What do umpires say when match starts ?

Hello,

A question about the umpires and what they say in an official match : when a match begins, they say "first set", then "Mr X to serve", then "level" or "none all" or "the ball" or ... something like that.
I'm not a native english speaker so I do not clearly understand what they say, and I asked to some friends but they didn't know either.
What is this mysterious word ?

Thanks

"First set.  So-and-So to serve.  Love all!!"

and at the end:  "game so-and-so.  so-and-so wins so-and-so set 11-9.  so-and-so leads 2-0 ("2 games to love").

as a french person, you are probably wondering why english-speaking people say "love" for zero.  well, actually, that "love" is not "l'amour," but actually the english prononciation of the french word "l'oeuf."  i guess the english started using that, cuz the number zero looks like an egg...

antares7364 wrote: takaaki wrote: as a french person, you are probably wondering why english-speaking people say "love" for zero.  well, actually, that "love" is not "l'amour," but actually the english prononciation of the french word "l'oeuf."  i guess the english started using that, cuz the number zero looks like an egg... Wow ... Someone to confirm that ?

That is correct - in jeu de pomme, that's how they announced zero (an egg) and then it was transferred to English.

JimT wrote: antares7364 wrote: takaaki wrote: as a french person, you are probably wondering why english-speaking people say "love" for zero.  well, actually, that "love" is not "l'amour," but actually the english prononciation of the french word "l'oeuf."  i guess the english started using that, cuz the number zero looks like an egg... Wow ... Someone to confirm that ? That is correct - in jeu de pomme, that's how they announced zero (an egg) and then it was transferred to English.

forgive me, jim, but that's jeu de paume (palm), as opposed to jeu de pomme (apple).  and it's pronounced slightly differently, too--"paume" rhymes with "home" and "pomme" rhymes with "hum."  well, almost...

LOVE --> EGG --> SET & MATCH is wrong IMHO even though closer to reality.

LOVE --> SET & MATCH --> EGG sounds more logical to me. At least it gives hope.

Great :

When the players are ready, call �love-all� or �zero-zero�, pointing to and naming the first server.
[...]
When each player or pair has scored, say, 4 points the score may be called either as �4-4� or �4-all�; the score 0 may be expressed as either �zero� or �love�.