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A Background To Joking Apart

Of all the plays he has written, has frequently said Joking Apart is one of his favourites. Alan has always been protective of the plays he feels have not received the attention they deserved and Joking Apart suffered from being ill-served in the West End and was over-shadowed by the more successful . At a result, it initially did not gain the recognition and attention it has subsequently received as a particularly incisive look at relationships which is as relevant now as it ever was.

Joking Apart was the third of Alan’s ‘winter’ plays, written during the Christmas period for a New Year premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough. It suffered none of the problems which afflicted Alan's previous play Ten Times Table, which the author had got half-way through before deciding to rewrite much of it.

It was inspired by someone asking Alan why he never wrote plays about happy couples; of course the obvious answer is there is little drama in happiness and contentment. However, the idea caught Alan’s imagination and he began to wonder if there was a play to be made from it; particularly if the play was not actually about the happy couple, but focussed on the people around them and how a 'perfect' relationship only highlighted their unhappiness and failings. The perfection of Richard and Anthea’s relationship merely serves to emphasise the imperfections of everyone else’s relationships. As Alan has noted, the mistake with anyone producing or watching Joking Apart is to presume the play is about Richard and Anthea. It is not. If it is about anyone in particular, it is Sven, but more than that it is about the 'normal' people surrounding Richard and Anthea, whose lives are so affected by the golden couple.

Apparently one of Alan's other inspirations was someone telling him about a vicar friend, who had lost his faith. This became the basis for Hugh, whose faith is tested by his mistaken belief of the possibility of a relationship with Anthea. Hugh's personal struggle with his feelings for Anthea, his deteriorating relationship with his wife Louise and the realisation he has thrown away everything for nothing is particularly affecting, especially as it encompasses a genuine crisis of faith which Hugh ultimately has to confront.

Not only was Joking Apart unusual in dealing with a contented couple, but it was also the first Ayckbourn play to encompass an extended time-span. The play is set over twelve years and gave Alan the luxury of showing relationships over the long-term and the effects and repercussions of actions over time. It is extremely rare for Alan to set a play over such a long period of time and this alone makes it a fascinating part of the Ayckbourn canon.

Joking Apart was written in December 1977 and premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough on 11 January 1978. The garden set was created with real grass as apparently it was cheaper to use grass than astro-turf on stage! Alan remembers the play was an enormous success in Scarborough and played to full houses for its four week run. It then went on a short UK tour before returning to Scarborough for another five weeks as part of the theatre's summer repertory season. Alan has said the three winter plays (Just Between Ourselves, Ten Times Table and Joking Apart) saw him venture into darker territory than normal and the Scarborough audiences took to them very quickly, giving them a validation and success which was largely not repeated in the West End productions (although it would come later particularly in the cases of Just Between Ourselves and Joking Apart).

Alan's regular London producer Michael Codron optioned the play for the West End during its initial run at Scarborough and it opened at the Globe Theatre on 7 March 1979. Alan's agent Margaret Ramsay was particularly keen for Penelope Keith, who had been in the acclaimed London production of , to take the role of Anthea but it instead went to acclaimed actress Alison Steadman with Christopher Casenove as Richard. One member of the Scarborough company transferred to the West End with Robert Austin reprising his role of Sven, which drew almost unanimous praise and acclaim. The play was directed by Alan Ayckbourn, only the second time he had directed in the West End following Ten Times Table the previous year. Unfortunately, it was not a great success despite some good notices and

winning the Play And Players Award for Best Comedy. Alan felt the play did not transfer at all well to the proscenium arch, whilst Michael Codron felt the reasons for its lack of success was a combination of a poor summer in the West End and a 7% rise in VAT that year. The play closed on 7 July, just four months after opening and, with the exception of the musical Jeeves, was the shortest run an Ayckbourn play had had in the West End since his first West End transfer Mr Whatnot in 1967.

Both reasons for the play's lack of success are legitimate, but there is a stronger case put forward by the critic Michael Billington, who has proposed the problem with the lack of success of the 'winter' plays in London was more to do with the audiences. He has argued the West End audiences were far less open to viewing Alan's plays as anything but light comedy and laughter. As a result, they did not so readily embrace the darker turn of his work, which had proved so successful with Scarborough audiences and subsequently in other regional reproductions.

