Tennis DFS: Scoring guide and what to look for

After five long months without professional tennis, we’re only three weeks into its return and an ATP Masters 1000 level event has arrived. Of course, the WTA is in New York as well for their Premier event. The fields you see over the next week is what you’ll see for the US Open, so we will be quite familiar with all these names over the next three weeks in DFS. This is going to be a short guide of what to expect over the next pair of events.

Scoring

• For the Western & Southern Open, both the men and women play best of three sets, so we’ll see the same scoring for both genders. In the US Open, the men will play best of five, which means the alternate scoring for Grand Slams will come into play. The scoring is scaled to reflect the best of three set scoring as closely as possible so there are no true advantages. Here’s a refresher for those who may not recall DraftKings’ scoring (or are looking to play Tennis DFS for the first time)
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DraftKings (Best of 3)

• Match played: 30 Points
• Games won: +2.5 Points
• Games lost: -2 Points
• Sets won: +6 Points
• Sets lost -3 Points
• Match won: +6 Points
• Aces: +0.4 Points
• Double faults: -1 Point
• Breaks: +0.75 Points (Win the opposing player's service game)
• Clean set bonus: +4 Points (Win a set 6-0)
• Straight set bonus: +6 Points (Win the match without losing a set)
• No double fault Bonus: +2.5 Points
• 10+ aces bonus: +2 Points

DraftKings (Best of 5)

• Match played: 30 Points
• Games won: +2 Points
• Games lost: -1.6 Points
• Sets won: +5 Points
• Sets lost -2.5 Points
• Match won: +5 Points
• Aces: +0.25 Points
• Double faults: -1 Point
• Breaks: +0.5 Points 
• Clean set bonus: +2.5 Points 
• Straight set bonus: +5 Points 
• No double fault bonus: +5 Points
• 15+ aces bonus: +2 Points

Court

• The USTA has moved to a new Laykold surface on their hardcourts, which were installed over the last few months. Laykold is a familiar surface to both the ATP and WTA. The ATP uses Laykold in Long Island, Miami and a number of Challenger level events, while the WTA is familiar with the surface in Miami and US Fed Cup. Laykold is generally a slow hardcourt, especially newly surfaced, however word out of the New York bubble is that the courts look quite fast, which would benefit those who hit with pace, and will increase the percentage of aces.

Roster construction

• There’s no real structure to building rosters, but generally, you want to avoid high double fault rate players, as a high volume of double faults will decrease both floor and ceiling. Chasing aces isn’t necessary, at least not in best of three scoring. The women are more volatile when it comes to holding serve, so quicker sets happen at a higher rate on the WTA tour. Quicker sets (i.e. 6-0, 6-1, etc.), are going to produce more points (or fewer, if you’re on the wrong side). The women also play a higher percentage of three-set matches, so their ceilings aren’t necessarily better than the men in best-of-three scoring.