From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbreak (somebody’s) servebreak (somebody’s) serveDSTto win a game in tennis when your opponent is starting the game by hitting the ball first Hewitt broke serve twice in the second set. → break
Examples from the Corpus
break (somebody’s) serve• There was a point where I broke her serve for 5-5.• He gave Edberg no chance of breaking him, serving four stunning aces and a massive percentage of first services.• No surprise breaks of serve, no marathon games.• But once she had consolidated the break and served out for the set she was unable to summon the same assertiveness. 