The play has been adapted for the radio by the BBC and was broadcast in 1990. Unfortunately, this has never been commercially released and has rarely been repeated since.

In 2002, Alan returned to the play, reviving it at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. It was well- received and ran in repertory with Alan's latest play which shared the same set as Joking Apart (hence both plays feature a court and a summer house). Joking Apart has become increasingly popular over the years and is a frequently performed part of the Ayckbourn canon by both professional and amateur companies.

Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd 2010

References

1. ^ http://jokingapart.alanayckbourn.net/

Glossary of tennis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A

• : a where the served is served in and not touched by the receiver. Aces are usually powerful and generally land on or near one of the corners at the back of the service box. • Action: another word for spin. • Ad court: the left side of the court of each player. • Advantage: when one player wins the first from a deuce and needs one more point to win the game. • Advantage set: an advantage set, as opposed to a "tie-break set" is won by a player/team having won six games with a two games advantage over the opponent(s). Final sets in the singles draws of the , the , The Championships, Wimbledon and the tennis Olympic event as well as the are all advantage sets. • All: is used by the chair umpire to announce scores when both players have the same number of points or the same number of points: 30–all (30–30), 15–all (15–15), etc... When both players are at 40, the preferred term is "Deuce". • All-court: A style of play that is a composite of all the different playing styles, which includes baseline, transition, and serve and styles. • Alley: the area of the court between the singles and doubles sidelines, also known as the tramlines. • Alternate: a player or a team that gains acceptance into the main draw of a tournament due to a main draw player or team withdrawing, when there are no qualies with potential lucky losers. • Approach shot: a shot used as a setup as the player runs up to the net, often using underspin or . • ATP: Association of Tennis Professionals, the men's professional circuit. • ATP Champions Race: The ATP points ranking system that starts at the beginning of the year and by the end of the year mirrors the ATP entry system ranking. The top eight players at the end of the year qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup, not used starting from 2009. • Australian formation: (in doubles) a formation where the server and partner stand on the same side of the court (deuce or advantage court) before starting the point B

• : hitting the ball with the back of the racquet hand facing the ball at the moment of contact. A backhand will often be hit by a right-handed player when the ball is at the left side of the court, and when it's on the right side of the court if the player is left-handed. • : (also known as slice or underspin), is a shot such that the ball rotates backwards after it is hit. The trajectory of the shot involves an upward force that lifts the ball (see Magnus effect). • Backswing: the 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. With the shape of the "0" being evoked supposedly by the round shape of a bagel. See Breadstick. • Ball Boy (or Ball Girl or Ballkid): a child tasked with retrieving tennis balls from the court that have gone out of play. They also supply the balls to the players before their service so that the server can choose a suitable ball amongst them to serve with. Ball boys in "net" positions normally sit on their knees 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: the line at the farthest ends of the court indicating the boundary of the area of play. • Baseliner: a player who plays around the baseline during play and relies on the quality of his or her ground strokes. • Big serve: a forceful serve, usually giving an advantage in the point for the server. • Block: a defensive shot with relatively little backswing, usually while returning a serve. • Breadstick: jargon for winning (or losing) a set 6–1, with the straight shape of the "1" being evoked supposedly by the straight shape of a breadstick. • Break: to win a game as the receiving player or team, thereby breaking serve. 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: one point away from a break (expressed as the score of 30–40 or 40–Adv); a double break point (or two break points) is expressed as the score of 15–40; a triple break point (or three break points) is expressed as the score of 0–40. • Buggy whip: Describes a hit with a follow through which 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 by and . • Bye: Refers to the round of tournament where a player advances automatically without facing an opponent. C

