Match

A tennis contest. Most matches are best-two-out-of-three affairs. That means that one has to win two sets to win the match, regardless of whether it's the first two in a row (in which case a third set is unnecessary), or the third set in case the first two sets are split. In the very biggest and most important men's tournaments, like the four Opens, matches call for greater stamina, since they are best-three-out-of-five contests, which may be decided in three sets but which may extend to the full five. Matches of more than four hours' duration are not at all uncommon, and some have gone more than six hours.