Tennis terms: a glossary of scoring, shots, court and slang

Tennis terms fall into four groups: scoring, shots, court geography, and the slang that only exists on broadcasts. Scoring words come up every point, so start there. Entries are short and grouped so you can find the word you just heard.

Tennis terms for the scoreboard: love, deuce, break point

These are the tennis scoring terms a chair umpire says out loud. For the mechanics behind them rather than the vocabulary, tennis scoring rules covers how points stack into games and sets.

Love — zero. A game score of 40-0 is "forty-love," and a set won 6-0 is "six-love."

15, 30, 40 — the first three points of a game, in order. The fourth point wins it unless the score is level at 40.

Deuce — 40-40, where you need two points in a row to close out the game; tennis score after deuce walks through the full sequence.

Advantage (ad) — the state after winning the point that follows deuce. Win the next one and the game is yours; lose it and it's back to deuce. Club players say "ad in" when the server leads and "ad out" when the receiver does.

Game point — any point that would win the game for whoever is ahead: 40-30, 40-15, 40-0.

Break point — a point that would win the receiver the game. 30-40 is one break point, 0-40 is three, a triple break point.

Hold — winning your own service game. Break — winning your opponent's.

On serve — neither player has gained a net break in the set, so the score only looks uneven because of the serving order. At 4-3 with the trailing player serving next, the set is still on serve. One break each also leaves it on serve.

Set point / match point / championship point — a point that would win the set, the match, or the title.

Tiebreak — played at 6-6, first to 7 points with a two-point margin, and the set goes into the books as 7-6. The serving pattern is covered in tennis tiebreak.

Match tiebreak (super tiebreak) — a first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreak played instead of a full deciding set, standard in tour doubles and club leagues.

Final-set tiebreak — since 2022 all four Grand Slams settle a deciding set that reaches 6-6 with a 10-point tiebreak. Each major used to have its own rule.

No-ad scoring / deciding point — at 40-40 a single point decides the game and the receiver picks the side. Used in tour doubles, college tennis, and most leagues. Often called a golden point.

Fault / double fault — a missed serve; two in a row hands over the point outright.

Let — a serve that clips the net cord and still lands in the correct box, replayed with no penalty; also any point replayed after an interruption. Some events drop the serve let and play the ball as it lands.

Ace — a legal serve the receiver never touches. Service winner — one they touch but can't put back in play.

Foot fault — before contact, the server touches the baseline or the court inside it, or steps across the imaginary extension of the center mark or the sideline.

All of it has to show on a scoreboard while the match runs. Tennis Scoreboard is a tennis scoreboard app for iPhone and Apple Watch that tracks match scores, so what you hear called — love, deuce, ad in, 6-6 — is what you see.

Tennis shot terms

Forehand / backhand — struck on your dominant side with the palm leading, versus the other side, one- or two-handed.

Volley — hit before the ball bounces, usually from inside the service line.

Half-volley — taken immediately after the bounce, off the shoelaces.

Overhead (smash) — an above-the-head swing on a ball that's been lobbed.

Lob — a high ball over a net player, defensive to buy time or offensive with topspin.

Drop shot — angled softly just over the net with backspin so it dies short.

Slice — backspin. The ball skids off the bounce and stays low, which is why it's a grass-court staple.

Topspin — forward rotation that pulls the ball down inside the baseline and kicks it up after the bounce.

Flat, slice, and kick serves — flat travels straightest and fastest, slice curves sideways, and a kick serve is brushed up the back of the ball so it jumps high.

Approach shot — hit on the way to the net, usually deep and often sliced.

Passing shot — a groundstroke driven past a net player rather than lobbed over them.

Inside-out forehand — running around your backhand to hit a forehand from the backhand corner, diagonally across court. Between two right-handers it lands on the opponent's backhand.

Tweener — hit between the legs, usually chasing a lob with your back to the net.

Shank — a mishit off the frame instead of the strings; commentators say a player "framed it."

Moonball — a very high, deep topspin ball that pushes an opponent behind the baseline.

Winner / unforced error / forced error — a winner goes untouched, an unforced error is a miss under no pressure, and a forced error is one the opponent's shot caused. The last two are a statistician's judgment call, not a rule.

Tennis court terms

Baseline — the back line. A court is 78 feet long, so each baseline sits 39 feet from the net.

Sidelines and the doubles alley — singles is 27 feet wide, doubles 36. The 4.5-foot strip on each side is the alley, or the tramlines in British commentary.

Service box — 21 feet deep and 13.5 feet wide. A serve has to land in the diagonally opposite one.

Deuce court / ad court — the right and left halves as the server faces the net. Every game starts in the deuce court, and deuce itself is always played from there.

Center mark — the tab in the middle of the baseline that splits it into the two serving halves.

No-man's land — the strip between the service line and the baseline, awkward because balls land at your feet.

Net — 3 feet high at the center strap and 3 feet 6 inches at the posts. That sag is why the middle of the court is the safer target.

Singles sticks — posts set 3 feet outside each singles sideline to lift the net to the right height when singles is played on a doubles court.

Tennis slang terms you'll only hear on broadcasts

Some of this tennis terminology is official — walkover, code violation — and most of it isn't. Scoreline nicknames first.

Term	Scoreline	What it means
Bagel	6-0	a set won without conceding a game — the zero is the bagel
Breadstick	6-1	a set won 6-1; the lone 1 is the breadstick
Double bagel	6-0, 6-0	a whole match without dropping a game
Love game	40-0	a game won without losing a point
Golden set	6-0, 24 points to 0	a set won without losing a single point; vanishingly rare at tour level

Pusher — a player who returns everything with no pace and waits for the errors.

Dirtballer — a clay-court specialist who slides and grinds, less at home indoors.

Tanking — visibly giving up on a game or set, to save energy or out of frustration.

Choking — tightening on the big points, usually visible as short swings and missed first serves.

Golden Slam — all four majors plus Olympic singles gold in the same year. A career Slam is all four majors won across a career rather than in one.

Walkover, retirement, default — a walkover is a withdrawal before the match starts, a retirement is quitting mid-match, and a default is a disqualification.

Code violation — the escalating penalty ladder: warning first, then a point, then a game.

Time violation — missing the serve clock, which allows 25 seconds between points at most pro events.

Electronic line calling — automated in/out calls. Where it runs live, there are no challenges left to spend.

FAQ

What is a bagel in tennis?

A bagel is a set won 6-0, named because the zero on the scoreboard looks like one. A 6-0, 6-0 match is a double bagel, and "bageled" gets used as a verb. It's descriptive rather than an insult, though nobody enjoys being on the receiving end.

What is a breadstick in tennis?

A breadstick is a set won 6-1, named for the shape of the 1 sitting next to the bagel's 0. The two travel together in commentary: a 6-0, 6-1 win is "a bagel and a breadstick." Neither term appears in any rulebook.

What does it mean when a match is on serve?

It means neither player is up a break in the current set. A 4-3 lead is on serve if the trailing player is about to serve — the score looks uneven, but no serve has changed hands. Trade breaks and the set is on serve again.

Why does tennis score 15, 30, 40 instead of 1, 2, 3?

Nobody knows for certain. The common explanation is a clock face marked in quarters, with 45 shortened to 40 in speech, but no contemporary record proves it. The numbers were already in use in early forms of the game and simply carried over.

What is a golden point in tennis?

A golden point is the single deciding point played at 40-40 under no-ad scoring, with the receiver choosing which side to take it from. Tour doubles, college tennis, and most club leagues use it. Advantage scoring instead keeps the game going until someone wins two points in a row.