• Call: an utterance of a line judge declaring that a play was outside of the play area • Cannonball: A somewhat older term used to define a hard serve. • Can Opener: A 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). • Carve: To hit a shot with a combination of sidespin and underspin • Challenge: to request the review of the location where the ball has landed after a shot using the means of electronic ball tracking technology. See Hawk-Eye • 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 The Championships, Wimbledon and of the US Open, and, until 1972, in the Davis Cup. • Challenger: A tournament/tour which is one level below the ATP tour. Players compete on the Challenger tour in an effort to gain ranking points which allow them to gain entry to tournaments on the ATP tour. • Change-over: The rest time between certain games when the players change ends. • Chip: blocking a shot with underspin • Chip and charge: a play which involves hitting a slice shot while moving forward and following the shot into the net • Chop: a shot with extreme underspin • Clean the Line/Clip the Line: A shot in which some part of the ball lands on the line. • Closed stance: hitting the ball with the body facing between parallel to the baseline and backturned to the opponent; a classic technique. • Code Violation: On the ATP tour and on the WTA tour, occurs when a player commits a 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: to hold serve in the game immediately following a break of serve. • Counterpuncher: a defensive baseliner. See • Court: the area designated for playing a game of tennis • Crosscourt: hitting the ball diagonally into the opponent's court • Cross-over: a player crossing the net into the opponent's court. It can either be done in a friendly fashion, or done maliciously thereby invoking code violation. The latter sporadically happens when it is uncertain whether the ball on a decisive point landed inside or outside the court when playing on clay, thus leaving behind a mark so that the offending party could point out to the chair umpire. • Cyclops: A 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. D

• Davis Cup: An international, annual men's tennis competition in which teams from participating countries compete in a single elimination format with matches occurring at several intervals during the year • Dead net (dead net cord): a situation when a player scores by inadvertently hitting the ball in such a way that it touches the upper cord of the net and rolls over to the other side; the player is said to have "gotten (caught) a dead net (dead net cord)" and considered to be lucky which is often expressly admitted by the player himself/herself • Dead Rubber: Refers to a Davis Cup match which is played after the victor of the tie has already been decided. Dead Rubbers may or may not be played depending on the coaches agreement to do so and are usually best of 3 instead of 5 sets. Typically the players who play the Dead Rubber are lower ranked members of the team who play the Dead Rubber to gain Davis Cup match experience. • Deep: a shot that lands near the baseline, as opposed to near the net • Default: a disqualification of a player in a match by the chair umpire, after the player received four code violations warnings, generally for his/her conduct on court • Deuce: the score 40–40 in a game. A player must win two consecutive points from a deuce before winning the game. See advantage • Deuce court: the right side of the court of each player • Dink: hitting a shot with no pace, most of the time hit close to the net • Dirtballer: a colloquial term for a specialist • Double Bagel: two sets won to love: see Bagel • : two faults in a row in one point, causing the player serving to lose the point • Doubles: a tennis game played by four players, two per side of the court • Down the line: hitting the ball down the side of the court into the opponent's court • : a play in which the player hits the ball lightly enough to just go over the net; designed to catch a player who is away from the net off guard • Drop volley: a drop shot executed from a volley E

• Entry System: The ranking system used by the ATP and WTA tours which is so named because it determines whether a player has a sufficiently high ranking to gain direct acceptance (not as a qualifier or wildcard) into the main draw of a given tournament. A player's Entry System ranking is different from his or her Race ranking, which is reset to zero at the beginning of each year. A player carries points and the associated Entry ranking continuously unless those points are lost at a tournament at which the player had previously earned them. • Exhibition: A tournament in which players compete for the purpose of entertaining the crowd but not ranking points on the ATP or WTA tours. Examples include the Kooyong tournament and the Sampras v Federer battle of the ages. F

• Fault: a serve that fails to place the ball in the correct area of play, therefore not starting the point • Fed Cup: An international, annual Women's tennis competition in which teams from participating countries compete in a single elimination format tournament with matches occurring at several intervals during the year • First Service: the first of the two serves of a tennis ball a player is allowed at the beginning of a point. • Five: an expression of a number of games completed (e.g. "7–5" is spoken as "seven–five"), or as a spoken abbreviation of "15" in points (e.g. a score of 40–15 is spoken as "forty–five") • Flat: e.g. a flat serve; a shot with relatively little spin • Flatliner: A player that hits the ball flat with a very low trajectory with exceptional depth and accuracy such that the ball strikes the lines often. Also said because their shots cause their opponents to "flatline". Examples include and . • Follow through: the portion of a swing after the ball is hit. • Foot fault: when a player, during the serve, steps on or over the baseline into the court before striking the ball, which results in a service fault. A foot fault may also occur when the player steps on or across the center hash mark and its imaginary perpendicular extension from the baseline to the net. • Forced error: when an opponent hits a difficult shot that causes the player to miss. As opposed to the Unforced error • Forehand: a method of wielding a tennis racquet where the player hits the tennis ball with a stroke that comes from behind their body with the front of their racquet hand facing the ball. • Fry: Winning (or losing) a set 6–1. The term is used in the Golden Bagel Award. See also Breadstick. • Futures: A series of tennis tournaments which is two levels below the main tour and one level below the Challenger tour. Players compete in futures events in an attempt to garnish enough ranking points to gain entry into Challenger events. G

