Glossary of Tennis Terms - B

B

• backhand: Stroke in which the ball is hit with the back of the racquet hand facing the ball at the moment of contact. A backhand is often hit by a right-handed player when the ball is on the left side of the court, and vice versa.
• backspin: Shot that rotates the ball backwards after it is hit; also known as slice or underspin. The trajectory of the shot is affected by an upward force that lifts the ball. See Magnus effect.
• backswing: Portion of a swing where the racquet is swung backwards in preparation for the forward motion to hit the ball.
• bagel: Winning (or losing) a set 6–0 (the shape of the zero being reminiscent of the round shape of a bagel). See also breadstick.
• ball boy (or ball girl or ballkid): Child tasked with retrieving tennis balls from the court that have gone out of play and supplying the balls to the players before their service. Ball boys in net positions normally kneel near the net and run across the court to collect the ball, while ball boys in the back positions stand in the back along the perimeter of the arena. Ball boys in the back are responsible for giving the balls to the player serving.
• baseline: Line at the farthest ends of the court indicating the boundary of the area of play.
• baseliner: Player who plays around the baseline during play and relies on the quality of his or her ground strokes.
• big serve: Forceful serve, usually giving an advantage in the point for the server.
• block: Defensive shot with relatively little backswing, usually while returning a serve.
• bloody meat pit: How former male tennis academy graduates describe being left alone at an academy to fend for oneself to see who will rise as the best player. It is like being thrown into a pit with a big group and one little piece of bloody meat, there is a lot of collateral harm to the process.
• breadstick: Winning (or losing) a set 6–1, with the straight shape of the one supposedly being reminiscent of the straight shape of a breadstick.
• break: To win a game as the receiving player or team, thereby breaking serve. At high level of play the server is more likely to win a game, so breaks are often key moments of a match. 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 back: To win a game as the receiving player or team immediately after losing the previous game as the serving player or team.
• break point: Point which, if won by the receiver, would result in a break of service; arises when the score is 30–40 or 40–ad. A double break point (or two break points) arises at 15–40; a triple break point (or three break points) arises at 0–40.
• brutaliser: Smashing the ball directly at the opponent.
• buggy whip: Forehand hit with a follow-through that 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, for example, by Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova.
• bye: Automatic advancement of a player to the next round of a tournament without facing an opponent. Byes are often awarded in the first round to the top-seeded players in a tournament.