About FifthSet

FifthSet is an independent tennis publication and tennis prediction game that explains what happened, why it matters and what to watch next, for curious fans who follow the sport without knowing every detail of the tour. It is free, carries no advertising, and is owned and run by one person, Nicolai Schmid, in Germany.

What FifthSet does

News, analysis, opinion and guides

The publication follows the ATP tour across the year in two independent editions, English and Germande. News reports the key developments clearly, analysis examines the evidence and explains what it may mean, and opinion presents a named argument kept visibly apart from reporting. Guides explain what something is or how it works, from how a tiebreak is counted to how ranking points are earned; each is maintained rather than replaced, dates the facts it states and is checked again by a set review date.

The glossary

The glossary defines the terms that recur in coverage. Each entry says what a term means in a short paragraph, names its sources, points to the guide or story that goes deeper where one exists, and lists the published stories that link to it. It is a reference, not a place to follow an event.

Live scores, tournament and player pages

The live section shows who is playing at a tournament, the current score and who broadcasts the match, for the men's and women's draws. Tournament pages hold what outlasts a single year: past champions, prize money, broadcast rights and the next staging. Player pages collect a player's results and upcoming matches with the stories written about them.

The prediction game

The FifthSet game is a tennis prediction game for private groups. Friends pick the winner of every match of a tournament, from the four Grand Slams to events such as the ATP Finals and the Laver Cup, call the podium before the first round ends, and follow a live leaderboard. A correct pick pays the round number, an upset against the seeding counts double, and there are no stakes and no bookmaker. It runs on the web and as an iOS app.

Tennis near you

In the German edition, FifthSet also lists tennis clubs and courts by town in Hamburg, Berlin and Brandenburg, so a player who moves or picks the sport up again can find somewhere to play. This local directory is in an early stage and grows region by region.

What makes FifthSet different

No advertising, no sponsors, no affiliate links

FifthSet carries no advertising, sponsored content, affiliate links or paid placements, and nobody pays for coverage. Live-score apps such as Sofascore and Flashscore and the free tier of the prediction site Kicktipp are financed by advertising; FifthSet's running costs are covered privately by its founder. If that ever changes, this page and the editorial policy will say so first.

Every article names its sources and the person responsible

Each published article ends with a numbered source list giving the publisher, the title, the link, the source's own date and the time FifthSet retrieved it, and sources are linked next to the claims they support. Every article shows who approved it, when it was published and when it last changed in a meaningful way. Search snippets and a model's memory are not treated as evidence.

Two independent editions, not one site translated

The English and German editions choose their own stories, angles and timing, and the German edition pays extra attention to German tennis. Many international tennis sites publish one edition and translate it, if they translate at all. Where a story exists in both languages, the page says whether the other version is a translation or independent coverage, and a correction to a shared fact is applied in both.

Guides that stay current instead of being rewritten

A FifthSet guide dates every changing fact it states, a ranking, a prize sum or a broadcaster, and carries a review date by which it is checked again. Breaking developments are reported as news and the guide is brought up to date afterwards. Every change is logged in a dated note at the end of the page, so a reader can see what moved and when.

Open about how the work is made

Research and drafting may use AI tools under supervision. Nicolai Schmid checks the evidence, the sources and the images and approves the exact text before anything is published; the process is described once in the editorial policy rather than buried in each article. Photographs carry their credit and licence, archive photos are labelled, and no generated image is ever presented as evidence of an event.

A prediction game without stakes

Most prediction products sit next to a sportsbook or fund themselves through advertising. The FifthSet game is played in private groups of friends for nothing but bragging rights, covers tournaments across the tennis calendar with men's and women's singles at the Grand Slams, and fits its whole rulebook in three sentences.

