# Bagel (tennis)

In tennis, a bagel is when the set ends with a score of 6–0. 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.

## Etymology

The term refers to the similarity between the shape of a zero and the shape of a bagel. The tennis term was coined by players Harold Solomon and Eddie Dibbs, and popularized by commentator Bud Collins.

## Surface disparity

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.. 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.

## Double bagel
### Women's singles

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. The most double bagels were in the seasons of 1974 and 1993, when eight matches had a result of 6–0, 6–0.
The following players had at least five double-bagels in Grand Slam singles events:
| # | Player |
| 14 | Suzanne Lenglen |
| 14 | Margaret Court |
| 13 | Chris Evert |
| 10 | Helen Wills-Moody |
| 7 | Steffi Graf |
| 6 | Kim Clijsters |
| 6 | Mary Pierce |
| 5 | Monica Seles |
| 5 | Conchita Martínez |
| 5 | Maria Sharapova |

### Between No. 1 ranked players
#### Men

| Winner | Opponent | Event |
| Ivan Lendl | Jimmy Connors | 1984 Forrest Hills |

#### Women

| Winner | Opponent | Event |
| Chris Evert | Martina Navratilova | 1981 Amelia Island |
| Chris Evert | Tracy Austin | 1982 East Rutherford |
| Steffi Graf | Tracy Austin | 1994 Indian Wells |
| Martina Hingis | Monica Seles | 2000 Miami Open |
| Lindsay Davenport | Maria Sharapova | 2005 Indian Wells |
| Kim Clijsters | Dinara Safina | 2011 Australian Open |
| Iga Świątek | Karolína Plíšková | 2021 Rome |

## Triple bagel

Key :
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | P# | DNQ | A | Z# | PO | G | S | B | NMS | NTI | P | NH |
* = 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. This is the shortest possible length for a best-of-five-set match, not including retirements or defaults.
| Year | Grand Slam | Round | Winner | Loser |
| 1968 | French Open | 1R | Nikola Špear | Daniel Contet |
| 1973 | Davis Cup | Z1 | Gondo Widjojo | Tao Po |
| 1981 | Davis Cup | PO | Thierry Tulasne | Shinichi Sakamoto |
| 1984 | Davis Cup | 1R | Emilio Sánchez | Kamel Harrad |
| 1987 | French Open | 2R | Karel Nováček | Eduardo Bengoechea |
| 1987 | Wimbledon | 1R | Stefan Edberg | Stefan Eriksson |
| 1987 | US Open | 1R | Ivan Lendl$^‡$ | Barry Moir |
| 1989 | Davis Cup | 3R | Hamed-ul-Haq | Faisal Rahman |
| 1991 | Davis Cup | 1R | Michael Walker | Dishan Herath |
| 1993 | French Open | 2R | Sergi Bruguera$^‡$ | Thierry Champion |
| 1998 | Davis Cup | 2R | Gouichi Motomura | Teo Susnjak |
| 1999 | Davis Cup | PO | Lin Bing-Chao | Nasser Al-Khelaifi |
| 2001 | Wimbledon | Q3 | Todd Woodbridge | Johan Örtegren |
| 2005 | Davis Cup | 2R | Ricardo Mello | David Josepa |
| 2009 | Davis Cup | PO | Rui Machado | Valentin Rahine |
| 2011 | Davis Cup | 2R | Andy Murray | Laurent Bram |
| 2016 | Davis Cup | 1R | Jarkko Nieminen | Courtney John Lock |
| 2016 | Davis Cup | 1R | Emilio Gómez | Adam Hornby |

## Records
### Grand Slam tournaments
#### Men's singles

In the history of the Grand Slam tournaments in the men's singles category, the largest number of 6–0 sets won is the following:
| # | Player |
| 50 | Andre Agassi |
| 49 | Novak Djokovic |
| 47 | Roy Emerson |
| 46 | Roger Federer |
| 44 | Jimmy Connors |
| 44 | Rafael Nadal |
| 42 | Ivan Lendl |
| 41 | John Bromwich |
| 40 | Bill Tilden |
| 35 | Björn Borg |
At individual majors the players with the most 6–0 sets are:
* Australian Championship: 1. R. Federer – 17; 2. Jack Crawford (Australia) – 16; 3. A. Agassi; N. Djokovic – 15
* French Open: 1. R. Nadal – 24; 2–3. B. Borg, G. Vilas – 20 each; 4–5. Jaroslav Drobný (Czechoslovakia / Egypt), R. Lacoste – 17 each.
* Wimbledon: 1. R. Emerson – 15; 2–3. J. Connors, B. Tilden – to 12.
* US Championship: 1. J. Connors – 22; 2–3. I. Lendl, B. Tilden – 20 each.
Australian Neale Fraser won at least one 6–0 set in 16 Grand Slam tournaments in a row: starting with the 1957 Australian Championship and ending with the 1960 US championship.

