Why do we say ‘match point’ in tennis?

‘Match Point’, a 2005 film directed by the famous American film director Woody Allen and even written by himself, was invited to the Cannes Film Festival’s non-competitive section that year. It is about a tennis instructor ‘Chris’ who has a strong desire for success, who becomes close with ‘Tom’, who is a tennis student and son of the wealthy British family, and continues to meet his younger sister ‘Chloe’. ‘Match Point’ refers to the last point that concludes the match, metaphorically dealing with important moments in life where morality, greed, and desire affect. It is a word usually used when talking about the last point that determines victory or defeat in tennis, volleyball, badminton, table tennis, etc.

In order to win a tennis match, you must win sequentially in a scoring system calculated in the order of points, games, sets, and matches. The first to get 4 points wins the game, the first to get 6 games wins the set. In an official match, a match is won when a man wins three sets and a woman wins two sets. (Episode 932 of this corner, ‘Why does tennis use a strange ‘point’, Ep. 976 ‘Why does tennis say ‘game point’?, Ep. 977 ‘Why does it say ‘set point’? In sports,

when a game is called a match in Englishㅋㅋㅋ벳, it includes the meaning of playing the game at the same level as each other.

English ‘match’ has the meaning of a match in the noun form. A match is a compound of phosphorus and lead that causes friction with each other to generate fire. In this sense, it is used as a verb form to mean to harmonize. In sports terms, it was used to mean that each other’s skills were equal enough to play the game.

(See episode 484 of this corner, ‘ What does ‘match’ mean in ‘Match Point’?) evolved into In the 1300s, it was used to mean competing with each other, and from the 1540s, it was used as a sports term to mean a game. According to the American Dixon Baseball Dictionary, the word match has been used since the first appearance of baseball in 1845. It was defined as a match where players made up of regular members of the club officially had a game. In the Knickerbocker Rule, an early rule of baseball, it was explained that ‘even if a game is played as a non-member without enough members to exercise, it can be recognized as a match’.

Match Point is a compound word of match meaning game and point meaning score. Since a match is the game itself, a match point is the score that ends the game. To be precise, the match point refers to the last point that concludes the match. It is estimated that it began to be used after the tennis game rules were created in England in 1870.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic bounces the ball a lot especially when serving at the match point. I am preparing for the moment to serve differently while concentrating on breathing. He serves only when he is ready. He puts the service within the 25 second time limit between points as well. ‘Tennis Emperor’ Roger Federer, ‘Soil God’ Rafael Nadal and Wimbledon, French Open, Australian Open, and other major world tournaments, such as this often produced. At the climax of the game, he showed extreme immersion to win the game.