• GOAT: Acronym for the "Greatest Of All Time" • Game point: a situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win a game. • Geary: when the player pulls a quality pose after winning a point. • Ghost In to the Net: refers to the tactic of approaching the net from the baseline while the opposing player is focused on retrieving a ball and therefore unaware that the player is approaching the net. • Golden Bagel Award: Award for male players winning the most Bagels from January 1 until the Masters. Davis Cup matches and incomplete sets are not counted. See also Bagel • Golden Set: winning a set without losing a point. • Golden Slam: winning the and the tennis Olympic gold medal in a calendar year. • Grand Slam: the four most prestigious tournaments in a year: the Australian Open, the French Open (or Roland Garros), Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Winning the Grand Slam is winning all four in a calendar year. • Grinding: playing out points with a series of shots from the baseline. Hitting and running down tennis balls with 100% of your being. Refusing to miss for however long it takes to win a point. • Groundies: see Groundstroke. • Groundstroke: a forehand or backhand shot that is executed after the ball bounces once on the court. • Grunting: refers to the noise made by players as they are hitting the ball. • Gut: Refers to a type of racquet string made from natural materials (the intestines of cows). H

• Hacker: A player whose strokes seem more accidental than intentional. • Hail Mary: an extremely high , for defensive purposes. • : a volley shot made after a short bounce. • Hawk-Eye: A high speed computer system used to track the path of the ball and used with the challenge system to overrule line calls. • Head: (racket) the portion of the racket that contains the . • Heavy (Ball): A ball hit with so much topspin that it feels "heavy" when the opposing player strikes it. • Hold: To hold serve is to win the game when serving. • : An annual international tournament. • Hot dog: Where a player chases back to retrieve a lob and then hits the ball between his legs with his back to the net. I

• I-formation: a formation used in doubles wherein the net player begins roughly at the center of the net; used mainly to counter teams that prefer a crosscourt return. • Inside-out: running around one side (e.g. the backhand side) and hitting a crosscourt shot • Inside-in: running around one side and hitting it down the line; less popular than the inside-out • Insurance Break: Obtaining an overall advantage of two breaks of serve. • ITF: the International Tennis Federation, the governing body of world tennis. • ITA: the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, the governing body of collegiate tennis in the United States. J

• Jamming: to serve or return straight into the opponent's body • Junk ball: a deliberate yet poor quality stroke producing a slower and harder-to-predict return that is introduced deliberately to upset the flow of the opposition. K

• Kick serve: a type of spin serve that bounces high. L

• Lawn tennis: "regular" tennis, as opposed to or real tennis, the game from which tennis is derived. Reflects the fact that the game was first played on grass. • Let (let service): when the ball from a serve touches the net but lands in the service court; the serve is void, and the server gets to retake that serve. • Let: a warning exclamation when multiple matches occur adjacent to one another and one match's ball bounces into the court of another match. The point is replayed in the offended match. Most often used in high school and college tennis, although it can also be used at the major tournaments if a ball falls out of a player's shorts or skirt onto the court. • Let-check: An electronic device attached to the net which detects lets by detecting vibration of the net. It is not uncommon for professional players to complain that the device is adjusted to too sensitive a level. • Line judge: a person designated to observe the passage of tennis balls over the boundary lines of the court. A line judge can declare that a play was within or outside of the play area and cannot be overruled by the players. A line judge must defer to an umpire's decision, even when it contradicts their own observations. • Lob: a stroke in tennis where the ball is hit high above the net. If the opposing player or players are up at the net, the intention may be an offensive lob in order to win the point outright. In a defensive lob, the intent is to give the player time to recover and get in position, or, if the opponents are at the net, to force them to chase down the lob. • "Lingering Death" tie-break: a version of the tie-break played at the best of twelve points, with a two- points advantage needed to clinch the set. • Love: zero (score) (e.g. "to hold to love" means "to win the game when serving with the opponent scoring zero points"; "to break to love" means "to win the game when receiving with the opponent scoring zero points"). Thought to be derived from the French term, "l'oeuf", literally "the egg", meaning nothing. • Love game: a shutout game, won without the opponent scoring • Lucky Loser: The highest ranked player to lose in the final round of qualifying but still gain acceptance into the main draw of a tournament due to a main draw player withdrawing M

