In 1985 the Coman Tiebreak was designated an “experimental tiebreak” by the USTA, and in the early 2000s it was adopted for national league play. In 2004 the name was changed from the Balboa to the Coman Tiebreak in memory of Coman, a recently-deceased player who was a strong proponent of the tiebreak.
The Coman tiebreak allows all players to serve on the same side of the net as they did throughout the entire set. Therefore, a player doesn’t suddenly find him/herself serving in a condition that they were not accustomed to during the critical set or match tie-break.
Also, unlike the “Regular” tiebreak procedure, where players switch sides every 6 points, the Coman tiebreak procedure switches sides every 4 points and facilitates a fairer match since each team plays a more equal number of games on each end of the court.
COMAN SET TIEBREAK
- First to win 7 points with at least a 2-point margin wins GAME and SET
- The player whose turn it is to serve, shall serve the first point from the DEUCE court.
- After the first point, the players change sides and then players change sides after every four points (5,9,13,17, etc…)
- Each team shall serve alternately for two consecutive points starting from the ADD court after the first point.
TO BEGIN SERVING THE NEXT SET AFTER THE SET TIEBREAK
- The tiebreak game is the “service game” of the team that served the first point which means:
- The opposing team serves the first point of the next SET.
- After the last point of the tiebreaker, the teams switch sides to start the next SET
COMAN MATCH TIEBREAK The MATCH tiebreak procedure is similar to the SET tiebreak except:
- First to win 10 points with at least a 2-point margin.