Golden set

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]

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 more recent televised Golden Match involved Krittin Koaykul beating Artem Bahmet during a qualifying match at ITF World Tennis Tour event in Doha, and scoring the minimum 48 points to win.^[4]

List of occurrences

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

DNQ

A

NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

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

Player	Event	Round	Opponent	Final score	Date	Notes
Hazel Hotchkiss	1910 Washington State Championships, Seattle, Washington	SF	Mrs. Huiskamp (first name unknown)	6–0, 6–3	12 Aug 1910	^[5]
Pauline Betz	1943 Tri-State tournament, Cincinnati, Ohio	F	Catherine Wolf	6–0, 6–2	1943	^[6]
Bill Scanlon	1983 Delray Beach WCT	1R	Marcos Hocevar	6–2, 6–0	22 Feb 1983	Recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Tine Scheuer-Larsen	1995 Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone	RR	Mmaphala Letsatle	6–0, 6–0	9 May 1995	^[7]
Yaroslava Shvedova	2012 Wimbledon Championships	3R	Sara Errani	6–0, 6–4	30 Jun 2012	Only golden set in main draw of a Major.^[1]
Julian Reister	2013 US Open qualifying	Q2	Tim Pütz	6–7^(3–7), 6–4, 6–0	20 Aug 2013	Only golden set in third set.^[8]^[9]
Stefano Napolitano	2015 Distal & ITR Group Tennis Cup qualifying	Q2	Augusto Virgili	6–0, 6–3	7 Jul 2015	^[10]^[11]
Katarina Zavatska	2015 Chang ITF Pro Circuit – Bangkok $25,000 qualifying	Q2	Thanyathorn Putthaun	6–0, 6–0	12 Dec 2015
He Yecong	2016 Qingdao ATP Challenger qualifying	Q2	Wang Honghan	6–0, 6–0	7 Aug 2016	^[12]
Benjamin Tullou	2016 France F17 Futures qualifying, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France	Q1	Tomáš Fabián	6–0, 6–0	3 Sep 2016	^[13]
Joffrey de Schepper	2016 France F23 Futures qualifying, Rodez, France	Q1	Tomáš Fabián	6–0, 6–0	15 Oct 2016	Amateur opponent. Fabián won one point, avoiding another golden match against him.^[14]
Luis David Martínez	2017 Morelos Open qualifying	Q1	Manfred Brandes Vogt	6–1, 6–0	18 Feb 2017	^[15]
Dan Added	2018 France F5 Futures qualifying, Poitiers, France	Q2	Freddy Prioton	6–0, 6–0	11 Mar 2018	Golden match.^[16]^[17]
Krittin Koaykul	2019 Doha M15 qualifying, Doha, Qatar	Q1	Artem Bahmet	6–0, 6–0	8 Dec 2019	Golden match.^[17]^[18]
Jessie Aney	2021 W60 San Bartolomé de Tirajana qualifying, Spain	Q1	Heranne Excellent	6–0, 6–0	15 Aug 2021	In the first set.^[19]
Anastasia Sysoeva	2022 W25 Naples, Florida qualifying, USA	Q2	Fenni Lian	6–0, 6–0	17 May 2022	In the second set.^[20]

References

1. "Yaroslava Shvedova joins the exclusive 'golden set'". BBC Sport Sport.
2. "Graf Trounces Garrison".
3. "Joffrey De Schepper beat 55-year-old Tomas Fabian 6–0 6–0 in one of the fastest matches in tennis history!".
4. Worst Tennis televised performance of all time. (0–6, 0–6 golden match lost 48/48), retrieved 2022-11-01
5. "Miss Hotchkiss and Divine Star". The Spokesman-Review. 1910-08-13. p. 11.
6. S. Smith, Phillip (2010). From Club Court to Center Court (PDF) (2010 ed.). p. 22. ISBN 978-0-9712445-8-0.
7. Politiken, 10 May 1995, 1st Section, p.10
8. "Tennis: Julian Reister réalise un historique "golden set"". 23 August 2013.
9. . Archived from the original on 2013-09-01.
10. "Stefano Napolitano's Golden Set (Italian)".
11. Josh Meiseles (2015-07-09). "Thirty-Three Points Won In A Row? It Happened". Retrieved 2015-07-10.
12. tennisnet (8 August 2016). "Ein perfekter Satz – 2 Chinesen sorgen für historisches Ereignis".
13. tennisnet (3 September 2016). "Weltpremiere! Franzose Benjamin Tullou spielt "Golden Match"".
14. "Rodez (ITF) – Joffrey de Schepper pas loin du golden match". www.tennisactu.tv.
15. "ATP Challenger Tour on Twitter".
16. "Golden match alert! Dan Added writes history against Freddy Prioton".
17. https://www.itftennis.com/en/tournament/france-f5-futures/fra/2018/m-fu-fra-05a-2018/draws-and-results/^{[bare URL]}
18. "El peor tenista del mundo: El despropósito de Artem Bahmet en Catar". 9 December 2019.
19. "W60 San Bartolome de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) 2021 | ITF".
20. "W25 Naples, FL 2022 Tennis Tournament | ITF".