Crossword Genius

Major tournament is a big hit (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

grandslam

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'major tournament' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'big hit' is the wordplay.
'big' becomes 'grands' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'hit' becomes 'lam' (to 'lam' means to hit hard).
'grands'+'lam'='GRANDSLAM'

'is a' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for grandslam that I've seen is " major event".)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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