Federation Cup

The trophy competed for annually among teams representing many nations, that is the women's equivalent of the Davis Cup. Unlike that event, it is run off over a week's time at one site.

Fault

A serve that is ruled not a valid one because (a) it does not land in the proper box, or (b) it is hit into the net, or (c) the server commits a foot fault. Two faults in a row on the same point constitute a double fault, and they lose that point for the server.

Eastern grip

The grip of the racquet handle commonly employed for forehand strokes. It's doubtful if any teacher has ever tried to explain the forehand grip any other way than to hold the racquet by its head, with the head held so that it's perpendicular to the ground and with the handle extended towards the pupil.”Shake hands with it,” the coach will tell the pupil, and when he does he has mastered the Eastern grip.

Drop shot

A shot that barely clears the net and dies quickly as the result of backspin imparted to it. The drop shot is usually hit from a position close to the net, since, being the most delicate of shots, it's easier to execute safely from there. It can be hit either off a bounce or as a volley, the latter being a true skill shot. Drop shots should be made unexpectedly and must be executed well, otherwise they simply open the door for the other player to scurry and reach an easy, soft ball and murder it. If a drop shot isn't an outright, uncontested winner, it's likely to be a loser.

Drive

A tennis stroke, hit from the back-court with substantial force. There are forehand drives and backhand drives.

Draw

The list of competitors in a tournament, indicating who will play against whom. A draw sheet is prepared not only to indicate the pairings for the first round of play, but who of those who emerge will play whom in later rounds, all the way to the finals, if they survive. If everything is to come out neatly, a normal field should have 8 or 16 or 32 or 64 or 128 players, but it's unusual to achieve that exactitude. That is why the bye was born.

Double hit

A return, similar to the carry, or sling, in being inadvertent and likely to produce an unintentional, crazy shot that confounds an opponent. Like the carry, it was illegal for years and lost the hitter the point, but like its relative it is now alright, for the same reason as given under “carry.” The double hit does entail one exception, however, when it is still illegal and so losses the point. That is when the second hit is not inadvertent, but intentional, and that is an easy distinction for an umpire to see and to call.

Double fault

The failure to deliver the ball into the service box in the two attempts that are permitted. If a server does not put his first service properly into play, a fault is called, but he is allowed a second serve on which to try again. (He may have even more, as explained under “let.”) If he fails on his second service he has committed a double fault and he has lost the point.

Doubles

Play in which two players on one team oppose two players on the other. The doubles court is the same length as the singles court, but it is 5 feet wider by virtue of the addition of the two alleys. Doubles involves team play and strategy, and calls for more tactical knowledge than singles, but it is not as strenuous. The result is that most young players prefer to stick to singles, but there invariably comes a time in every tennis player's life when he or she discovers the Joy of Doubles. Some specialists do so from the very beginning of their careers.

Dink

A slang term for chip.

Deuce Court

The right-hand area of the court, as opposed to ad court.

Deuce

The score that is first reached in any game when each player has won three points - in other words, the score is 40-40. For some arcane reason, it is not correct to call 30-30 "deuce," even though the game situation at that stage is exactly the same as it is at deuce. And when we say that deuce is reached "first" at 40-40, it is because it well may not be the only time in the game. One player or the other must win two points in succession after deuce in order to win the game, and if that doesn't happen, and the next two points are split, the score goes back to deuce and the combatants try, try again. It's never been known to go on forever, but it can go on quite a number of times.

Davis Cup

The trophy, donated originally in 1900 by Dwight F. Davis for a dual match between the United States and England, now played for annually by countries all over the world. Matches are held throughout the year, with the final showdown taking place each December. Until 1927 only three nations had ever won it, the United States, Great Britain, and Australia, but the French took over for several years after that and today any of a considerable number of nations, some of them seeming quite unlikely, is apt to topple the former undisputed giants.

Cyclops

The mythological Greek race of one-eyed giants. In recent years, in major tournaments, a new device has been installed that, by means of an electric eye, emits a sharp beep when a serve hits the surface of the court just past the receiver’s box, thus relieving the linesman or the umpire of having to make a difficult call of whether or not the service was a fault. The irrepressible Bud Collins dubbed the electric eye “Cyclops.”

Cross-court

A shot that is hit along the diagonal from corner to corner, whether made from the forehand or the backhand side. In other words, not a straight shot down the center or along the sidelines. The cross-court shot is a basic one that is used constantly, and is a particularly important one for a receiver to execute in a doubles match, where every effort must be made to keep one’s return away from the server’s partner at net. A well-angled cross-court return is the usual best tactic.