#### Women's singles

In the women's singles, the largest number of 6–0 sets won:
| # | Player |
| 106 | Chris Evert |
| 89 | Margaret Court |
| 72 | Martina Navratilova |
| 71 | Steffi Graf |
| 64 | Serena Williams |
| 57 | Helen Wills-Moody |
| 54 | Monica Seles |
| 49 | Maria Sharapova |
| 46 | Arantxa Sánchez Vicario |
| 44 | Gabriela Sabatini |
In terms of percentage bagels vs games played.
| Percentage | Player |
| 16 | Ann Jones |
| 14.6 | Chris Evert |
| 13.2 | Margaret Court |
| 10.9 | Steffi Graf |
| 10.8 | Iga Świątek |
In individual tournaments of the Grand Slam, the largest number of 6–0 sets won is:
* Australian Championship: 1. M. Court – 25; 2. M. Sharapova – 16; 3. S. Williams – 14.
* French Open: 1. C. Evert – 26; 2. A. Sanchez – 22; 3. G. Sabatini – 21.
* Wimbledon: 1–2. Suzanne Lenglen (France), C. Evert – to 29; 3. M. Court – 25.
* US Championship: 1. C. Evert – 43; H. Wills-Moody – 31; 3. M. Court – 27.

### All tournaments
#### Men's singles

| # | Bagels |
| 479 | Bill Tilden |
| 464 | Josiah Ritchie |
| 280 | Anthony Wilding |
| 266 | Frank Parker |
| 245 | Jaroslav Drobny |
| 224 | Roy Emerson |
| 216 | Ken Rosewall |
| 209 | John Bromwich |
| 197 | Jimmy Connors |
| 186 | Gardnar Mulloy |
| # | Double Bagels |
| 106 | Bill Tilden |
| 87 | Josiah Ritchie |
| 51 | Anthony Wilding |
| 42 | John Bromwich |
| 37 | Frank Parker |
| 32 | Jaroslav Drobny |
| 25 | George Worthington |
| 24 | Wayne Sabin |
| # | Triple Bagels |
| 11 | Bill Tilden |
| 5 | Karel Kozeluh |
| 4 | Arthur Gore |
| 4 | Josiah Ritchie |
| 4 | Harry Parker |
| 4 | Gordon Lowe |
| 4 | Bob Hewitt |

## Trivia

* In 1910 in Brussels, Max Decugis beat Tony Wilding 3–6, 0–6, 7–5, 6–0, 6–0. Wilding was winning 6–3, 6–0, 5–0.
* 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:
** 1935 U.S. Pro Tennis Championship: Bill Tilden – Karel Koželuh 0–6, 6–1, 6–4, 0–6, 6–4
** 1938 U.S. National Championships: Gilbert Hunt – Bobby Riggs 6–2, 0–6, 9–7, 0–6, 6–4
** 1960 Italian Open: Barry MacKay (tennis) - Luis Ayala 7–5 7–5 0–6 0–6 6–1
** 1962 Tasmanian Championship: Rod Laver – Neale Fraser 7–5, 0–6, 0–6, 6–1, 6–2
** 1969 French Open: Stanley Matthews – Ilie Nastase 6–3, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4, 8–6
** 1969 French Open: Dennis Ralston – Patricio Rodríguez 6–2, 6–4, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4
** 1981 US Open: José Luis Clerc – Mel Purcell 6–3, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4, 6–3
* In 1981, in the first round of the US championship Jimmy Connors, who in the mid-70s almost married Chris Evert, beat her then-husband John Lloyd with a score of 6–0, 6–0, 6–2.
* Suzanne Lenglen won 9 tournaments in which she did not lose a single game in all matches.
* Guillermo Vilas won 2 matches with a score of 6–0, 6–0 in 2 consecutive seasons (1980 and 1981).
* Björn Borg won 116 6–0 sets during his career
* Two women's finals in the history of the Grand Slam tournaments have ended with a double-bagel:
** 1911 (Wimbledon) Dorothea Lambert-Chambers – Dora Boothby 6–0, 6–0
** 1988 (French Open) Steffi Graf – Natasha Zvereva 6–0, 6–0
* 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.