Golden set

A golden set is a set won without dropping a point: six games, four points each, 24 in a row. It is a bagel taken to its limit, and it is extraordinarily rare at professional level, because it requires the opponent to lose every point on their own serve as well.

The only golden set in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament belongs to Yaroslava Shvedova, who won the first set of her Wimbledon third-round match against Sara Errani on 30 June 2012 without losing a point, then won the match 6-0, 6-4. Guinness World Records lists it as the first in a major and names one other known top-level instance in the Open era, Bill Scanlon against Marcos Hocevar in Delray Beach in 1983. Wikipedia lists a handful more in qualifying and lower-tier events.

When you see it

You will almost never see one. What you may see is a player at 5-0, 40-0 without having lost a point, and the crowd realising it; Shvedova herself said she did not notice until the applause when Errani finally won a point in the second set. A golden match, every point of a whole match, has only been recorded in low-level qualifying.

Rule basis

Not a rulebook term; the set is won 6-0 like any other (ITF Rules of Tennis, Rule 6).