Billie Jean King has said that she “cannot stand” the current scoring system used in tennis, and that she would love to see it simplified. Tennis is currently scored in an incredibly unique way; a player must score four points to win a game, but a game has to be won by two points or more.

Tennis umpires also use different terminology in their scoring system, with a score of nil being called “love”, one point being called “15”, two points “30”, three points “40” and four points “game”. So if two players are drawn at 40-40, a contestant must win another two points to win a game.

A game tied at 40-all is dubbed a “deuce” and the point earned after a deuce is called an “advantage”. A consecutive point after an advantage wins the game. The first person to six games wins a set and sets are usually played out of the best of three or the best of five in tournament formats. With all of these rules and regulations in play, it makes the game incredibly confusing for new fans of the sport to get into – hence why King hopes for a change to the scoring system in the near future.

Taking to social media, the American tennis great wrote: “People ask me all the time about the future of the game we all love, and what, if anything, I would change about it if I could. So, here are my thoughts. Some of these may surprise you.” She then shared a video citing how she would change the sport in particular.

In which, she said: “I cannot stand the scoring – I think it’s harder to get new people into the sport, particularly young people. I think we should get rid of 15, 30, 40, game. We should have one, two, three four. If you have to win by two then at three-all, do two points in a row or whatever.

“But get rid of 15, 30, 40 game.” Elsewhere, King also noted that players should also have a name and number on their shirt to help promote them, as well as that there should be the same number of sets for men and women universally.

She added: “Every player should have their name and a number. Why? We need to promote our players like every other sport does. You look at basketball, you look at football, baseball – and their name and they have a number.

“I definitely want two out of three sets, okay? Or we have to play the same amount. Men and the women – because you get paid by media content and the women always get shorted on the content because of it.”

Currently, at Grand Slam competitions like Wimbledon, the Australian Open, The US Open and Roland Garros, men play the best of five sets, while women only play the best of three.