Deuce

Most people know what deuce means in Padel and tennis. It’s when the score in a game reaches 40 all. But for most people, they’ve not been given any greater insight into the matter. We think you deserve better.

Now, some of you reading may know that tennis has it’s origins in France. In the twelfth century, monks (can you believe it!?) in northern France started playing a tennis-like game with their hands which evolved into real tennis across the following three centuries. That is the sport from which tennis takes it’s scoring. 

When players got to 40/40, they would call ‘deus’ (which as I’m sure you all know is Old French for ‘two’) — as in ‘right, now somebody has to win two points in a row to win the game’. So there it was. Deuce. Ready to cause groans and sighs to every weary player of tennis and Padel all over the world. 

How’s this for a fact? The most deuces ever in a game is 37. Played between Anthony Fawcett and Keith Glass in the 1975 Surrey Grass court championships, apparently a nearby ladies match started and finished in the time it took them to play just that 80 point game…

While we’re on the subject of strange terms in the Padel/tennis scoring system, a note on ‘love’. Tennis folklore has it that this term comes from English mispronunciation of the French ‘l’œuf’, or ‘the egg’. You can see the logic. An egg does look rather like a 0, and so would be a good choice of noun to represent an absence of points. Interestingly, a bit like a ‘duck’ in cricket, or to use the original term, a ’duck’s egg’.

This notion of ‘l’œuf’ is, however, false, though it does make quite a good story. The French don’t actually say anything like ‘love’. They say ‘zero’. Which somewhat lacks colour, don’t you think?

Most experts now agree that ‘love’ comes from the idea of playing for love. You can just hear some precious old Englishman getting teased for his complete lack of ability and complete lack of points, coming back with the exclamation: ‘Points!? I don’t need any points. I’m playing for love!’ ‘Well you’re certainly getting ‘love’ aren’t you, haha!’

Yeah, it’s not entirely convincing, is it? It’s a bit hard to know what to believe with this one. Well at least we’ve got ‘deuce’ more or less pinned down, and at the end of the day, the mystique of it all is quite fun. 

If you’re looking to find a court local to you, our list might be of some help. You can also check out our videos of Padel, or find out more about the sport here.