Learn the Lingo and Talk Like a Tennis Pro

This article is part of On the Baseline’s Tennis 101 series. Please click here to find the rest of the articles.

Baffled by words like poaching, closed stance, counterpuncher, inside-out forehand, or countless other tennis terms which leave you scratching your head?

Take a look at our tennis dictionary so you’ll quit making unforced errors when discussing the sport with your friends.

TENNIS TERMINOLOGY

A

Ace - a service of a tennis ball that is not returned by an opponent and is deemed to be IN play by the umpire
Advantage - when one player wins a point from a deuce and needs one more point to win the game
ATP - Association of Tennis Professionals, the men’s professional circuit

B

Backhand - a method of wielding a tennis racquet where the player hits the tennis ball with a stroke that comes across their body with the back of their racquet hand facing the ball
Backswing - the portion of a swing before the ball is hit
Bagel - winning a set 6-0. A double bagel is winning 6-0, 6-0.
Ball Boy - a person, male or female, tasked with retrieving tennis balls from the court that have gone out of play
Baseline - the chalk line at the farthest ends of the court indicating the boundary of the area of play.
Baseliner - a player whose strategy is to stay at the baseline during play
Big serve - a forceful serve, usually giving an advantage in the point for the server
Break - to lose a game to an opponent when you are serving
Break point - one point away from a break

C

Closed stance - hitting the ball with the body facing between parallel to the baseline and backturned to the opponent; it is known as a classic technique.
Counterpuncher - a defensive baseliner.
Court - the area designated for playing a game of tennis
Crosscourt - hitting the ball diagonally into the opponent’s court

D

Deep - a shot that lands near the baseline, as opposed to near the net
Deuce - the score 40-40 in a game. A player must win two consecutive points from a deuce before winning the game. See advantage
Deuce court - the right side of the court of each player
Dirtballer - a clay court specialist
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
Down the line - hitting the ball straight ahead into the opponent’s 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 off guard who is away from the net
Drop volley - a drop shot executed from a volley

F

Fault - an unsuccessful 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 no spin
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

G

Game point - one point away to win the game.
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

H

Head - (racquet) the portion of the racquet that contains the strings
Hold - winning the game when serving

I

Inside-out - running around one side (e.g. the backhand side) and hitting a crosscourt shot
Inside-in - running around one side and hitting it down the line; less popular than the inside-out

K

Kick serve - a type of spin serve that bounces high

L

Lawn Tennis - tennis played on a court laid out on a grass covered surface
Let - a warning exclamation when multiple matches occur adjacent to one another and one match’s ball bounces into the court of another match. The point is replayed in the offended match. Most often used in high school and college tennis, although it can also be used at the major tournaments if a ball falls out of a player’s shorts or skirt onto the court.
Line Judge - a 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 - a stroke in tennis where the ball is lifted high above the net with the intention of it going over the opposing player in the case of him being close to the net, thus nearly guaranteeing the point
Love - zero (score)
Love game - a shutout game won without the other player scoring

M

Match point - a situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win the match
Mini-break - to win a point from the opponent’s serve in a tiebreak
Mixed Doubles - a tennis game played by four players, two players are male, two are female, one of each player gender per side of the court

O

Open stance - hitting the ball with the body facing between parallel to the baseline and facing the opponent; it is known as a modern technique.
Out - any ball that lands outside the play area
Overrule - reversing a call from the linesperson, done by the umpire

P

Passing shot - A shot that passes by the opponent at the net, but not over him (see lob)
Poaching - (in doubles) an aggressive move where the player at net moves to volley a shot intended for his/her partner
Point - the period of play between the first successful service of a ball to the point at which that ball goes out of play
Putaway - a shot to try to end the point from an advantageous situation

R

Racquet - a bat with a long handle and a large looped head with a string mesh tautly stretched across it, made of wood, metal or some other synthetic material, that is used by a tennis player to hit the tennis ball during a game of tennis
Rally - (Following the service of a tennis ball) - 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.
Referee - a person in charge of enforcing the rules in a tournament, as opposed to a tennis match (see Umpire)

S

Set point - one point away from winning a set
Singles - a tennis game played by two players
Second Service - the second and final of the two serves of a tennis ball a player is allowed at the beginning of a point
Serve - to begin a point by hitting the ball into the opponents half of the court
Serve and volley - a strategy to serve and immediately move forward to make a volley and hopefully a winner
Slice - (rally) hitting a tennis ball with underspin; (service) serving with sidespin
Spin - rotation of the ball as it moves through the air, affecting its trajectory and bounce
Straight sets - a match victory in which the victor never lost a set.

T

Tanking - to purposely lose a match, because of poor mental game or others. Or, to simply purposely lose one unnecessary set, so as to focus energy and attention on the final and match-deciding set
Tennis Ball - a soft, hollow, air filled rubber ball coated in a synthetic fur used in the game of tennis
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 7 points with a difference of 2 from the opponent.
Topspin - spin of a ball that goes forward over the top of the ball, causing the ball to dip and bounce higher

U

Underspin - spin of a ball that goes forward under of the ball, causing the ball to float and bounce lower
Umpire - (during play) - an independent person designated to enforce the rules of the game in a match, usually sitting on a high chair beside the net
Unforced error - during play, an error in a service or return shot that cannot be attributed to any factor other than poor judgment by the player.

W

Walkover - an unopposed victory. A walkover may be awarded as a bye, or more commonly because the opponent defaulted by being disqualified or failing to attend the match, ncluding after withdrawing due to injury.
Wild card - a player let by organizers to play in a tournament, even if his/her rank is not adequate or does not register in time
Winner - (rally) a forcing shot that can not be reached by the opponent and wins the point; (service) a forcing serve that is reached by the opponent, but is not returned properly, and wins the point
WTA - Women’s Tennis Association, the women’s professional circuit

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Tennis Terminology”.

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