No man's land

That portion of a court just about midway between the net and the baseline. The term, borrowed from military vernacular, depicts the area on a court where one ought not to encamp, because it's a hazardous position. A person standing flat-footed there is too far forward to take a ball comfortably on the bounce, but not far enough forward to be able to volley one effectively. He/she is often forced to play a half-volley, usually a defensive shot that is more likely to lead to a losing point than a winning one.

No ad

A scoring system in which the first player to score four points wins a game. It is not necessary to win by a two-point margin, so if and when 3-3 (the equivalent of deuce) is reached, the next point decides things. No ad scoring shortens the playing time of a set.

Nicking the line

Hitting a ball so that it comes as close as possible to landing outside the limits of a court, but actually, even if most of the ball has landed out, has had a tiny portion of it clip the line, which means the shot was good. It is the role of the linesman, peering along that line, to render decision, and it invariably subjects him/her to catcalls, whistles, and jeers from partisans in the stands, regardless of how far away they may be sitting, or at how poor an angle.

Getting the Point: Singles, Doubles, and Winning at Both

You can play tennis in one of two formats: singles or doubles. Singles involves two players, one on each side of the net, playing against each other. Doubles is just what its name implies - you've got four people on the court with two people playing as a team against another two-person team.

Tennis: The Sport for a Lifetime

A few years ago, the United States Tennis Association (or USTA) ran an ad campaign promoting tennis as "The Sport for a Lifetime." This slogan wasn't just a catchy phrase thought up by some advertising genius - tennis really is a game that you can enjoy long-term, both as player and a spectator.

Net judge

A tennis official who hasn't much to do. His job is to sit on a chair between the umpire's stand and the net post, keeping a finger or two on the top of the net cord on all serves, so as to judge officially whether a let ball should be called as the result of a service having nicked the cord, in which case he will feel the tremor on his finger. Since, when this happens, almost without exception everybody in the place realizes it happened, either because it's obvious visually, or the tick is heard, or both, the net judge is by-and-large an unnecessary official, and is more to be pitied than censured.

Net game

The court strategy of a player who prefers to get up to net and stay there, instead of remaining in the backcourt. His instinct is to volley, so he tries to attain the best position from which to do so. It is the opposite of a backcourt, baseline game.

Net cord

The white canvas band along the top of the net, which a low shot sometimes ticks and then sails over. During the play of a point, this is usually of no significance and play continues, but sometimes contact with a net cord produces so erratic a result that the ball is unreturnable. If a ball hits the net cord on a serve, and the serve lands in the proper box, a let is called and that attempted serve simply doesn't count at all and is retaken.

Moonball

A ball hit extremely high in the air, like a lob, but not with the same offensive or defensive motives that inspire, or force, a lob. A moonball is hit during a baseline rally with the intention of upsetting an opponent's pace and rhythm, to possibly precipitate an error or a weak return shot. Moonballs are often answered with return moonballs, that being a rather safe way of circumventing danger, and when that happens and perhaps continues, the whole affair seems to degenerate, and the gallery starts whistling.

Monkey-on-my-back

A jinx, involving a streak of defeats by a certain opponent. The term is not exclusively tennis's, but it belongs in the lexicon of tennis perhaps more than in any other sport. When players finally defeat opponents who have consistently been beating them over a long period of time, they are likely to claim, "I finally got the monkey off my back." (Maybe they did, and maybe they didn't. The next few matches will tell).

Mixed doubles

A doubles game in which a male-female partnership opposes a similar pair. Under most conditions it's a pleasant form of tennis, but it is felt that a substantial portion of divorce lawyers' business stems from husbands and wives deciding to partner each other in their community's mixed doubles tournament.

Minibreak

The loss of a point by the server at any time during the tiebreaker. It will cost him the set if his opponent then manages to win his remaining serves.

Midsize Racquet

A compromise-size racquet head. When the oversize was developed a few years ago, it clearly had advantages over the traditional racquet's smaller racquet head, but so many nondescript players liked it that better players tended to be supercilious about it, and were reluctant to take it on. Then the midsize came into being, larger than the one but smaller than the other, and it has become the favorite of most of the tennis world.

Match point

That nervous moment when the player who's ahead can win the match by winning one more point. The one who is trailing gains a reprieve if he scores instead, thereby “saving a match point.”

