The tiebreak system first appeared at Wimbledon in 1971. Wimbledon initially used it when a set reached 8–8 in games, except in the deciding set, so players could still be required to win the final set by two clear games.
This was a significant change at a tournament famous for long matches. Before tiebreaks, a set could continue indefinitely after 6–6 or another tied score. The new rule was designed to prevent matches from becoming excessively long while preserving the traditional advantage-set format in the most decisive stage of a match.
The 1971 version was not the same as Wimbledon’s modern rule. In 1979, the tournament moved the tiebreak threshold to 6–6 for sets other than the final set. Wimbledon retained an advantage final set for decades before introducing a final-set tiebreak at 12–12 in 2019. In 2022, that procedure was standardised across the Grand Slam tournaments as a first-to-10-point tiebreak at 6–6.