• Mac-Cam: A high speed video camera used for televised instant replays of close shots landing on/near the baseline. • Masters Cup: The year end tennis competition for the ATP tour where the top 8 players compete. • Match point: a situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win the match. If the player is serving in such a situation, (s)he is said to be "serving for the match". Variations of the term are possible, e.g. championship point is the match point in the final match of a championship • Mercedes Super 9: The former name for the 9 ATP Masters Series Tournaments • Mini-break: to win a point from the opponent's serve in a tiebreak without losing points on your own serve. • Mis-hit: when the racket fails to make contact with the ball in the "sweetspot" area of the strings • : a tennis game played by four players, two male, two female, one of each player sex per side of the court • Moonball: a medium-high offensive lob hit with topspin (in the UK, also a pejorative term for a defensive, very high return of shot) • MOP: stands for Major Opportunity Point at 0–30. N

• Net: the piece of netting stretched across the middle of the court; it is held up by the posts. • Net point: a point won or lost on approaching the net, as opposed to a point won or lost by a stroke from the baseline • New balls: a new set of balls replacing the old ones during the game from time to time due to the fact that strokes make the ball heat up and alter its bounce characteristics; the player first to serve one of the new balls shall show it to the opponent expressly • No-Man's Land: the area between the service line and the baseline, where a player is most vulnerable • NTRP Rating: A National Tennis Rating Program which ranks players on a scale from 1 to 7 with a 1 being an absolute beginner and 7 a touring pro.[1] O

• Official: a member of the officiating team for tennis: Tournament Referee, Chair Umpire or Linesman. • OP: stands for Opportunity Point; a point that presents the opportunity to get a break point. Like 0–30, 15–30, 30–30 or deuce. • Open stance: hitting the ball with the body facing between parallel to the baseline and facing the opponent; a modern technique. • Out: any ball that lands outside the play area • Overhead: (also: "") a situation when the player is hitting the ball over his/her head; if the shot is hit relatively strong, it is referred to as the smash (see: Smash); smashes are often referred as simply "overheads", although not every overhead shot is a smash • Overrule: reversing a call from the linesperson, done by the umpire • Overwrap: A material wrapped over the handle of the racket to absorb moisture. Includes gauze and the popular overwrap Tournagrip (tradename). P

• : A shot that passes by (not over) the opponent at the net (see lob) • Poaching: (in doubles) an aggressive move where the player at net moves to volley a shot intended for his/her partner • Point: the period of play between the first successful service of a ball to the point at which that ball goes out of play • Pressureless Ball: A special type of tennis ball that does not have a core of pressurized air as standard balls do but rather has a core made of solid rubber, or a core filled tightly with micro-particles. Quality pressureless balls are approved for top-pro play generally, but pressureless balls are typically used mostly at high altitudes where standard balls would be greatly affected by the difference between the high pressure in the ball and the thin air. • Protected Ranking: a player injured for a minimum of six months can ask for a protected ranking, which will be based on his or her average ranking during the first three months of his or her injury. The player will be able to use his or her protected ranking to enter tournaments' main draws or qualifying competitions, when coming back from injury. • Pusher: a player who does not try to hit winners, but only to return the ball safely • Putaway: an offensive shot to try to end the point with no hope of a return. Q

• Qualies: The qualifying rounds of a tournament where participants compete for a spot in the main draw. • Qualifier: Player that did not automatically make the main draw based upon his/her world ranking but by competing in a pre-tournament qualifying competition. R

