A new scoring system is going into effect in college tennis.
By Mason Clarke
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When a game in a tennis match is tied at 40-40 (deuce), spectators are accustomed to watching players win the advantage before winning the game.
That is, a player has to win by 2 points.
Viewers will no longer see the advantage system in college tennis. The official Division-I scoring system will move to a no-advantage, or no-ad, scoring system.
Rather than needing to gain an advantage before winning the game, with the new scoring system, a player needs only to win the next point after deuce.
Moreover, best-of-three matches will be cut shorter. In place of an entire third set, a match will now be decided by a single-game tiebreaker if the match is tied 1-1.
How will this affect tennis matches?
Because players only need to take a game by 1 point, they can now win games more quickly, something that the Division-I oversight committee believes will create more fan interest.
After a Division-I proposal for the no-ad scoring system in July 2014, it was tested by several conferences during last season.
The oversight-committee members liked what they saw.
In August, the committee decided to make the no-ad system the official method of scoring for all Division-I tennis championship matches.
“It emphasizes that every point counts and should make our championship matches even more exciting for fans,” Division-I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Committee head Tad Berkowitz said in a release.
While fans may experience quicker, more exciting tennis matches, how will no-ad affect players and teams?
The pressure will only be higher now in an already intense championship match.
At deuce, each player will now play to win the game immediately.
No-ad calls for big-time players to make big-time plays. Discipline and composure will affect the game greatly.
At such a high level of competition, any particular point can go either way. No-ad presents underdogs with the opportunity to win a point before their opponents can catch up.
Additionally, if a match is tied at 1-1, the players then play the tiebreaker, giving an underdog the chance to close the match out by winning only one more game.
As the new scoring takes over, players with discipline and, often, players not favored will have more opportunities for victories.
Through over a month of practice and a full weekend of competition, the Iowa women’s tennis team has displayed great discipline, often as underdogs.
The two could bode very well for the Hawks with no-ad scoring this fall.
Follow @makeclarson for Hawkeye women’s tennis team news, updates, and analysis.
