The first point score in a tennis game is called 15.
Tennis uses distinctive calls rather than simply saying one, two, and three. Both players begin at “love,” meaning zero. The first point won makes the score 15, the second makes it 30, and the third makes it 40. A player normally needs four points, with a two-point lead, to win the game.
The sequence is not perfectly numerical because 40 follows 30 instead of 45. The origins of 15, 30, and 40 are associated with medieval French scoring traditions, but historians have not established one certain explanation. The popular clock-face theory is widely repeated, yet the historical evidence does not conclusively prove it.
A common mix-up is confusing a point score with a game score. “15” means one point has been won in the current game; it does not mean the player has won 15 points in the match. At 40–40, the score is usually called deuce, and a player must then win two consecutive points to take the game.