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Glite Dictionary
service break

service break

5.1
A game the player who is not serving wins in tennis
  • noun
  • Jargon
translation icon : break de servicio
  • Winning a service break in the first set gave her the momentum she needed.

Examples

  • He fought hard to avoid a service break but lost the game after a double fault.

  • The match was close until he managed a crucial service break in the final set.

  • She scored a service break in the first set.

  • The player achieved a crucial service break during the match.

  • In the final set, Williams managed to secure a crucial service break to take the lead.

  • After a long rally, she achieved a service break that shifted the momentum of the match.

  • Federer celebrated when he earned a service break early in the third set.

Synonyms

break
vsservice break
  • Jargon
24 5.6

A game won by the player who is not serving

is a more formal two-word term for the same game
break of serve
vsservice break
  • Jargon
5.1

A game one player wins while the opponent is serving

is the concise noun term commonly used instead of that phrase

Surface Forms

service break singular
service breaks plural

Morphology

service + break

The noun combines two literal constituents: 'service' (the act of putting the ball into play) and 'break' (the tennis-specific sense of winning a game when the opponent is serving). Because the overall meaning is a straightforward, domain-specific composition of those known senses and follows common tennis terminology cross-linguistically, a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Service break comes from tennis: one player does the service (they 'serve') to start a game, and if the other player wins that game they break the serve. So a service break means the receiver wins a game while the opponent is serving.