Golden set explained

In tennis, a golden set is a set which is won without losing a single point. This means scoring the 24 minimum points required to win the set 6–0, without conceding any points.

In professional tennis, this has occurred twice in the main draw of top-level events. It has also happened a number of times in the pre-tournament qualifier of the lowest-level events. Bill Scanlon had a golden second set in his win over Marcos Hocevar at the 1983 Delray Beach WCT event. Yaroslava Shvedova had a golden first set in her win over Sara Errani at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships.[1] Steffi Graf came close to achieving the feat in the finals of the 1989 Virginia Slims of Washington tournament, winning the first five games to love against Zina Garrison, before winning the match 6–1, 7–5.[2] At the 2023 Western & Southern Open, Taylor Fritz won the first five games to love in his round of sixteen match before his opponent, Dusan Lajovic, retired.

A golden match is when a player does not lose a single point in the entire match. There are five documented cases of this at low-level events. Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman did so in a 1910 amateur match in the state of Washington. Then it happened twice in France in the qualifiers of lowest-level professional events, two of them in the span of two months, both against the same 55-year-old man, Tomas Fabian.[3] A golden match occurred in the qualifiers of an ITF Men's World Tennis Tour event in Doha in 2019, where Krittin Koaykul beat Artem Bahmet.[4] [5] Bahmet was a professional sports bettor who had entered the tournament without having played tennis before; his associate bet against him and won roughly €3,000.

List of occurrences

Main draws of top-level professional events are in boldface.

Player Event RoundOpponent Final score Date Notes
Hazel Hotchkiss1910 Washington State Championships, Seattle, WashingtonSF Mrs. Huiskamp 6–0, 6–312 Aug 1910[6]
Pauline Betz1943 Tri-State tournament, Cincinnati, OhioF Catherine Wolf6–0, 6–21943[7]
Bill Scanlon1983 Delray Beach WCT1R Marcos Hocevar6–2, 6–022 Feb 1983Recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Tine Scheuer-Larsen1995 Fed Cup Europe/Africa ZoneRR Mmaphala Letsatle6–0, 6–09 May 1995[8]
Yaroslava Shvedova2012 Wimbledon Championships3R Sara Errani6–0, 6–430 Jun 2012Only golden set in main draw of a Major.
Julian Reister2013 US Open qualifyingQ2 Tim Pütz6–7(3–7), 6–4, 6–020 Aug 2013Only golden set in third set.[9] [10]
Stefano Napolitano2015 Distal & ITR Group Tennis Cup qualifyingQ2 Augusto Virgili6–0, 6–37 Jul 2015[11] [12]
Katarina Zavatska2015 Chang ITF Pro Circuit – Bangkok $25,000 qualifyingQ2 Thanyathorn Putthaun6–0, 6–012 Dec 2015
He Yecong2016 Qingdao ATP Challenger qualifyingQ2 Wang Honghan6–0, 6–07 Aug 2016[13]
Benjamin Tullou2016 France F17 Futures qualifying, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, FranceQ1 Tomáš Fabián6–0, 6–03 Sep 2016[14]
Joffrey de Schepper2016 France F23 Futures qualifying, Rodez, FranceQ1 Tomáš Fabián6–0, 6–015 Oct 2016Amateur opponent. Fabián won one point, avoiding another golden match against him.[15]
Luis David Martínez2017 Morelos Open qualifyingQ1 Manfred Brandes Vogt6–1, 6–018 Feb 2017[16]
Dan Added2018 France F5 Futures qualifying, Poitiers, FranceQ2 Freddy Prioton6–0, 6–011 Mar 2018Golden match.[17]
Krittin Koaykul2019 Doha M15 qualifying, Doha, QatarQ1 Artem Bahmet6–0, 6–08 Dec 2019Golden match.[18] [19]
Jessie Aney2021 W60 San Bartolomé de Tirajana qualifying, SpainQ1 Heranne Excellent6–0, 6–015 Aug 2021In the first set.[20]
Anastasia Sysoeva2022 W25 Naples, Florida qualifying, USAQ2 Fenni Lian6–0, 6–017 May 2022In the second set.[21]
Emily Seibold2024 W15 Krško main draw, Slovenia1R Denise Hrdinkova6–3, 6–016 Jul 2024

Notes and References

  1. News: Yaroslava Shvedova joins the exclusive 'golden set' . BBC Sport Sport.
  2. News: Graf Trounces Garrison . The New York Times . 20 February 1989 .
  3. Web site: Joffrey De Schepper beat 55-year-old Tomas Fabian 6–0 6–0 in one of the fastest matches in tennis history!. 17 October 2016 .
  4. Web site: Украинец заявил друга на теннисный турнир, поставил против него и заработал. Удивительно, но им за это ничего не будет . The Ukrainian invited a friend to a tennis tournament, bet against him and made money. Surprisingly, they won't be punished for it . Niktin . Pavel . 11 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240602180730/https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/nitkina/2662321.html . 2 June 2024 . live . 2 June 2024 . ru.
  5. Sport Ukraine . Worst Tennis televised performance of all time.. (0-6,0-6 golden match lost 48/48) . 10 December 2019 . video . 2 June 2024 . YouTube.
  6. News: 1910-08-13. Miss Hotchkiss and Divine Star. 11. The Spokesman-Review.
  7. Book: S. Smith, Phillip. From Club Court to Center Court. 2010. 978-0-9712445-8-0. 22. 2010.
  8. [Politiken]
  9. Web site: Tennis: Julian Reister réalise un historique "golden set". 23 August 2013.
  10. Web site: Match Stats . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130901165743/http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/stats/day1/11125ms.html . 2013-09-01 .
  11. Web site: Stefano Napolitano's Golden Set (Italian).
  12. Web site: Thirty-Three Points Won In A Row? It Happened. . Josh Meiseles . 2015-07-09 . 2015-07-10.
  13. Web site: Ein perfekter Satz – 2 Chinesen sorgen für historisches Ereignis. tennisnet. 8 August 2016.
  14. Web site: Weltpremiere! Franzose Benjamin Tullou spielt "Golden Match". tennisnet. 3 September 2016.
  15. Web site: Rodez (ITF) – Joffrey de Schepper pas loin du golden match. www.tennisactu.tv.
  16. Web site: ATP Challenger Tour on Twitter.
  17. Web site: Golden match alert! Dan Added writes history against Freddy Prioton. 12 March 2018 .
  18. https://www.itftennis.com/en/tournament/france-f5-futures/fra/2018/m-fu-fra-05a-2018/draws-and-results/
  19. Web site: El peor tenista del mundo: El despropósito de Artem Bahmet en Catar. 9 December 2019.
  20. Web site: W60 San Bartolome de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) 2021 | ITF .
  21. Web site: W25 Naples, FL 2022 Tennis Tournament | ITF .