Control

Consistency, steadiness of play. Many more points are won eventually because one player makes an error than are won by hitting a shot that’s unreturnable. So a control player – one who makes less errors than his opponent even though the opponent makes more eye-catching brilliant shots – is a good bet to come out on top. This is particularly true at club-level tennis, but it’s often particularly true at the highest levels of play as well.

Continental Grip

An all-purpose grip of the racquet handle. It is halfway between the Eastern forehand grip and the backhand grip. It has an advantage over any other grip in that it can be used all the time and for any shot, and many superlative players adopted it exclusively for that reason. An outstanding example was Henri Cochet, one of France’s Four Musketeers, who ended Tilden’s and the United States domination of tennis in 1927. Most good players adopt the Continental for serving, since it helps impart spin, and for playing at the net, where play is so quick back and forth that it’s obviously useful not to have to change one’s grip. In fact, the only real disadvantage to using the Continental grip all the time is that one can’t hit forehand and drives with it with quite the force that one can with the Eastern and backhand grips, respectively.

Concentration

Closely fixed attention to a matter. The importance of concentrating on every point is the first, fundamental lesson that tennis players are taught by professionals. It is as basic as learning the alphabet in school. There is a story that one unfortunate, being berated by his teacher between sets for his lack of concentration upon his own and his opponent’s play, replied that he he had been so intense concentrating upon concentration that he forgot everything else.

Closed Stance

The traditional position of the body, sideways to the net, while making a shot. The player turns his side toward the net while in the act of hitting a shot, either from the forehand or the backhand side. This involves more than a twist of the torso: one leg should swing around and be so placed that the body doesn’t face the net, but is sideways to it. In modern times, with so many hard-composition, lightning-fast surfaces, even great players can’t follow traditional form all the time, and often hit from an open stance. Many have found they do better hitting from an open stance under any circumstances and do it all the time, but they are defying the teachings of the good book in doing.

Clay

A form of earth, used to surface some tennis courts. Years ago almost all tennis players grew up on clay court surfaces because clay was available and practical to install. It is still the surface upon which most nations play the game and one of the four major tournaments, the French Open at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, is played on red clay. There have been many players who don’t make much of a dent in major tournaments played on a harder and faster surfaces, but who are almost unbeatable in clay.

Chop

A short, sharp, downward stroke of the racquet that is intended to impart strong backspin to the ball. It resembles a slice, but the punch effect is more severe, and the angle of the descent of the racquet head is much closer to the vertical than is the angle described in a slice.

Choke

To be unable to act efficiently because of nervousness or tension. “He choked” is the opprobrious description of a player who has seemed to have a match well in hand, and then suddenly goes to pieces and loses. Some players get a deservedly bad reputation because they choke frequently, but it must be admitted that there probably has never been a tennis player who hasn’t experienced choking at one time or another.

Chip

A short stroke that barely clears the net, usually executed with a chop. The chip is often used, o return the ball low and close to the feet of the server, who is rushing in from the baseline. The shot is sometimes called a dink.

Change of Courts

The switching of players from one end of the court to the other. This is ordained to take place at the completion of every odd game (the first, third, fifth, etc.), in order to balance out any advantages or disadvantages occasioned by wind, sun, background, or whatever.

Change a Losing Game

To adopt different tactics, in the hope of winning. Perhaps the best-known piece of advice in the literature of tennis instruction was Bill Tilden's "Never change a winning game: always change a losing game." He meant, for example, that if you have been winning by staying in the backcourt and trading drives, don't dream of getting fancy and storming the net so long as things continue to go well for you; but if you've been losing while sticking back there, then for heaven's sake start trying to play a completely different sort of game.

Champion

The winner of a tournament. Regardless of whether it's an amateur local affair with a small plated cup as the prize, or one of the biggest professional affairs like an Open, where in addition to a stunning trophy there is a matter of several hundred thousand dollars that the title will earn the winner, a champion is still a champion. As Caesar said: "Rather be first in a a little Iberian village than second in all Rome."

Challenge Round

The final round, between the defending champion from the previous year and the person, or team, who has won the right to challenge. Now obsolete, because today, both in tournaments and in Davis Cup competition, everybody starts from scratch. But once upon a time and for many years, defending champions, or the defending nation in Davis Cup competition, only had one encounter, which was to try to beat off the survivor who emerged from early-round contests to make the challenge.

Centre Court

Wimbledon's most hallowed ground, where all its championship final rounds have been contested. Are you hoping to be able to get a good seat at Centre Court for a late round in the next Wimbledon tournament? Well, as has been said about something else, it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye.

