Glossary of Tennis Terms - C

C

• call: Verbal utterance by a line judge or chair umpire declaring that a ball landed outside the valid area of play.
• cannonball: Somewhat archaic term for a hard, flat serve.
• can opener: Serve hit by a right-handed player with slice, landing on or near the intersection of the singles tramline and service line in the deuce court (landing in the ad court for a left-handed player).
• Career Golden Slam: In addition to having won all four major titles in their career, a player that has also won an Olympic gold medal is said to have achieved a career Golden Slam. Only four players have ever achieved this: Steffi Graf (1988), Andre Agassi (1996), Rafael Nadal (2010) and Serena Williams (2012). Tennis at the Olympics was not played 1928–1984.
• Career Grand Slam: Since a true Grand Slam happens so seldom, players who have won all 4 Major tournaments at any time in their career are said to have won a career Grand Slam.
• carve: To hit a groundstroke shot with a combination of sidespin and underspin.
• challenge: When a player requests an official review of the spot where the ball landed, using electronic ball tracking technology. See Hawk-Eye. Challenges are only available in some large tournaments.
• challenge round: Final round of a tournament, in which the winner of a single-elimination phase faces the previous year's champion, who plays only that one match. The challenge round was used in the early history of Wimbledon and the US Open, and, until 1972, in the Davis Cup.
• Challenger: A tour of tournaments one level below the top-tier ATP World Tour. Currently, Challenger tournaments comprise the ATP Challenger Tour. Players, generally ranked between world no. 80 or so and world no. 300 or so, compete on the Challenger tour in an effort to gain ranking points which allow them to gain entry to tournaments on the ATP World Tour.
• change-over: Rest time between certain games when the players change ends.
• chip: Blocking a shot with underspin.
• chip and charge: Play which involves hitting a slice shot while moving forward and following the shot into the net.
• chop: Shot with extreme underspin.
• clean the line / clip the line (of a ball): To land fully or partially on the line.
• closed stance: Classic technique in which the ball is hit while the hitter's body is facing at an angle between parallel to the baseline and with his back turned to the opponent.
• code violation: On the ATP tour and WTA tours, a rule violation such as voicing an obscenity or hitting a ball into the stands (not during the point). The first violation results in a warning; the second, a point penalty; the third, a game penalty; and the fourth, forfeiting the match.
• consolidate (a break): To hold serve in the game immediately following a break of serve.
• counterpuncher: Defensive baseliner. See tennis strategy.
• court: Area designated for playing a game of tennis.
• crosscourt: Hitting the ball diagonally into the opponent's court.
• cross-over: Player crossing the net into the opponent's court. It can be done either in a friendly fashion, or maliciously, thereby invoking a code violation. The latter sometimes happens when it is uncertain whether the ball on a decisive point landed inside or outside the court when playing on clay, thus leaving a mark.
• cyclops: Device formerly used at Wimbledon and other tournaments to detect a serve that landed long, past the service line. The device emitted an audible noise when the serve was long.