TENNIS GLOSSARY

ACE: a serve where the tennis ball served is served in and not touched by the receiver, aces are usually powerful and generally land on or near the one of the corners at the back of the service box.

ADVANTAGE: when one player wins a point from a deuce and needs one more point to win the game.

APPROACH SHOT: a shot used as a setup as the player runs up to the net, often using underspin or topspin and being a much faster shot than used during rallies.

AUSTRALIAN FORMATION: a formation used in doubles wherein the net player begins roughly at the center of the net; used mainly to counter teams that prefer a crosscourt return.

BACKHAND: hitting the ball with the back of the racquet hand facing the ball at the moment of contact.

BACKSPIN: (also known as slice or underspin), is a shot such that the ball rotates backwards after it is hit. The trajectory of the shot involves an upward force that lifts the ball.

BACKSWING: the portion of a swing where the racquet is swung backwards in preparation for the forward motion to hit the ball.

BASELINE: the chalk line at the farthest ends of the court indicating the boundary of the area of play.

BASELINER: a player who plays around the baseline during play and relies on the quality of his or her ground strokes.

BLOCK: defensive shot with relatively little backswing, usually while returning a serve.

BREAK: to win a game as the receiving player or team, thereby breaking serve. Noun: break (service break) (e.g. 'to be a break down' means 'to have, in a set, one break less than the opponent', 'to be a double break up" means 'to have, in a set, two breaks more than the opponent').

BREAK POINT: one point away from a break (expressed as the score of 30-40); a double break point (or two break points) is expressed as the score of 15-40; a triple break point (or three break points) is expressed as the score of 0-40.

BUGGY WHIP: Describes a forehand hit with a follow through which does not go across the body and finish on the opposite side but rather goes from low to high and finishes on the same side (similar to the driver of a horse drawn carriage whipping a horse). Used by Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova.

CALL: an utterance of a line judge declaring that a play was outside of the play area

CHALLENGE: to request the official review of the location where the ball has landed after a shot using the means of electronic ball tracking technology.

CHANGE-OVER: The rest time between certain games when the players change ends.

COURT: the area designated for playing a game of tennis.

CROSSCOURT: hitting the ball diagonally into the opponent's court.

DEEP: a shot that lands near the baseline, as opposed to near the net

DEFAULT: a disqualification of a player in a match by the chair umpire, after the player received four code violations warnings, generally for his/her conduct on court

DEUCE: the score 40-40 in a game. A player must win two consecutive points from a deuce before winning the game.

DOUBLE FAULT: two faults in a row in one point, causing the player serving to lose the point

DOUBLES: a tennis game played by four players, two per side of the court

DROP SHOT: a play in which the player hits the ball lightly enough to just go over the net; designed to catch a player who is away from the net off guard

DROP VOLLEY: a drop shot executed from a volley

FAULT: a serve that fails to place the ball in the correct area of play, therefore not starting the point

FIRST SERVICE: the first of the two serves of a tennis ball a player is allowed at the beginning of a point.

FLAT: e.g. a flat serve; a shot with relatively little spin

FLATLINER: A player that hits the ball flat with a very low trajectory with exceptional depth and accuracy such that the ball strikes the lines often. Also said because their shots cause their opponents to "flatline".

FOLLOW THROUGH: the portion of a swing after the ball is hit

FOOT FAULT: when a player, during the serve, steps on or over the baseline into the court before striking the ball, which results in a service fault. A foot fault may also occur when the player steps on or across the center hash mark and its imaginary perpendicular extension from the baseline to the net

FORCED ERROR: when an opponent hits a difficult shot that causes the player to miss.

FOREHAND: a method of wielding a tennis racquet where the player hits the tennis ball with a stroke that comes from behind their body with the front of their racquet hand facing the ball

GAME POINT: situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win a game

GOLDEN SET: winning a set without losing a point

GOLDEN SLAM: winning the Grand Slam and the tennis Olympic gold medal in a calendar year

GRAND SLAM: the four most prestigious tournaments in a year: the Australian Open, the French Open (or Roland Garros), Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Winning the Grand Slam is winning all four in a calendar year.

GROUNDSTROKE: a forehand or backhand shot that is executed after the ball bounces once on the court

HALF VOLLEY: a volley shot made after a short bounce

HAWK-EYE: A high speed computer system used to track the path of the ball and used with the challenge system to overall line calls

HEAVY (BALL): A ball hit with so much topspin that it feels "heavy" when the opposing player strikes it.

I-FORMATION: in doubles) a formation where the server and partner stand on the same side of the court (deuce or advantage court) before starting the point

KICK SERVE: a type of spin serve that bounces high

LAWN TENNIS: "regular" tennis, as opposed to table tennis or real tennis, the game from which tennis is derived.

LET: when the ball from a serve touches the net but lands in the service court; the serve is void, and the server gets to retake that serve.

LINE JUDGE: person designated to observe the passage of tennis balls over the boundary lines of the court. A line judge can declare that a play was within or outside of the play area and cannot be overruled by the players. A line judge must defer to an umpire's decision, even when it contradicts their own observations.

LOB: stroke in tennis where the ball is hit high above the net. If the opposing player or players are up at the net, the intention may be an offensive lob in order to win the point outright. In a defensive lob, the intent is to give the player time to recover and get in position, or, if the opponents are at the net, to force them to chase down the lob.

