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The Wimbledon Championships is one of the most exciting professional tennis tournaments of the year. With multiple events taking place over a complete fortnight, it’s definitely one of the best two weeks of tennis you can probably get. And while this tournament is well known for its traditions, some tennis fans forget that not all events follow the same format.
Collectively, events like the Wimbledon doubles, singles, mixed doubles, and others all fall under the banner of the Wimbledon Championships. However, not all of the events play the same number of sets, and they do not all follow the same rules. If you’ve watched Wimbledon in the past, you will probably have an idea of what these rules are.
If all of this is new to you, don’t worry, for I will be explaining one of the most commonly misunderstood things about the doubles events today – the number of sets played.
How many sets played in the Wimbledon doubles tournaments?
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As mentioned above, there are different rules for different events at Wimbledon. For example, the men’s singles is played using the best of five set format, while the women’s singles is played using the best of three set format. This format changes even further when looking at junior, wheelchair, and quad events, which is consistent with other Grand Slams, too.
So, what does all of this mean for the doubles competitions at Wimbledon? Well, let me give you the specifics right now.
Men’s and women’s doubles
Although the men’s and women’s singles events play a different number of sets, this does not hold true when you look into the doubles events. As it happens, both the men’s and women’s doubles tournaments at Wimbledon compete using the best-of-three-set format. At the same time, both of these events follow the Wimbledon final set tie break rule.
This means that if the third and final set reaches 6-6 in games, the match will be decided using a 10-point tie break. This is also known as a championship tie break, and such a rule is also applied to the single’s events. As for the mixed doubles, it’s a different story, as explained in the next section.
Mixed doubles
Looking further beyond the men’s and women’s doubles, there is also the mixed doubles that entertain fans at Wimbledon. The draw for this tournament is slightly smaller, but it is still a great event to watch if you get a chance. As for the format of the mixed doubles, this is also played under the best of three set rules.
However, in the mixed doubles event, if a match goes to a third set, the game is decided immediately by a 10-point tiebreak. This means that mixed doubles matches do not play a full third set in order to decide the match. And the whole reason that the rule is structured this way is to keep things moving along in the tournament while avoiding too many schedule delays – as has proved problematic in the past!
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