A scoreline like 6-4, 6-3 hides almost everything that happened in a match. Two players can win the same set with completely different stories — one cruising on serve, the other clawing back from 0-40 every game. Holds and breaks are the metrics that surface that story.

What is a hold? What is a break?

A hold is any service game you win. A break is a service game you win against your opponent. Together they are the cleanest signal of who controlled the match.

Hold percentage = service games won ÷ service games played
Break percentage = return games won ÷ return games played
Break points saved % = key indicator of mental toughness on serve

How to log them properly

The best way to track holds and breaks is game-by-game, not just final score. In Tennis Log, when you enter a match game-by-game, holds and breaks are computed automatically — no extra clicking. If you only log final scores, the app falls back to estimating from set scores, which is less precise.

What to record at minimum

Who served each game (this is the only thing the app cannot guess)
The winner of each game
Optionally: break points faced and saved

Reading the numbers

A casual club player typically holds 55-70% of service games. Strong intermediate players push past 75%. If your hold % is healthy but your break % is below 25%, your serve is fine — work on return positioning and second-serve attack. If your hold % is below 50%, your first-serve percentage and second-serve placement are the first things to fix.

Common mistakes

Counting tiebreaks as "holds" — they aren't, they're separate
Forgetting who served first in a set (it flips the alternation pattern)
Looking only at one match instead of trends across 10+ matches

Track holds and breaks consistently for a month and you'll see patterns you never noticed: maybe you hold easily on hard courts but bleed breaks on clay, or your break % collapses against lefties. That's the whole point.