LOVE: zero (score) (e.g. 'to hold to love' means 'to win the game when serving with the opponent scoring zero points'; 'to break to love' means 'to win the game when receiving with the opponent scoring zero points')

LOVE GAME: a shutout game, won without the opponent scoring

MATCH POINT: a situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win the match. If the player is serving in such a situation, (s)he is said to be 'serving for the match'.

MIXED DOUBLES: tennis game played by four players, two male, two female, one of each player sex per side of the court

NET: the piece of netting stretched across the middle of the court; it is held up by the posts

NET POINT: a point won or lost on approaching the net, as opposed to a point won or lost by a stroke from the baseline

NEW BALLS: a new set of balls replacing the old ones during the game from time to time due to the fact that strokes make the ball heat up and alter its bounce characteristics; the player first to serve one of the new balls shall show it to the opponent expressly

OUT: any ball that lands outside the play area

PASSING SHOT: A shot that passes by (not over) the opponent at the net (see lob)

POINT: the period of play between the first successful service of a ball to the point at which that ball goes out of play

RACQUET (RACKET): a bat with a long handle and a large looped frame with a string mesh tautly stretched across it, the frame made of wood, metal, graphite, composite, or some other synthetic material, used by a tennis player to hit the tennis ball during a game of tennis

RALLY: A series of return hits of the ball that ends when one or other player fails to return the ball within the court boundary or fails to return a ball that falls within the play area.

RECEIVER: the person that is being served to

REFEREE: a person in charge of enforcing the rules in a tournament, as opposed to a tennis match

RETIREMENT: a player withdrawing during a match, usually due to injury; and subsequently forfeiting their place in the tournament.

RETRIEVER: a defensive baseliner

RETURN ACE: it's the shot when the opponent serves and you return the serve and the opponent doesn't hit the ball.

RISING SHOT: a shot that hits the ball immediately after it hits the ground.

SECOND SERVICE: the second and final of the two serves a player is allowed at the beginning of a point

SEED: For a given tournament there are specified number of seeds depending on the size of the draw. For ATP tournaments typically one out of four players are seeds. For example, a 32 draw International Series tournament would have 8 seeds. The seeds are chosen and ranked by the tournament organizers and are selected because they are the players with the highest ranking who also, in the estimation of the organizers, have the best chance of winning the tournament. The draw is then created with seeds placed such that they will not have to play each other in the early rounds and will likely only face lower ranked opponenents until the latter rounds of the tournament where they will likely face each other.

SERVE: to begin a point by hitting the ball into the opponent's half of the court.

SERVICE GAME: with regard to a player, the game where the player is serving (e.g. 'Player A won a love service game' means that Player has won a game where (s) he was serving without the opponent scoring).

SERVE AND VOLLEY: a strategy to serve and immediately move forward to make a volley and hopefully a winner.

SET POINT: a situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win a set. If the player is serving in such a situation, (s)he is said to be 'serving for the set'.

SINGLES: a tennis game played by two players

SLICE: (rally) hitting a tennis ball with underspin; (service) serving with sidespin

SMASH: the most frequent variety of the overhead shot (see: Overhead): an overhead shot at an angle close to perpendicular causing the ball to bounce off the opponent's court at angle close to perpendicular or in another manner that is hard to manage by the opponent.

SPIN: rotation of the ball as it moves through the air, affecting its trajectory and bounce.

SPLIT STEP: a footwork technique, doing a small hop just before the opponent hits the ball.

STRAIGHT SETS: a match victory in which the victor never lost a set

STROKE: a striking of the ball

TENNIS BALL: a soft, hollow, air-filled rubber ball coated in a synthetic fur, used in the game of tennis.

TENNIS ELBOW: A common injury in beginner to intermediate tennis players possibly due to improper technique or a racket which transmits excessive vibration to the arm.

TIEBREAK: a special game at the score 6-6 in a set to decide the winner of the set; the winner is the first to reach at least seven points with a difference of two over the opponent.

TOPSPIN: spin of a ball where the top of the ball rotates toward the direction of travel; the spin goes forward over the top of the ball, causing the ball to dip and bounce at a higher angle to the court.

TOUCH: Occurs when a player touches any part of the net when the ball is still in play resulting in losing the point.

TWIST SERVE: A serve hit with a combination of slice and topspin which results in a curving trajectory and high bounce in the opposite direction of the balls flight trajectory.

UNDERSPIN: spin of a ball where the top of the ball rotates away from the direction of travel; the spin is underneath the ball, causing the ball to float and to bounce at a lower angle to the court.

UMPIRE: an independent person designated to enforce the rules of the game in a match, usually sitting on a high chair beside the net.

UNDERHAND SERVICE: a service whereby a player serving delivers the ball with his or her racquet below shoulder level. In intermediate level tennis this is considered unusual but an acceptable ploy. In upper-intermediate and professional events, the practice would generally be considered insulting, but there may be exceptions (for example, if the server is injured).

UNFORCED ERROR: during play, an error in a service or return shot that cannot be attributed to any factor other than poor judgment and execution by the player.

UNSEEDED PLAYER: A player (male or female) who is not a seed in the tournament

VOLLEY: a forehand or backhand shot executed before the ball bounces in the court.

WILD CARD: a player allowed to play in a tournament, even if his/her rank is not adequate or does not register in time. Typically a few places in the draw will be reserved for wild cards, which may be for local players who do not gain direct acceptance or for players who are just outside the ranking required to gain direct acceptance.