Mondo Knows Facts
Tennis scores go 15, 30, 40 for old reasons
The numbers probably come from a clock face and a shortened forty-five One long-standing explanation is that points were called from a clock face in quarter hours, moving 15, 30, 45. The third call was shortened to 40 because it was quicker to say. Love, meaning zero, may come from the French word for egg, l'oeuf, for the shape of a nought. It sits in Mondo's sports collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Badminton is named after an English houseIt was demonstrated at Badminton House in Gloucestershire in the 1860sRugby's origin story is a legendThe tale says William Webb Ellis picked up the ball at Rugby School in 1823The tiebreak was introduced in 1970It first appeared at the US Open and settled a set level at 6-6Tennis balls turned yellow in 1972The ITF changed from white so television viewers could follow the ballWimbledon replaced its line judges in 2025Electronic calling took over every court after nearly 150 years of human callsThe Davis Cup began as a challenge between nationsFour Harvard players donated a silver bowl in 1900 for a match against Britain
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Tags: tennis, scoring, origins
Tennis scores go 15, 30, 40 for old reasons: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The numbers probably come from a clock face and a shortened forty-five. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a sports fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.