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
W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
Main draws of top-level professional events are in boldface.
Player | Event | Round | Opponent | Final score | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1910 Washington State Championships, Seattle, Washington | SF | ![]() |
6–0, 6–3 | 12 Aug 1910 | [6] |
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1943 Tri-State tournament, Cincinnati, Ohio | F | ![]() |
6–0, 6–2 | 1943 | [7] |
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1983 Delray Beach WCT | 1R | ![]() |
6–2, 6–0 | 22 Feb 1983 | Recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. |
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1995 Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone | RR | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 9 May 1995 | [8] |
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2012 Wimbledon Championships | 3R | ![]() |
6–0, 6–4 | 30 Jun 2012 | Only golden set in main draw of a Major.[1] |
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2013 US Open qualifying | Q2 | ![]() |
6–7(3–7), 6–4, 6–0 | 20 Aug 2013 | Only golden set in third set.[9][10] |
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2015 Distal & ITR Group Tennis Cup qualifying | Q2 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–3 | 7 Jul 2015 | [11][12] |
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2015 Chang ITF Pro Circuit – Bangkok $25,000 qualifying | Q2 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 12 Dec 2015 | |
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2016 Qingdao ATP Challenger qualifying | Q2 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 7 Aug 2016 | [13] |
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2016 France F17 Futures qualifying, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France | Q1 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 3 Sep 2016 | [14] |
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2016 France F23 Futures qualifying, Rodez, France | Q1 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 15 Oct 2016 | Amateur opponent. Fabián won one point, avoiding another golden match against him.[15] |
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2017 Morelos Open qualifying | Q1 | ![]() |
6–1, 6–0 | 18 Feb 2017 | [16] |
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2018 France F5 Futures qualifying, Poitiers, France | Q2 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 11 Mar 2018 | Golden match.[17][18] |
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2019 Doha M15 qualifying, Doha, Qatar | Q1 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 8 Dec 2019 | Golden match.[18][19] |
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2021 W60 San Bartolomé de Tirajana qualifying, Spain | Q1 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 15 Aug 2021 | In the first set.[20] |
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2022 W25 Naples, Florida qualifying, USA | Q2 | ![]() |
6–0, 6–0 | 17 May 2022 | In the second set.[21] |
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2024 W15 Krško main draw, Slovenia | 1R | ![]() |
6–3, 6–0 | 16 Jul 2024 |
References
- ^ a b "Yaroslava Shvedova joins the exclusive 'golden set'". BBC Sport Sport.
- ^ "Graf Trounces Garrison". The New York Times. 20 February 1989.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Niktin, Pavel (11 December 2019). "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] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2 June 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
- ^ Sport Ukraine (10 December 2019). Worst Tennis televised performance of all time.. (0-6,0-6 golden match lost 48/48) (video). YouTube. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
- ^ "Miss Hotchkiss and Divine Star". The Spokesman-Review. 1910-08-13. p. 11.
- ^ S. Smith, Phillip (2010). From Club Court to Center Court (PDF) (2010 ed.). p. 22. ISBN 978-0-9712445-8-0.
- ^ Politiken, 10 May 1995, 1st Section, p.10
- ^ "Tennis: Julian Reister réalise un historique "golden set"". 23 August 2013.
- ^ "Match Stats". Archived from the original on 2013-09-01.
- ^ "Stefano Napolitano's Golden Set (Italian)".
- ^ Josh Meiseles (2015-07-09). "Thirty-Three Points Won In A Row? It Happened". Retrieved 2015-07-10.
- ^ tennisnet (8 August 2016). "Ein perfekter Satz – 2 Chinesen sorgen für historisches Ereignis".
- ^ tennisnet (3 September 2016). "Weltpremiere! Franzose Benjamin Tullou spielt "Golden Match"".
- ^ "Rodez (ITF) – Joffrey de Schepper pas loin du golden match". www.tennisactu.tv.
- ^ "ATP Challenger Tour on Twitter".
- ^ "Golden match alert! Dan Added writes history against Freddy Prioton". 12 March 2018.
- ^ a b https://www.itftennis.com/en/tournament/france-f5-futures/fra/2018/m-fu-fra-05a-2018/draws-and-results/ [bare URL]
- ^ "El peor tenista del mundo: El despropósito de Artem Bahmet en Catar". 9 December 2019.
- ^ "W60 San Bartolome de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) 2021 | ITF".
- ^ "W25 Naples, FL 2022 Tennis Tournament | ITF".