Who Serves Next in Tennis?

The three rules this is built on

1. Between games, the serve alternates

One player serves an entire game, then the other serves the next. Nothing about the score changes that — a game lasting eight deuces and a love game count exactly the same. So if you know who opened the set, the server of any game is fixed: odd-numbered games belong to the player who started, even-numbered games to the opponent. Ends are changed after every odd game — the first, third, fifth and so on — which is where the 90-second changeover falls.

2. In a tiebreak, one point then two at a time

The tiebreak breaks the pattern deliberately, so that neither player gets an advantage from serving first. Whoever was due to serve the next game serves one point. Their opponent then serves two, and service keeps changing every two points from there — points 1 | 2,3 | 4,5 | 6,7 and so on. Players change ends after every six points. The same pattern applies whether the tiebreak is played to seven (at 6–6 in a set) or to ten (a match tiebreak replacing a deciding set).

3. After a tiebreak, the first server receives

This is the one that catches people out. The player who served the first point of the tiebreak receives the first game of the next set — their opponent serves. It follows naturally from treating the tiebreak as a single game in the alternating sequence, but in the moment, having just played a long tiebreak, almost nobody remembers it. The calculator shows this answer alongside the tiebreak order.

What about doubles?

This is a singles calculator. Doubles adds a second layer — each team fixes its serving order for the set, and the receiving order is fixed independently, so working out the next server means tracking four players rather than two. Applying singles logic to a doubles match will give you the wrong answer often enough to be worth avoiding. A doubles version is on our list.