Scoring a Safety: Is There One in Tennis?

There is no scoring play called a safety in tennis. The ITF’s scoring rules award no special value to a particular shot. Winning a point advances your score by one step.

In American football, an ordinary safety is worth two points under the 2026 NFL rules. That scoring play has no tennis equivalent.

What counts as a point in tennis?

You can win a point by hitting a legal shot your opponent cannot return, or because your opponent loses the point through an error or rule violation. For example, two consecutive service faults—a double fault—award the receiver one point, not two. Nothing is subtracted from the server’s score. These outcomes follow Rule 24 of the ITF’s 2026 Rules of Tennis.

A cautious shot that keeps the rally going has no special scoring value either. The point has not ended yet.

In a standard game, each player’s score progresses through love (zero), 15, 30 and 40, then game unless both players reach 40. The server’s score is called first. At 40–40, called deuce, winning the next point gives you advantage; winning the following point wins the game. Losing that following point returns the score to deuce. This is standard advantage scoring, as set out in ITF Rule 5.

Practise calling the next score

You can rehearse this without a racket. Imagine you are serving in a game using standard advantage scoring and call the score after each event:

Checkpoint: Can you explain why a double fault awards the receiver only one point, and why winning one point at deuce does not win a standard advantage game? If so, you have the key distinction. For games, sets, tiebreaks and the no-ad scoring alternative, continue with the complete tennis scoring guide.