Carry

The accidental hitting of a tennis ball in flight (almost invariably while at the net) so that it isn't struck cleanly. It is almost s if it were caught momentarily in a net and then slung. The effect is that the ball stays on the strings of the racquet longer than it would with a clean hit, and usually flies off to an unexpected an angle as to be unreturnable. For years a carry, or sling as it is also known, was deemed an illegal shot and cost the striker of it the point. But since it isn't always easy for an opponent to detect with certainty, and often had to be called against oneself by the player who committed it, it led to uncomfortable situations. Accordingly the shot has been ruled a legitimate one in recent years, and a lucky point made oiff one, even if inadvertent, is a winning point. The exception to this ruling is explained under "double hit."

Cannonball

The fastest type of service - hit flat and so severely that it booms into an opponent's box, often for an ace. The term seems to have first been coined by sportswriters with reference to Bill Tilden's tremendous serve. During the years in the 1920's when he dominated the tennis world, his serve was credited with traveling 163.6 m.p.h. When facing a cannonball serve of that order, ducking would seem the better part of valor.

Bye

In a tournament, a free pass into the next round. It occurs when there aren't the requisite number of entries to fill out a draw sheet neatly and completely.

Bubble

A huge dome-like construction, made of a vinyl-like material, that is used to convert outdoor courts into ones that can be used in the winter and in bad weather. Blown up and help up (like a bubble) by air pressure, and anchored to the ground, it can effectively cover one or more courts, depending upon its size. It is essential to have a good air-pressure machine that keeps the bubble standing, and back-up machine as well in case the basic one conks out. Otherwise, like the walls of Jericho, the whole thing may come tumbling down.

Break

The loss of a game by the server. In better-grade tennis, having the serve is extremely important, and a set often goes along with first one player winning when he serves, and then the other player winning the next game when he serves. So when a server loses a game, it means that if his opponent merely holds his serve in the remaining games of the set, he will win it. In a tie-breaker, losing a point on one's serve is a minibreak, for the same sort of reasoning.

Blooper

A lucky shot that wins a point as the result of a mishit. It usually results from striking the ball with the frame of the racquet, rather than the gut, or from a carry (or sling), which is today a legal shot. In these cases a completely unexpected and erratic flight luckily wins a point from a very annoyed opponent.

Baseline

The lines that mark the two ends of a tennis court. A person who is serving must deliver his serve from behind the baseline. If he/she touches the baseline or steps over it into the court in serving, it is a fault. Receivers of a serve stand near their own baseline. During a play, a shot that sails past a baseline is "long" and, obviously landing out of the court, is a losing point for the striker of it.

Bandeau

A ribbon or scarf worn around the head. Various types of headgear are worn by some tennis players, with an ordinary sweatband around the brow being the most popular. A colorful bandeau, more like a handsome scarf and held in place with a knot, has been affected upon occasion by such top players as John McEnroe and Australia's Pat Cash.

Ballboys / Ballgirls

The young people whose job is to retrieve balls that have to be cleared out of the way before the next service delivery, and see to it that the server has the ball(s) he wants before that delivery takes place. Ballboys and ballgirls are the caddies of tennis and, like many caddies in golf, often have gone on to become top players in their sport.

Ball

The round object that is hit back and forth in a tennis game. Balls used to be white, and still are for the most part in England, the reason being partly tradition, and partly because they show up well on grass courts, of which England has a great many. But even traditional Wimbledon has finally succumbed to the yellow ball, which has virtually taken over all ver the world on every surface, because of its greater visibility. There are orange balls, probably even more easily visible than yellow ones, and a combination orange-and-yellow ball, too, but they have never caught on. Balls are sold in pressurized containers of three in this country, and in boxes of four in England.

Balance

Bodily equilibrium or stability. Vital to keep on a tennis court as well as in your bank. Proper use of the arm that is not executing the stroke is the key ingredient to  maintaining good balance. (2) the apparent equilibrium of the racquet. One of the aspects in choosing a racquet is whether it is head-heavy, handle-heavy, or evenly balanced.

Bagel

Slang for zero. This picturesque term was coined by Eddie Dibbs in describing a match in which he played, but it has been popularized by tennis writer and telecaster Bud Collins, who will report that the winning player of a 6-0 set has "bageled" the loser. (We presume that you don't have to be Jewish to know what a bagel is.)

Bad Bounce

An irregular rebound of the ball off the playing surface. The complaint about getting a bad bounce might well have simply been listed in the section on alibis, but it is true that bad bounces often abound on any soft surface type of court, and even occasionally on hard surface ones. A shot that hits a line, particularly if the line is tape, is prone to skid, and any surface irregularity is likely to occasion a bad bounce. The consolation is that bad bounces pretty well even out over the long haul, but that's scant consolation over the short haul if a bad bounce loses you a critical game.