• Racquet (Racket): a bat with a long handle and a large looped frame with a string mesh tautly stretched across it, the frame made of wood, metal, graphite, composite, or some other synthetic material, used by a tennis player to hit the tennis ball during a game of tennis. • Rally: (Following the service of a tennis ball): A series of return hits of the ball that ends when one or other player fails to return the ball within the court boundary or fails to return a ball that falls within the play area. • Receiver: the person that is being served to • Referee: a person in charge of enforcing the rules in a tournament, as opposed to a tennis match (see Umpire) • Reflex Volley: a volley in which the player has no time to plan the shot, and instead reacts instinctively to get the racket in position to return the ball. This occurs frequently in doubles and in advanced singles. • Retirement: a player withdrawing during a match, usually due to injury; and subsequently forfeiting their place in the tournament. For a pre-match withdrawal see walkover. • Retriever: a defensive baseliner. See tennis strategy • Return Ace: a shot where the opponent serves, the receiver returns the serve and the opponent does not hit the ball. • Rising Shot: or hitting on the rise; a shot that's hits the ball before its apex. • Round of 16: The round of a tournament prior to the quarterfinals in which there are 16 players remaining, corresponds to the 4th round of 128-draw tournament, the 3rd round of a 64-draw, and 2nd round of a 32-draw tournament. • Round Robin: a tournament format in which players are organised into groups of three or four players and compete against all other members of the group, players are then ranked according to number of matches, sets and games won and head to head records. The top one or two players then qualify for the next stage of the tournament. S

• Second Service: the second and final of the two serves a player is allowed at the beginning of a point • Seed: A player whose position in a tournament has been arranged based on their ranking so they will not meet other ranking players in the early rounds of play. For a given tournament there are specified number of seeds depending on the size of the draw. For ATP tournaments typically one out of four players are seeds. For example, a 32 draw International Series tournament would have 8 seeds. The seeds are chosen and ranked by the tournament organizers and are selected because they are the players with the highest ranking who also, in the estimation of the organizers, have the best chance of winning the tournament. The draw is then created with seeds placed such that they will not have to play each other in the early rounds and will probably only face lower ranked opponents until the latter rounds of the tournament where they will probably face each other. • Serve: (also, as a noun, "service") to begin a point by hitting the ball into the opponent's half of the court. • Service game: with regard to a player, the game where the player is serving (e.g. "Player A won a love service game" means that Player has won a game where (s)he was serving without the opponent scoring). • Serve and volley: a strategy to serve and immediately move forward to make a volley and hopefully a winner. • Set point: a situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win a set. If the player is serving in such a situation, (s)he is said to be "serving for the set". • Shank: a mishit whereby the ball contacts the racket frame during the swing resulting in a shot which is misdirected. • Singles: a tennis game played by two players. • Singles Sticks: A pair of poles which are placed underneath the net near the singles sideline for the purpose of raising it for single play. • Sitter: a shot hit by the opponent which is hit with very little pace and no spin which bounces high after landing thus being an easy shot to "put away". • Sledgehammer: a two-handed backhand winner down the line. • Slice: (rally) hitting a tennis ball with underspin; (service) serving with sidespin. • Smash: a situation when the player is hitting the ball over his/her head (also: 'overhead') but the shot is hit relatively strong. • Spank: To hit a groundstroke flat with a lot of pace. • Special Exempt: players who are unable to appear in a tournament's qualifying draw, because they are still competing in a previous tournament, can be awarded a spot in the main draw by special exempt. • Spin: rotation of the ball as it moves through the air, affecting its trajectory and bounce. See Backspin & Topspin. • Split step: a footwork technique, doing a small hop just before the opponent hits the ball. • Spot Serving/Server: Serving with precision resulting in the ball landing either on or near the intersection of the center service line and service line or singles tramline and service line. • Squash Shot: A forehand or backhand shot typically hit on the run from a defensive position, either with slice, or from behind the player's stance. • Stick the Volley: A volley hit crisply resulting in shot with a sharp downward trajectory. • Straight sets: a match victory in which the victor never lost a set • Strings: The material weaved through the face of the racquet. The strings are where contact with the ball is supposed to be made • String Saver: tiny pieces of plastic that are sometimes inserted where the strings cross, to prevent the strings from abrading against each other and prematurely breaking • Stroke: a striking of the ball. • "Sudden Death" tie-break: a version of the tie-break played at the best of nine points, with the last being a deciding point to clinch the set. • Sweetspot: The central area of the stringbead which is the desired location for making contact with the ball. T

