<p class="smallerFont">The article you are about to read, along with any accompanying images, has been exclusively created and provided by Mark Milne, the owner of Thirty30 tennis. As such, he holds full responsibility for the accuracy, opinions, and completeness of the content presented herein. Please understand that the views and opinions expressed in this post belong solely to Mark Milne and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the entire organization. As a collaborative platform, we respect individuality and encourage sharing of unique insights and exciting development in tennis with our audience.</p> <h2>Alternative Scoring Formats to Conventional Tennis</h2> <p>There are quite a few options when it comes to alternatives to a traditional tennis match. One is Fast4, which is where each set is played for up to four games only, with a tie-break at 3-3, and there are no Advantage points played such as a “sudden-death” deuce. Then there’s Tie Break Tens, where matches are one Match Tie-break to ten points. Ultimate Tennis Showdown is another format that has been in the news lately because of its association with world-famous coach <strong>Patrick Mouratoglou</strong>. Matches consist of four timed 8-minute quarters using tie-break-like scoring.</p> <h2>The Necessity of Alternative and Shorter Formats of Tennis</h2> <p>At the core is the fact that tennis, like other sports in the world, requires some evolution. There is a definite need to get a younger, fresher audience to the game and one way of attracting these new fans is to offer them a shorter format.</p> <h3>History & Origins of Thirty30 Tennis</h3> <p>Arbroath, Scotland-based <strong>Mark Milne</strong> is an enthusiast of all racket sports, but tennis got a bit of special attention after he watched the Wimbledon Men’s singles final of 1972 between Stan Smith and Elie Nastase on a small black and white television, during a family holiday to Scarborough. Speaking to Milne, the creator of <strong>Thirty30 tennis</strong>, we understand the story of how this format of the game came to be - and it is an interesting one!</p> <p>Milne explained that growing up in Scotland during the 1970s and 80s, tennis was very much a summer sport played from April to September before racquet players moved indoors for the winter to take to badminton or squash. The inventor added that:</p> <p><span class="fst-italic">In early winter 2016, I decided to call it a day with my long-term squash-playing partner – we had played each other twice a week for almost 15 years for fun and exercise. I was looking for something else to do during the following winter months. I came across Touchtennis, the new updated faster version of Short Tennis, which is now played with 21″ strung racquets, a faster more dense sponge ball, and is typically played indoors on a badminton court over a low net in a 1-hour court booking slot.</span></p>

<p><span class="fst-italic">I got together with a hitting partner and we started playing twice a week at the local Sports Centres in Arbroath. It was great fun and great exercise. We started off using the ‘old’ Short Tennis scoring method where matches are best-of-3 sets, players serve two points at a time alternately using point per rally scoring and sets are played to 11 points, lead by 2 points.</span></p> <p>What Milne and his hitting partner decided was to use traditional tennis rules while playing Touchtennis, but that extended their game time beyond the one-hour court booking slot. With no winner decided within an hour, Milne decided to remedy that by using a method his coach had used as a kid to help him play the “big points” better – start the games at 30-30.</p> <p>He said: <span class="fst-italic">We started playing best-of-3 sets matches using the 30-all game starts. With a bit of experimenting with the ‘change of ends’ rule (it is ‘doubled up’ in <strong>Thirty30 tennis</strong> – some games are over in only two points and the conventional ‘change of ends’ rule resulted in changing ends too quickly) and the use of the nine point Short Set tie-break at six games all in a set, we had a format where a best-of-3 sets tennis match was invariably completed in the time-frame of one hour.</span></p> <h3>The Advent of Thirty30 Tennis</h3> <p><span class="fst-italic">A set was taking on average no longer than 20 minutes to complete – the game score ticked over much more quickly and every second point played was a game point! Much more exciting! Then, in what I call a “light-bulb” moment towards the end of 2016 I woke up in the middle of the night and decided that this shorter faster-paced format would be called <strong>Thirty30 tennis</strong>.</span></p> <p>The game got its name because each game starts at thirty-all or thirty-thirty. As Milne explains, <span class="fst-italic">When “30-all” is written as “30-30” it is read as “thirty-thirty” and the clue would be in the name – it says what it does on the tin! – <strong>Thirty30 tennis</strong> – every game starts at “thirty-thirty” (“30-all”).</span></p> <div class="text-center mt-2 mb-4"> <p class="primary-color fs-3 mb-2">Follow the link for more details!</p> <a class="btn btn-primary" href="https://www.thirty30tennis.com" type="button" target=”_blank”>Thirty30Tennis.com</a> </div> <p>You still get to Deuce and play out the Advantage points, but the games are a lot quicker than in the normal game of tennis. The scoring method, other than starting at thirty-thirty, is the same as traditional tennis and the DNA of tennis is maintained.</p> <p>Especially impressive is the number of people around the world who play <strong>Thirty30 tennis</strong>. There are testimonials from a lot of players in the USA and Canada, but also India, Japan, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and South Africa!</p> <h2>The Future of Thirty30 Tennis</h2> <p>There is no doubt tennis needs to evolve, and younger audiences need to be captured as the sport faces stiff competition from not just other sports but also many other modern distractions. <strong>Thirty30</strong> inventor Milne is looking for as many tennis fans as possible to try playing this format and to help spread the word.</p> <div class="p-3 bg-blueseethrough rounded-3 text-white"> <h3 class="text-center">A Quick Guide to the Rules of Thirty30 Tennis</h3> <ol> <li>All Games start from 30-30, announced “thirty-thirty”</li> <li>If a Set reaches 6-6, a nine-point Tie Break (first to 5 points) is played, with ‘sudden-death’ at 4-4</li> <li>No Tie Break in the final Set</li> <li>Change of Ends after the first two games and then every four after that</li> <li>Alternate Servers for the start of each Set</li> </ol> </div>