Match

A tennis contest. Most matches are best-two-out-of-three affairs. That means that one has to win two sets to win the match, regardless of whether it's the first two in a row (in which case a third set is unnecessary), or the third set in case the first two sets are split. In the very biggest and most important men's tournaments, like the four Opens, matches call for greater stamina, since they are best-three-out-of-five contests, which may be decided in three sets but which may extend to the full five. Matches of more than four hours' duration are not at all uncommon, and some have gone more than six hours.

Low-percentage

Choosing shots that are unnecessarily risky. Admittedly there are situations where a player simply must take a chance and risk trying what would normally be a poor choice of shots, but on the whole, steady players – those who only attempt the low-percentage shot when occasion demands it – come out on top.

Love

A score of zero. When a player has not won any points, or games, or sets, the word “love” is used to indicate that fact. For example, one player may lead another fifteen – love in a game, or three – love in a set, or may have won a set six – love. It is claimed that the word derives from the French word for egg, “l'oeuf,” which would seem to ally it with that other piece of sporting vernacular, “the old goose egg.”

Loop

A feature that is part of the stroking technique of some players. The loop sometimes is incorporated into the backswing of a serving motion. It's also a name used for a basic shot that is stroked from a point very low down, with the racquet head coming up extremely sharply and the wrist turning over during the course of it. This produces a topspin shot.

Lob

A tennis stroke that lofts the ball. A lob is usually an attempt to clear the reach of an opponent whos is at the net, and if the lob is too short or too low, it presents an easy put-away for one's rival. A simple, uncomplicated lob back to one's opponent's baseline can be either an offensive weapon, or a defensive play when you re hard-pressed and need to gain time to get back into position. The lob is used more often in doubles than in singles, and the most skillful and satisfying lob is a topspin one, which requires a particular deftness of touch, and which is definitely an offensive weapon.

Lingering Death

Slang for tiebreaker.

Linesman

The officials who determine if a shot has struck safely within a line, or is out. They haven't gotten around yet to calling a linesperson, but they certainly should because a great number of them are women. Actually, regardless of sex, it is one of the worst jobs in the world. If you do it perfectly, no one notices or thanks you for it. On the other hand, you've a very good chance of being subjected to vilification if you make a call that one of the many bad actors on tennis circuit these days doesn't like. What's more, a conscientious linesperson glues his/her eyes to one particular line, and can't ever really relax and enjoy watching the match.

Let

A shot or a point that is not scored and should be replayed. The most common form of let is a serve that ticks the net, or even hits the net cord, and lands in the proper receiver's box. A let point is also called occasionally when something that is nobody's fault interrupts or distracts play, such as a stray dog running across court, or an earthquake.

Lawn tennis

The actual name of the game of tennis.

Ladder

A competitive system of rating players on a continuous basis. At tennis clubs or communities, where there are a number of players who regularly are available to play against each other, maintaining a ladder is an alternative, or sometimes an addition, to having a tournament. A board is kept up throughout the season on which all the players' names are posted, each on a separate nameplate that can be shifted up or down into a different slot, as the result of a lower listed player challenging a higher one and beating him.

Kooyong

The stadium in Melbourne at which the Australian Open was contested.

Kick

The high bounce that a ball takes as a result of a good twist serve.

Keep your knees bent

To maintain a flexible stance. One's knees should never be locked on any tennis shot, or even when one is not actually involved in a stroke. At the very least they should be slightly bent when waiting to receive, or standing at net. Bending the knees very considerably comes into play on any shot that has to be stroked near the ground. Such a shot cannot be made well from an erect stance. One must bend the knees almost to kneeling position and get one's body down to the ball.

Keep your eye on the ball

To watch the ball so intently that, in theory, you actually see the strings make contact with it. Well... maybe... but there are countless high-speed action photographs of great stars that would disprove that theory. However, as a concept, the idea is good. You should certainly concentrate intently upon the flight of the ball as it approaches you, and see it hit. Whether or not you actually see contact, or look away a moment before (as one would usually do in catching a ball) is moot. If you are at net, the chances are more realistic that you do see the actual contact.