• Tanking: to purposely lose a match, because of poor mental game or other reason; or to purposely lose a non-vital set, so as to focus energy and attention on a match-deciding set. • Taping it: to play an unforced error that hits the tape at the top of the net. • Tennis Ball: a soft, hollow, air-filled rubber ball coated in a synthetic fur, used in the game of tennis. • T: where the center line and service line intersect to form a T. • Tennis Bubble: An indoor tennis facility consisting of a domed structure which is supported by air pressure generated by blowers inside the structure. • Tennis Dad: A father of a tennis player, commonly portrayed by the media as having a domineering personality, and is sometimes willing to use it or be disruptive in order to fulfil their children's ambitions. Examples are Damir Dokić, father of Jelena, and Jim Pierce, father of Mary. • Tennis Elbow: A common injury in beginner to intermediate tennis players possibly due to improper technique or a racket which transmits excessive vibration to the arm. • Tennis Hall of Fame: The International Tennis Hall of Fame located in Newport, Rhode Island and hosts an annual tournament around the inductee ceremony. • Tie: synonymous with match but used for Davis Cup. • Tiebreak (also: tiebreaker): a special game at the score 6–6 in a set to decide the winner of the set; the winner is the first to reach at least seven points with a difference of two over the opponent. • Topspin: spin of a ball where the top of the ball rotates toward the direction of travel; the spin goes forward over the top of the ball, causing the ball to dip and bounce at a higher angle to the court. • Touch: Occurs when a player touches any part of the net when the ball is still in play resulting in losing the point. • Tramline: a line defining the limit of play on the side of a singles or doubles court. • Trampolining: The effect which occurs when striking a ball flat with a racket that is strung at a very loose tension. Trampolining results in a shot that has a very high velocity. • Tree: A player who is playing much better than they normally play, or a shot that a player hits that he/she would not normally make under normal circumstances. • Treeing: Someone who is playing much better than they normally play. • Triple Bagel: three sets won to love: see Bagel • Tweener: a trick shot first popularized by Yannick Noah which involves hitting the ball between the legs from front to rear while retrieving an offensive lob. • Twist Serve: A serve hit with a combination of slice and topspin which results in a curving trajectory and high bounce in the opposite direction of the ball's flight trajectory. (See Kick Serve). U

• Underspin: spin of a ball where the top of the ball rotates away from the direction of travel; the spin is underneath the ball, causing the ball to float and to bounce at a lower angle to the court. • Umpire: (during play): a person designated to enforce the rules of the game in a match, usually sitting on a high chair beside the net. • Underhand service (serve): a service whereby a player serving delivers the ball with his or her racquet below shoulder level. In intermediate level tennis this is considered unusual but an acceptable ploy. In upper-intermediate and professional events, the practice would generally be considered insulting, but there may be exceptions (for example, if the server is injured). Perhaps the most famous examples was executed by , suffering from severe cramps, against in their epic fourth-round match in the 1989 French Open. • Unforced error: during play, an error in a service or return shot that cannot be attributed to any factor other than poor judgement and execution by the player. • U.S. Open: See US Open. • Unseeded player: A player who is not a seed in the tournament. V

• Volley: a forehand or backhand shot executed before the ball bounces in the court. W

• Walkover: An unopposed victory. A walkover is awarded when the opponent fails to start the match for any reason, such as injury. • : a player allowed to play in a tournament, even if his/her rank is not adequate or does not register in time. Typically a few places in the draw will be reserved for wild cards, which may be for local players who do not gain direct acceptance or for players who are just outside the ranking required to gain direct acceptance. • Wimbledon: See The Championships, Wimbledon. • Winner: (rally) a forcing shot that cannot be reached by the opponent and wins the point; (service) a forcing serve that is reached by the opponent, but is not returned properly, and wins the point. • Women's doubles: An event that two women play together and serve to two other women, serving with the server of the team's choice to go first, then the other team, and the other player of that team, and then the other player of the other team. Scoring is the same that of women's singles. See Mixed doubles. • WTA: Women's Tennis Association, the women's professional circuit. References

1. ^ "USTA National Tennis Ranking Program (NTRP)". USTA. http://www.usta.com/USTA/Global/Active/Custom%20Pages/Leagues/1237_NTRP.aspx. Retrieved 2009-08-21. 2. ^ http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Rankings-FAQ.aspx