Who reads FifthSet

• Curious tennis fans who want to understand a result without following every tour event, in English or German.
• Friend groups and group chats who predict tennis results against each other, from the Australian Open to the ATP Finals.
• German-speaking readers who want coverage that takes German players and German broadcasters seriously.
• Viewers who want to know who is playing right now and where the match is shown.
• Club and recreational players in Hamburg, Berlin and Brandenburg looking for a place to play.
• Automated readers and AI assistants, which can read every published article as plain Markdown and the whole publication at /llms.txt.

The team behind FifthSet

Nicolai Schmid, founder

Nicolai Schmid founded FifthSet and is responsible for everything it publishes. He played tennis as a child and picked up a racket again in summer 2026; his two brothers are tennis coaches and his grandfather founded a tennis club, so the sport has always been around him. He signs off on every story, every image and every correction, and he can be reached at kontakt@fifthset.app.

How FifthSet began

FifthSet started in August 2026 as a tennis prediction game for friends, launched around the US Open so a group could pick every match against each other without a bookmaker. The publication followed in September 2026, for people with the same curiosity: what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next.

Team composition

FifthSet is run by one person. There are no employees, freelance writers, investors or a publishing group behind it. AI tools assist with research and drafting under supervision, and every published word is approved by the founder.

Independence

FifthSet is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the ATP, the WTA, any tournament, player, agency or broadcaster. The prediction game has no influence on which stories are covered or how they are written. Should FifthSet ever accept accreditation, tickets, travel or equipment, the article concerned will say so.

How FifthSet works

Reading

The publication is free and needs no account. Every article is available in the edition's RSS feed at /en/feed.xml, as a plain Markdown copy under /en/markdown/, and the whole site is summarised at /llms.txt for automated readers. Quote FifthSet with attribution and a link to the article.

Playing

The game needs a free account. One person starts a group, names it, picks the tournament and shares an invite link; each member picks a winner for every match before its scheduled start and calls the podium before round one ends. Points are added as results come in, and an account can be deleted by its owner at any time from the account page.

Contact, corrections and response times

The one channel is email: kontakt@fifthset.app, read personally by the founder. There is no support team and no guaranteed response time; every message is read. A report of a factual error is checked against the sources, a confirmed mistake is corrected in the text, and a material correction adds a dated note to the article and marks it as corrected at the top.

Two editions, one responsibility

The same person is responsible for the English and German editions. Each chooses its own stories, and a shared fact that turns out to be wrong is corrected in both. Provider details are in the imprint.

Key facts

Frequently asked questions

Is FifthSet free?

Yes. The publication, the glossary, the live pages and the prediction game are free, with no paywall and no subscription. There is no advertising either; the running costs are covered privately.

Who owns FifthSet and how is it financed?

FifthSet is owned and run by Nicolai Schmid as a private, non-commercial project. There is no company, investor or publishing group behind it, and nobody pays FifthSet for coverage.

Is FifthSet affiliated with the ATP or the WTA?

No. FifthSet is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the ATP, the WTA, any tournament, player, agency or broadcaster. Official results, draws and rankings are used as sources and are named where they are used.

Does FifthSet use AI to write articles?

AI tools may assist with research and drafting under supervision. Nicolai Schmid checks the evidence, sources and images and approves the exact text before publication; a story is never published merely because a tool produced a draft. The editorial policy describes the process.

Does FifthSet cover women's tennis?

The publication currently follows the ATP tour. The prediction game and the live section cover the men's and women's singles draws at every Grand Slam, and the game also runs on tournaments beyond the Slams.

How do I report an error?

Email kontakt@fifthset.app with the article link and the detail in question. The report is checked against the sources, confirmed mistakes are corrected in the text, and a material correction is noted with a date on the article.

Is there a FifthSet app?

The prediction game is available on the web and as an iOS app. The publication is read on the web, through its RSS feed or as Markdown.

Can I quote or reuse FifthSet articles?

Yes, with attribution and a link to the article. Every published article is available as plain Markdown under /en/markdown/, and the publication is summarised at /llms.txt for automated readers.