All the tennis terms you need to know while watching Wimbledon, including walkover and tiebreak

Each point played during a tennis match contributes to a larger game. Each player begins at 0 (pronounced "love"), then progresses to 15, 30, and 40 with each point won. The first player to surpass 40 wins the game, with the exception of games with a score line of 40-40.

Since players must win a game by at least two points, the game moves to "deuce" when the score reaches 40-40. The player who wins the next point has the "advantage," but if their opponent wins the subsequent point, the game returns to "deuce."

The game concludes when a single player wins two successive points after "deuce."

Each game contributes to the score of a "set." If one player wins six games before their opponent wins four, that first player wins the set. But if neither player has a multi-game advantage before each has secured six games, then the set is decided by a tiebreak.

When the score of a set is tied at 6-6 (pronounced "six all"), the set is decided by a "tiebreak" game. As with regular games, players must win by at least two points, but tiebreak games are scored 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.

The first player to 7 (or 10, in the case that a tiebreak game decides the final set) wins the tiebreak game, and the set. But if the lead is less than two games by the time one player reaches 7 (or 10 for the final set), the tiebreak game proceeds until one player secures a two-point advantage. Once one player prevails, they claim the set by a score of 7-6.

Competitive tiebreak games can end with high scores (17-15, for example). On several occasions on both the men's and women's sides, Grand Slam singles matches have featured tiebreak game scores of 20-18.

In women's singles, players need to win two sets to secure the match. In men's singles at Grand Slams, players must win three sets to prevail in the match. Women's matches, therefore, can go for a maximum of three sets, while men's matches can extend to five sets.

If a player pulls out — or "retires" — from a match for any reason, most commonly due to injury or illness, their opponent receives a "walkover" into the next round of the tournament.

Matches can be "suspended," or delayed, due to a number of external factors. Weather and insufficient light are the most common reasons matches are suspended at Grand Slam tournaments.

At Wimbledon, where there is an 11 p.m. curfew, nighttime matches are sometimes suspended until the following day.

A player earns an ace when they successfully serve the ball in play and their opponent fails to touch it with their racket. An ace is a player's quickest path to a point.

When the server fails to play the ball into proper service box, they receive a "fault." If a player fails to serve the ball into the proper service box twice in a row, they receive a "double fault" and lose the point.

A "let" takes place when an attempted serve grazes the top of the net but still lands in the correct service box — the small area of the court where a serve must bounce. The server is allowed to replay the point when a let occurs on the first serve. A let on the second serve results in a repeated second serve.

A player "holds" when they win their service game — aka a game in which they served. When players have won their respective service games within a set, they are "on serve."

A player is expected to win — or hold — their service games. When the receiving player wins the game instead, they go up a "break." If one player does so twice, they go up a "double break."

A "Grand Slam" is any of the four major tournaments on the tennis calendar. These include, in order, the Australian Open, the French Open (or Roland-Garros), Wimbledon, and the US Open.

Winning all four of these tournaments in a single year is also referred to as a "Grand Slam."