A walkover in tennis means a match is never played because a player withdraws before the first point. The opponent advances to the next round, and no score is recorded. Draws and scoreboards often mark this result as W/O.
Nothing in this post is advice. Rules are set per market and can change. The market's own rules text wins over this post.
What is the difference between a tennis walkover and retirement?
The dividing line is whether play started. A retirement happens during a match, when a player stops and the opponent is recorded as the winner. The score at that moment stays with the result.
A default means officials disqualified a player during the match. Keep that result separate too.
| Result | What happened? | What does the result record? |
|---|---|---|
| Walkover | A player withdrew before the first point. | The opponent advances, with no score. |
| Retirement | A player stopped after play started. | The opponent wins, with the score at the time. |
| Default | Officials disqualified a player during the match. | A disqualification. |
For your scoreboard, preserve the result label beside the players' names. A walkover needs no invented set score to explain who advanced. A retirement needs its partial score and its own result label. Our guide to tennis retirement results covers what it means when play ends after it starts. For the separate question of a pause in play, see our guide to suspended tennis matches.
How often does a walkover happen in tennis?
We recorded these walkover shares in completed singles matches from January 1 to October 29, 2026. Each percentage uses that tour's completed match count in our records.
| Tour | Completed matches | Walkover share | Retirement share |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATP | 4,005 | 0.3% | 1.85% |
| WTA | 3,892 | 0.31% | 2.44% |
| Challenger men | 10,476 | 0.2% | 2.97% |
| Challenger women | 1,968 | 0.46% | 2.44% |
| ITF men | 17,830 | 0.53% | 3.81% |
| ITF women | 17,243 | 0.67% | 3.21% |
Walkovers were less frequent than retirements in every tour group shown. ITF women had the highest recorded walkover share, at 0.67%. Challenger men had the lowest, at 0.2%.
Those comparisons describe our sample. They don't establish why a player withdrew, or predict whether your next match will become a walkover. You also can't read coverage quality from a tour's percentage.
We cover ATP, WTA, Challenger and ITF. The separate rows let you compare recorded outcomes without combining tours with different sample sizes. When you quote a rate, keep the tour and observation window beside it. Calling 0.3% the tennis walkover rate would drop the ATP scope from that figure.
What does a walkover mean in tennis betting?
Each bookmaker and each prediction market sets its own rules. Many treat a walkover differently from a retirement. An opponent advancing in the draw doesn't, by itself, tell you how a bet or market position resolves. Read the rules attached to the market you're using. Check its treatment of a match that never started. A rule about a player stopping during play addresses a different sporting outcome.
Our guide to Kalshi tennis rules gives you a place to start reading that distinction. The broader guide to Polymarket and Kalshi retirement and walkover rules covers the market questions together.
If you're building a market dashboard, show the tennis result separately from any settlement information. Labeling the sporting outcome as a walkover communicates what happened to the match. Settlement requires the specific market's rule.
How does a walkover appear in live tennis data?
In our data, outcome includes walkover. The event_status values include Walk Over. Preserve the spelling and capitalization when you work with these fields. A display label and a field value don't have to use the same wording.
The outcome field also includes completed, retired, default, abandoned and unresolved. Don't merge those values into a walkover category because you don't see a score. Missing score information alone doesn't establish that a player withdrew before play.
On completed matches, withdrew is 1 or 2 and identifies which player retired or conceded the walkover. Read it alongside the outcome. The field's meaning covers retirement and walkover, so it doesn't distinguish them on its own.
Use our API reference for match result and status fields when connecting these values to your app.
For a walkover display, show the result and the player who advanced without manufacturing a score. No points were played. A blank score beside an explicit walkover label tells the reader something different from a blank score with no explanation.
The same distinction matters when you analyze point data. A walkover offers no played points to analyze, so keep its result separate from your point-based calculations. Don't turn an absent score into a played result just to fit a chart. Preserve the outcome in your stored match record so later reports can explain the absence.
How this was measured
We used completed singles matches the Live Tennis API recorded from January 1 to October 29, 2026. The counts were 4,005 for ATP and 3,892 for WTA. Challenger had 10,476 men's matches and 1,968 women's matches. ITF had 17,830 men's matches and 17,243 women's matches.
Walkover and retirement percentages are shares of completed matches per tour in our records. They aren't shares of points or sets. A walkover has no score and no points played, even though it appears in this recorded match sample. The table describes our records for that window, without claiming a census of every match.
Frequently asked questions
What does W/O mean in tennis?
W/O is the abbreviation draws and scoreboards often use for a walkover. A player withdrew before the first point, so the opponent advances without a played match. You won't have a score for that result. When you display it, keep the label visible so readers know why the score is absent.
Can a walkover happen after the first point?
No. A walkover means the match was never played. If a player stops after play starts, the result is a retirement, with the opponent recorded as the winner. The score at the time belongs to that retirement result. Use whether play began to distinguish these outcomes in your match history.
Does a walkover automatically void a tennis bet?
There isn't a universal answer across bookmakers and prediction markets. Each sets its own rule, and many distinguish walkovers from retirements. You need the rule attached to your market to determine its treatment. The sporting fact that the opponent advances doesn't supply the settlement answer for your position.