Junk

Shots that have no velocity. Just as there have been extremely successful baseball pitchers who threw nothing but junk (knuckle balls, slow curves, etc.), so there are successful tennis players who do the equivalent in tennis terms. They never – well hardly ever – hit the ball hard. Instead they float up slices, and dinks, and drop shots, and lobs, and moonballs until their opponents drop through weariness or sheer exasperation, for a good junk player is infuriatingly steady, nearly never making an unforced error, and also seems tireless.

Jamming the receiver

Serving directly into the receiver's body. Most serves are directed towards one side or the other of the receiver's box in an attempt to pass him, or at least make him stretch far out for the ball. Occasionally, however, it is an unexpected tactic to serve right at him so that he has less chance to prepare to swing effectively.

In

Landing within the court. A player should call “In!” (against himself) when his opponent's shot has landed so close to a line as to make the decision as to whether the ball was good or not a difficult one to determine. Of course, if the ball was clearly out, even if only the tiniest bit, he should call “Out!” but he should call “In!” and make the gesture indicating the fact (like patting the head of a large dog several times) not only when he's sure the ball was in, but also when he's uncertain about it. That is the tennis code.

I Formation

Two players on a doubles team caught so that one is directly in front of the other. This is a facetious term, borrowed from football, that is used in tennis to describe a catastrophic situation that sometimes arises inadvertently in a doubles match. Doubles partners should always be side by side, never lined up.

Hitting in front

Meeting the ball well in front of the body. Not only should one step into a shot, but the ball should be met with the racquet face somewhat in front of the body on forehands, and well in front of it on backhands.

Hitting down the middle

Driving the ball straight down the center, the safest of shots to make. In singles, this tactic can be helpful for a net-rusher, in that it reduces the area into which an opponent is most likely to hit a successful passing shot. However, its primary used in doubles, where it may precipitate confusion between your opponents as to which of them should take certain balls.

Hitting down the line

Driving the ball close to the sideline and parallel to it. This tactic is used most often when a player is drawn to a corner and decides this higher-risk shot has a better chance of winning the point than if he made the safer, cross-court return that his opponent could probably reach at net and put away.

High-percentage

Choosing shots that don't entail foolish risks and have a good chance of winning. High percentage players get their first serves in play regularly. They put topspin on deep drives to keep the ball in court. They keep the ball away from the net when receiving in a doubles match, alternating deep cross-courts, dinks, and lobs over his head. When they do attempt a low-percentage shot, like trying to pass the net man down his alley, it's only because the game score situation seems right for it, and to vary play enough to “Keep the net man honest.”

Heavy ball

A ball that seems to the receiver, when he meets it with his racquet, to have more than the usual weight. It is obviously not a matter of a ball's actual weight, but certain players seem to have a talent for combining speed and intense backspin to produce a heavy-ball effect upon the person trying to handle the shot, particularly at net, that is vaguely comparable to trying to stroke a shotput. Ken Rosewall's backhand was dreaded because it seemed so heavy a ball.

Har-Tru

The artificial surface that must closely resembles clay, as far as the playing conditions it affords. In many ways it's better than clay because it's easier to maintain, and dries out more quickly. When the United States championships, then held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, decided to scrap its traditional grass courts in favor of installing a surface that would accommodate all world players, many of whom had no grass court experience, Har-Tru was the surface chosen. But when the tournament moved to Flushing Meadows short years later, it was decided that DecoTurfII would be the new surface of choice. The WCT Tournament of Champions, however, still takes place at Forest Hills, and is contested on Har-Tru.

Hard courts

Playing surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, macadam, and shale (thin layers of bedded rock arranged flat and fitted like a mosaic).

Half-volley

A shot usually hit from mid-court, in which the ball is hit perforce at shoe-top level, immediately after it strikes the court. The ability to handle this shot effectively is a good guide in separating the sheep from the goats.

Hacker

Slang for an ordinary tennis player. The term was first used, with lunatic modesty, by Fred Stolle, referring to himself after he surprisingly won the United States championship in 1966 after not having been considered enough of a threat even to have been seeded in the draw. Bud Collins frequently uses the word on television when he's talking about a player who has no pretensions to being of exceptional caliber. Like you or me.

