of games to be played before the winner is announced.
How Long Is A Tennis Set? A single set of tennis can last about 30 minutes to 1 hour for women and about 45 minutes to 1hour 30 minutes for men. In some cases, the time to complete a tennis set is much shorter than the average or can take much longer than the normal average time.
Generally, how many sets in tennis are two main types of tennis sets that are commonly played at the international levels namely;
- Best of three sets
- Best of five sets
A single set comprises of 6 games. Therefore, best of three sets contains 18 games while best of five sets contains 30 games. Thus average games in a tennis match is 18-30 games.
However, due to the issue of tie breaks more games can be played for a single tennis match to be complete. For instance, during the longest tennis game in 2010 that lasted over 11 hours the total games played were 183 games.
Duration Of Best Of Three Sets
A complete best of three sets can last about 1.5-3hours on average. Both men and women can play best of three sets.
In a best of three set, a winner is selected after winning the first two sets of the game.
If the players have a tie after the playing the first two sets, a tie break game is played.
Duration Of Best Of Five Sets
A complete best of five sets can last about 2.5-5hours on average. Only men play the best of five sets.
Specific laid down tennis rules by the International Tennis Federation for winning a tennis set. A winner of the best of five sets is the one who wins the first three sets of the game.
A tie break game can also be played to break a tie and for a winner to be announced.
Tennis Scoring Affects Duration Of Tennis Match
Generally, a tennis match gets extended at tie. When players have equal score, a tie break game needs to be played until the winner emerges. Several ties can still be realized and the game has to go on and on until the tie is broken. Thus, there is no a specific time limit for a tennis match.
Tennis rules of scoring is special and requires tennis score to be love, 15, 30, 40, all, deuce, ad in, or ad out.
Here is an overview of tennis scoring system
| Tennis Scoring Point | Scored Points |
| Love | 0 |
| 15 | 1 |
| 30 | 2 |
| 40 | 3 |
| All | Tied Score |
| Deuce | Tie Score at 3 points |
| Ad in | Server wins 1 point after deuce |
| Ad out | Receiver wins 1 point after deuce |
Love in tennis is the first point of scoring in tennis meaning a score of zero. If both players have scored zero points, the score is termed as love-all. All is a tie score. Deuce is a special tie score with both players having equal of 3 points each.
Tie break games has to be played to break the ties. For instance, after a deuce score a tie break game is played. A player has to win 2 consecutive points after the deuce to be declared the winner. It is because winning a single point after the deuce point can either be an ad in or and ad out.
As recorded in TheGuardian.com, the highest number of deuce in tennis is 37 deuces in a single game played by Anthony Fawcett and Keith Glass in 1975.
Longest Tennis Set
Often, the average time can go way overboard. The longer a tennis set last the longer the match. The longest tennis match occurred in 2010 for the men’s single and in 1984 for the women’s single.
In 2010, the longest tennis match lasted over 11 hours at Wimbledon Championships for the men’s singles. The match was best of five sets. The match was played by John Isner and Nicholas Mahut. The final score was 6-4, 3-6, 7-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68. Memories of longest match can be visualized in BBC.com.
In 1984, the match lasted over 6.5 hours. It was the longest best of three sets for the women’s singles. The match was being played by Vicki Nelson and Jean Hepner with a final score of 6-4, 7-6.
Conclusion
A tennis set can last at least 30 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. How many sets in a tennis match are two; best of five sets and best of three sets. The total sets dictates the overall time the game can last. So how long average tennis match can last is about 1.5 hour to 5 hours.
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