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Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is an overuse injury: pain on the outside of the elbow caused by repeated wrist and forearm strain. It is common in recreational players with a late or one-handed backhand, and most cases settle with rest and forearm strengthening. See a doctor if pain lasts more than a few weeks.

Regular ATP and WTA tour matches are best of three sets. Men play best of five at the four Grand Slams; women play best of three everywhere. The first player to win two sets (or three at a men's major) wins the match.

Points in a game run 15, 30, 40, game. At 40-40 it is deuce: a player must win two points in a row, advantage and then the game. Six games with a two-game cushion win a set, and a 6-6 set usually goes to a tiebreak. Win the required number of sets and the match is yours.

A set is a block of games. The first player to six games wins it, as long as the lead is two, so 6-4 ends a set and 6-5 does not. At 6-6 most sets are decided by a tiebreak, first to seven points with a two-point margin.

A break point is when the returner is one point away from taking the server's game, at 30-40 or advantage down for the server. Converting a break is often the key moment of a set, because serving players hold most of their games on tour.

A walkover (W/O) means a player advances without hitting a ball because the opponent withdrew before the match started, usually through injury or illness. It differs from a retirement, where the match begins and one player stops mid-way.

A best-of-three match typically runs 1.5 to 2.5 hours; best-of-five at a men's Grand Slam often takes 3 to 4. There is no clock, so extremes happen: the Isner-Mahut Wimbledon marathon in 2010 lasted 11 hours 5 minutes over three days.

An ace is a legal serve the returner never touches, an instant point. Big servers on fast courts pile them up: tour leaders regularly hit 15-25 aces in a single match.

The Grand Slams are the four biggest tournaments: the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, each worth 2000 ranking points. Winning all four in one calendar year is called a calendar Grand Slam, one of the rarest feats in the sport.

Ad is short for advantage, the point played after deuce. "Ad in" means the server leads and wins the game with the next point; "ad out" means the returner does. Lose the ad point and the game returns to deuce.

Love means zero. A game won 40-0 is a "love game", and 6-0 is a "love set". The most popular origin story traces it to the French l'oeuf, "the egg", for the shape of a zero.

Modern lawn tennis was codified in 1873-74, when Walter Clopton Wingfield patented the game in Britain; the first Wimbledon followed in 1877. Its ancestor, the French handball game jeu de paume, goes back to the 12th century.

One or two players per side hit a ball over the net into the opponent's court. The server starts each point diagonally into the service box, the ball may bounce once, and a point ends when someone misses, nets the ball or hits it out. Points build games, games build sets, sets decide the match.

A tennis bracelet is a thin line of diamonds, a jewelry term rather than equipment. The name stuck after Chris Evert's diamond bracelet snapped during a 1978 US Open match and play stopped while she looked for it.

A moment from the French Revolution, not from sport: on 20 June 1789 the deputies of the Third Estate, locked out of their hall, gathered on a royal jeu-de-paume (real tennis) court at Versailles and swore not to disband until France had a constitution.