The Meaning of Headlines: 'in the groove'

The Meaning of Headlines: 'in the groove' - sports

Dawn published an article on August 20, 2015, with the headline: ‘Federer back in groove as withdrawals hit Cincy event.’ What does ‘back in groove’ mean?

Oxford Dictionaries defines ‘in the groove’ as ‘performing consistently well or confidently.’ Farlex Trivia Dictionary explains that ‘in the groove’ is an ‘allusion to the reproduction of music by a needle on a gramophone record.’ The needle is actually a stylus, and the gramophone record is a round black vinyl disc with regular grooves. Music can be heard when the stylus is placed in a groove and the record spins or turns. Remember vinyl records and gramophone records? That’s where the term ‘in the groove’ comes from.

The article describes how Swiss tennis player, Roger Federer, beat Spaniard Roberto Bautista at Cincinnati (the Cincy event that the headline refers to) in ‘just an hour and nine minutes.’ The win was the first match after Federer took more than a month off tennis. The article states that ‘he got a good start by easily handling the Spaniard, whom he has beaten in straight sets in all four of their matches.’ Federer was practical about his win, saying that ‘it’s the first round of the hard court season for the next six plus months or so.’ The rest of the article is about the matches played by other tennis players.

Scorcard for Dawn is 70% because after only one match Federer can’t be said to be ‘playing consistently well’ although he could be said to be ‘playing confidently.’ We’ll have to wait until at least a month or two into the hard court season to determine whether Federer really has got his groove back.

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