Gut

Processed animal intestines, preferably from lambs; the finest (and most expensive) stringing for a tennis racquet. However, unless you're a ranking player and feel that you benefit from the small fractional edge in power that gut stringing may afford you, the chances are not only you will be perfectly happy with nylon stringing, but won't know the difference.

Grip

1.      The name for the part of the racquet that is grasped by the hand. A small grip is about 41/8 inches around; a medium one, 4 1/4 to 4 5/8; and the large grip is 4 ¾ or bigger.

2.      With the addition of a defining word (backhand, Continental, Eastern, Western), the fashion with which one grasps the racquet.

Grass

The prettiest and most pleasant surface upon which to play. But who ever gets much of a chance to do so except those who live in a climate like England's, where the regular light rains are ideal for maintaining grass courts but only from mid-May to September at that? Most Americans have never seen a grass court except when watching Wimbledon on television.

Grand Slam

The complete sweep in one calendar year of all of the four major championships: Wimbledon, the United States, the French, and the Australian. Only two men have ever achieved this, Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver, who did it twice, in 1962 and 1969. Among the women, Maureen Connoly turned the trick in 1953 and Margaret Court in 1970.

Game

A unit of play in which one player serves until a winner is determined, as follows: Four points won by a player wins him a game unless, before the fourth point is won, his opponent has tied him at three points each (deuce). Now one player or the other must win two points in a row before the game can be won.  Otherwise the score reverts to deuce and the attempt to win two points in a row continues until it finally happens. That may be almost immediately, or it may take what seems like forever at the time. (In the 1987 French Open, for example, in a game between Ivan Lendl and Sweden's Joakim Nystrom, the score went back and forth from deuce to advantage to deuce for just under half an hour before the issue was settled). Six games wins a set, except when it doesn't (see “set” and “tie breaker”).

Forty

The term for having won three points in a game.

Forest Hills

The Long Island site of the West Side Tennis Club, historic former home of the United States Championships, and the current home of the WCT Tournament of Champions.

Forehand

A shot hit on a player's right side by a right-handed player, and on the left side by a southpaw. It is almost invariably performed with one hand, although Pancho Segura and John Bromwich used two hands with startling success.

Forcing shot

A shot made with such severity that it will win outright or else produce a weak return that the forcer can put away easily.

Footwork

Moving efficiently around the court. Learning good footwork is as important as learning good technique in stroking. The combination of footwork and anticipation, both of which can be taught initially but can only become truly absorbed through practice and experience, is a foundation of playing sound tennis.

Follow through

To extend past the moment of impact with one's arm and racquet head. No stroke should stop right after the ball is hit off the strings, even though the ball is then under way, for unless a player learns to follow through on his stroke, he will not be hitting effectively. It's essential on all strokes but it's particularly vital when serving, for it not only escalates power but also impels the server forward toward the net.

Flushing Meadows

The Long Island site of the Louis Armstrong Stadium, present home of the United States Open championships.

Flat serve

A serve that is simply smashed straight ahead, without spin. When a server wants to power a serve as hard as he can, as in the case of trying for an ace with a cannonball, he resorts to a flat serve. It's rather like driving a stake high up into a wall with a mallet.

Flake

A rather crazy performer. A flake's antics are more likely to elicit amusement than indignation, as far as most bystanders are concerned. The prime example of a flake was Frank Kovacs. Bobby Riggs during his ballyhoo career as senior player might be another. Some players like Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Connors, and John McEnroe have flaky characteristics, but they are less attractive than flakes.

First in

A deplorable (and illegal) practice among certain casual (and neurotic) weekend players, which allows each server, on the first point of his first service game, to commit as many faults as he will, and the point doesn't get under way until he does deliver a ball properly into the service box.

Firm wrist

What should be maintained for severe strokes, such as forehand and backhand drives. This is a hard thing for a squash player, turning to tennis, to remember, although there are some shots in tennis that are “wristy.”

Final

The match for the championship of a tournament between the two survivors from their respective halves of the draw.

Fifteen

The term for the first point of a game won by a player. The origins of this unreasonable designation of a single point are unknown, and that's probably because it's so silly that nobody has ever wanted to claim credit for it. The same is true of thirty, as meaning two points, and forty as signifying three points. Why they are not simply called one, two, and three, respectively, passeth all understanding.