Play Tennis Day is celebrated on February 23 across the US every year. In 1873 Major Walter Wingfield created an outdoor game he called "Sphairistike" but it survives to this day as lawn tennis, from the French "tenez." He came up with the idea after playing with a new kind of ball made from of India rubber which had been designed to bounce on grass.
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| Drawing of a Lawn Tennis court as originally designed by Major Walter Wingfield in 1874 |
The retired British cavalryman introduced the game at a Christmas party in the gardens of 17th century Nantclwyd Hall, near Ruthin, Wales in 1873. His game was called sphairistike.
The name 'Sphairistike' was rather poor Greek, being a mangling of the Greek for ‘playing ball' .
Wingfield's game was played on an hour-glass shaped court with a net that was 4ft 8in high. A modern net is 3.5ft at the posts, 3ft in the middle.
Major Walter Wingfield was at heart a salesman and a promoter. The retired army officer drew up a set of rules and, in 1874, patented his 'sphairistrike' game, which mixed elements of racquets, badminton, and court tennis. Between July 1874 and June 1875, 1,050 of his tennis sets were sold.
Walter Wingfield holds a great credit in popularising this game enormously. The world’s oldest tennis tournament, Wimbledon Championships was first played at London in 1877.
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Tennis).
