game, set, match

• game, set and match

Each noun names a component of the next one, and the final point scored by the victor is one that not only wins the game but also (thereby) wins the set and also (thereby) wins the match. The concept is comparable to the notion that the winning point not only makes their day but also makes their week and makes their month.

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game, set, match

1. (sports, tennis) Victory at the conclusion of a tennis match.
   • 1915, Ralph Henry Barbour, chapter 13, in Left Tackle Thayer:

     "Game, set and match to Byrd!" announced Westcott above the applause. "Byrd wins the School Championship!"

2. (idiomatic, by extension) An expression indicating finality, announcing that a series of events—usually involving some form of rivalry—has reached a conclusion.
   • 2003 February 19, Christopher Buckley, “Opinion: Another March of Folly?”, in New York Times, retrieved 9 June 2015:

     A few years after that, Mikhail Gorbachev effectively surrendered in a cold war that had lasted almost four decades, and in a few more years the Berlin Wall came down. Game, set, match.

   • 2010 July 6, Mark Thompson, “Hyping Hypersonic Missiles”, in Time, retrieved 9 June 2015:

     The atom bomb: U.S. 1, U.S.S.R. 0. Then came Sputnik, and the score was tied at 1 apiece. Then Apollo and putting a man on the moon — game, set, match.

   • 2014 September 30, Dave Altavilla, “The Most Important Promised Feature Of Windows 10”, in Forbes, retrieved 9 June 2015:

     This is game, set and match for Microsoft. . . . [I]f Microsoft can pull off one operating system and one companion App Store that functions seamlessly across all device types from smartphones, to tablets, notebooks, hybrid 2-in-1 devices and desktops, all with common apps that just work, they could very well one-up the competition.