In tennis, a bagel is when the set ends with a score of 6–0.[1] An extremely rare type of bagel, where no point is lost, is called a golden set. Most bagel sets occur in the early rounds of tennis tournaments where the favorites play lower-ranked players, such as lucky losers or wild cards.
The term refers to the similarity between the shape of a zero and the shape of a bagel. The tennis term was coined by player Harold Solomon, and popularized by commentator Bud Collins.[2]
Statistics of the men's singles Grand Slam tournaments from 2000 to 2016 are as follows: at Wimbledon (grass surface), 127 bagels were made; at French Open (clay surface), 267; at the US Open Tennis Championship (hard surface), 275, and at the Australian Open (hard surface), 238.[citation needed]. Björn Borg (five-time Wimbledon champion and six-time French Open champion) recorded 20 6–0 sets at the French Open, and only 5 at Wimbledon.
For women in Grand Slam tournaments, a double bagel result is possible as the matches are best of three sets. In the Open Era, there has been a women's singles Grand Slam tournament match with a double bagel every year except for in 1968 and 2005.[citation needed] The most double bagels were in the seasons of 1974 and 1993, when eight matches had a result of 6–0, 6–0.[citation needed]
The following players had at least five double-bagels in Grand Slam singles events:[citation needed]
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
= also won the tournament.
There have been at least 17 best-of-five-set matches which have lasted 18 games (6–0, 6–0, 6–0), colloquially referred to as a "triple bagel", in the Open Era.[7] This is the shortest possible length for a best-of-five-set match, not including retirements or defaults.
In 1948 Don Budge won the first match against George Hudson 6–0, 6–0, 6–0 at the US Professional Championship, and against Jerome Adler 6–0, 6–0, 6–1 in the second round.
In 1969, in the second round of Wimbledon, top seed Rod Laver began with the loss of the first two sets to the unseeded Indian Premjit Lall. However, the game ended in his favor with a score of 3–6, 4–6, 6–3, 6–0, 6–0.
There are seven known cases in the history of tennis (two of which occurred in the French Open in one tournament), when the winner of the match lost 2 bagel sets:[13]
Swiss tennis player Martina Hingis achieved her first Olympic bagel in singles in 1996, and the second in doubles twenty years later.
Spanish tennis player Conchita Martínez scored the first double bagel against a player inside the top ten in Hamburg in 1995 when she defeated Magdalena Maleeva.
Polish tennis player Iga Świątek scored the first double bagel in a WTA 1000 final, defeating top ten Czech player, and former world number 1, Karolína Plíšková in Rome.
Suzanne Lenglen
Margaret Court
Chris Evert
Steffi Graf
Kim Clijsters
Monica Seles
Conchita Martínez
Maria Sharapova
Ivan Lendl
Gondo Widjojo
Tao Po
Shinichi Sakamoto
Kamel Harrad
Eduardo Bengoechea
Stefan Edberg
Barry Moir
Hamed-ul-Haq
Faisal Rahman
Dishan Herath
Teo Susnjak
Lin Bing-Chao
Nasser Al-Khelaifi
Ricardo Mello
David Josepa
Rui Machado
Andy Murray
Laurent Bram
Jarkko Nieminen
Courtney John Lock
Emilio Gómez
Adam Hornby
Novak Djokovic
Roger Federer
Iga Świątek