Backscratch

The position of the racquet head, held over the shoulder and behind the back, between the shoulder blades, during the service motion. The term is used by tennis professionals in teaching a pupil how to serve. As the ball is tossed up for a serve, the racquet arm sweeps around high and to rear, with the wrist cocked so that the head of the racquet drops down into the "backscratching position." It's the equivalent of a full wind-up in baseball.

Backhand Grip

The way the racquet handle is gripped for backhand shots. If one tried to hit a backhand using the forehand, or Eastern, grip, the face of the racquet head would slant up at something like a 45 - degree angle toward the sky. To prevent this, one slides is hand about a quarter-turn back onto the top surface of the grip, so that the face of the racquet head is kept perpendicular to the ground. Those who use two hands on the backhand merely back up and strengthen the basic hand by adding the other above it onto the grip.

Backhand

n: A shot hit on a player's left side by a right-hand player (or on the right side by a left-hander). In recent years a number of players have adopted two-handed backhand strokes, with both hands grasping the handle of the racquet in the fashion of a baseball grip, but the traditional backhand is still performed with one hand.

Backcourt Game

n: The court strategy of a player who prefers to stay near the baseline, and who seldom ventures to the net.

Backboard

n: A high wall, usually made of wood and painted green, with a white line painted on it the height of a tennis net, against which a person can practice strokes. The ball comes back at you much more quickly than if you were hitting it over a net into an opponent's court, so you have to be on your toes to practice effectively against a backboard, which makes it very good practice.

Australian Formation

n: The often upsetting tactic of a doubles team, in which the partner of the server stands at net on the same side of the court as the server. It is also known, somewhat perplexingly, as the American formation. In Davis Cup history, quite independently and a number of years apart, each nation used it to defeat a doubles team from the other nation, so both countries have labeled the hateful play with the other country's tag. However, if you prefer not to foster nationalism, you can call it the tandem formation.

Ambidextrous

adj: Able to use both hands with equal ease. A number of tennis players have used either hand in executing forehand and backhand strokes, only a few have been truly ambidextrous. The outstanding example is Beverly Baker Fleitz, who switched her racquet from hand to hand, depending on which side the ball was coming to, with the result that she never hit a backhand! She was ranked No. 3 in the United States in 1954, and reached the final in Wimbledon in 1955.

Amateur

n: A player who does not play for money, or accept money as a result of his fame, as opposed to a professional. Today, as far as the best players in the world are concerned, amateurism has virtually ceased to exist. Since the monetary rewards in professional tennis are great, there's no point in remaining an amateur any longer, now that all big tournaments are Opens - open to professionals as well as amateurs. Something nice has been lost as a result, but the gain of huge piles of money obviously compensates for the lost of huge piles of niceness.

Alleys

n: The two rectangles, 4 feet 6 inches wide and 78 feet long, that border each side of a tennis court. In singles, they don't come into play at all, and are disregarded. They are very important in doubles, which is why they exist. Without having to cover that extra 9 feet of width, 2 good doubles partners could so dominate the net that it would be virtually impossible to pass them.

All

adv: The tennis synonym for "each." When the score of a game reaches 15-15, for example, the umpire calls "Fifteen-all!"

Alibi

n: An excuse offered by a loser as the reason for his defeat. No sport is immune, but tennis seems to have more than its share of alibiers. "The linesmen were blind," "Nobody can play in that wind," "I didn't get a wink of sleep last night," "My knee is still bothering me from that tumble I took a while back," "I raised a blister midway in the first set," and so forth, ad infinitum and ad nauseum. This virus never seems to have infected Australian or Swedish players, more credit to them.

Ad Court

n: The left-hand half of the player's court, so called because whenever the score reached ad in or ad out, the serve must be delivered on the service box on that side.

Advantage

n: (Often shortened to "ad") The next point after a game has reached deuce. It will be either server's advantage (ad in) or receiver's (ad out). If the player who has the advantage wins the following point, he wins the game. If he loses it, the game reverts to deuce.

Ace

A serve that the receiver not only is unable to return, but can't even tick with his racquet. Common usage sometimes abuses the term to include a serve that is so difficult to reach, and so severely hit, that the receiver only barely is able to touch it, and can't possibly return it. That's a great winning serve - yes - but it's not an ace.

Forehand: Test

Temporary unavailable. Posts here would cover forehand related topics.

Volley: Test

Posts not yet available. All posts that would be made here would be related to Volley.

Serve: Test

This section is temporarily unavailable. Posts here would all be related to the serve.