Watch: Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa's hilarious attempt at explaining the tennis scoring system
Aryna Sabalenka and a few of the WTA players who made an appearance in the recently-released Netflix tennis documentary 'Break Point,' were asked to try and explain the tennis scoring system to a layman.
Despite being at the top of the game for a long time, Sabalenka, Paula Badosa, Maria Sakkari, and Ajla Tomljanovic can be seen struggling to explain the way the scoring system works in tennis. World No. 25 Badosa starts:
"So it's love, 15-love, 30-love, 40-love, deuce if it's 40-all, and then it's advantage. But then if you have six-all, then you have to play the tie-break. And that's one set and in a match, you have to win two. If it's one set all, you play a third one."
World No. 7 Sakkari, meanwhile, stumbled over her words with a smile but tried her best in the video shared by the WTA.
"So the first one to get to six... six games... if it goes to five all, then you play to seven. But then again if you get to six all, then it goes to eight points and then et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, like you can be playing forever," Sakkari said.
34th-ranked Tomljanovic was the most confident of the lot in her explanation, clearly interpreting what happens at deuce.
"So you need to win at least four points to win the whole game. But if it gets to three-all, then you just have to win two points in a row to win the game," Tomljanovic said.
World No. 2 Sabalenka, who won her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2023 Australian Open, had the most exhilarating response, as she gave up without even trying and burst into laughter herself.
"It's so super complicated. Doesn't matter. You will understand," she said.
Reacting to the clip, Badosa took to social media after she couldn't resist laughing at Aryna Sabalenka's response.
"Hahaha Sabalenka. I love your explanation. PS: It's too complicated to explain," Badosa wrote.
The Belarus player replied by saying:
"There's no way I would explain it."
"It's great that she’s been able to emotionally rebound" - John McEnroe on Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka fought back from a set down to beat 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybkina in the 2023 Australian Open final and lift her first Major. Before this triumph, the Belarusian had reached three Grand Slam semifinals and won four WTA 1000 titles.
Tennis icon John McEnroe expressed his joy at watching Sabalenka emerge victorious after struggling for so long, calling it a "great thing" for women's tennis. Hailing Sabalenka as a major talent, the American was glad to see her perseverance rewarded in the end.
“I’m really happy for Aryna Sabalenka," McEnroe said. "This is the great thing for women’s tennis, seeing that type of emotion and seeing the perseverance that she’s been able to work her way out of and keep going."
"She’s a major talent and has been through a rollercoaster, and it’s great that she’s been able to emotionally rebound. It’s nice to see someone who’s had a lot of difficulties coming out the other end doing something as big as Sabalenka did."