Tennis is a racket and ball game invented in England in the late 19th century and referred to as 'lawn tennis.' It derives from real tennis, which originated in France in the 12th century, as does the method of scoring.
Some authorities link tennis with a game of handball, mentioned explicitly in Homer's writings, as being played by Nausicaa, King Alcinous' daughter, and her personal maid servants in Phaecia where Odysseus was shipwrecked.
Ancient Egyptians played ball games and passed their enthusiasm on to their successors, the Arabs. The Crusaders introduced the game to Europe which involved hitting a ball around a courtyard with the palm of the hand. The game was taken up and elaborated in France.
Records confirm that tennis was played in France in the twelfth century, at first in courtyards with the palm of the hand only. Rackets then were still unknown. That is why the logical Frenchman came to call the sport not tennis but "the game of the hand."
The courtyard game became so popular in medieval French monasteries that the Pope tried to ban it.
Medieval players of the game wore leather gloves to protect their hands. These evolved into wooden or cork bats covered in leather. The game became popular with royalty and was known as "royal" or "real" tennis.
Together with court tennis the twelfth-century Crusaders also brought some of its terms to Europe. Thus, racket is derived from the Arab rahat for "the palm of the hand." " Deuce, however, is the Anglicised version of the French à deux (two), implying that two successive points must be gained to win the game.
King Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style.
Louis X and Charles VIII of France both died as a result of a tennis match. Louis died of exhaustion (and possibly of a poisoned glass of chilled wine drunk after the game).
Charles VIII of France died in 1498 after hitting his head on the door on his way to watch a real tennis match and later fell into a coma and died nine hours later.
It wasn't until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called "tennis", from the French term tenez, which can be translated as "receive!" or "take that!".
King Philip of Austria defeated the Marquis de Dorset in history's first international tennis match in the early sixteenth century. It wasn't much of a contest, since the Marquis still played with the palm of his hand and King Philip used a new fangled "battoir."
The early practice to ask a servant to deliver the first ball may account for the introduction of the term "service" into tennis. One theory is that as Henry VIII of England grew older and bigger he played less sport and grew unfit. In his last years he found himself out of breath just walking down the stairs.
By the end of his life, Henry was so fat he had to employ someone to serve at his side during games and throw the ball up in the air for him; hence the origin of the term 'serve'.
The tennis court where Henry VIII of England played Real Tennis, at Hampton Court is still there. Apparently he originated the custom of second serve when he struggled to get his first serve onto the roof. (That's how they played tennis in those days.)
Peter Stuyvesant of the New Netherlands forbade tennis playing during religious services in 1659.
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.
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, on February 23, 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.
Wingfield began advertising lawn tennis sets with special balls and bats, shoes with India-rubber soles, and Sphairistike tape measures (for the net). To make it an all-season game, he even suggested it could be played on ice skates.
Rectangular courts were introduced in 1875 by the All England Croquet Club at Wimbledon when it decided to add tennis to its repertoire.
The Davis Cup, an annual tennis competition for international male teams, first held in 1900, was named after Harvard student and keen tennis player, Dwight Filley Davis (July 5, 1879 – November 28, 1945). He bought a trophy made of 217oz of sterling silver and invited male players from Britain to play against the U.S. America won the first tournament.
Davis was later the American Assistant Secretary of War from 1923 to 1925 and Secretary of War from 1925 to 1929.
The introduction of cement courts in the municipal parks of southern California was important in dispelling the sport's country-club image in the US. Furthermore, by the 1980s the word lawn had been dropped from the names of all the associations that governed the game.
Tennis balls used to be white until Sir David Attenborough, when he was Controller of BBC2, realized they'd be hard to follow on color television so the sport created "optic yellow" balls.
Play Tennis Day is officially observed on February 23rd of every year.
The 'Golden Slam' of the four tennis Majors and an Olympic Gold in one year has only been achieved once: by Steffi Graf in 1988.
When John Isner of the United States defeated Nicolas Mahut of France, 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68 at Wimbledon, it was the longest match in professional tennis history. In total, they played for 11 hours and five minutes over three days completing their marathon on June 24, 2010.
The final set of John Isner and Nicholas Mahut's epic match consisted of 138 games over 8 hours and 11 minutes - the longest ever both in time and games.
The ball is only in play for about 20 minutes of an average two-and-a-half-hour tennis match.
Tennis players may run 3 to 5 miles during a five-set match, and in some cases even more. This is at least two times more distance than the most active American Football players in each of their respective matches.
A tennis court is 23.8m long and 11m wide for doubles matches and 23.8m long and 8.2m wide for singles matches.
Sources Compton's Encyclopedia, Europress Encyclopedia
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| Pixiebay |
Some authorities link tennis with a game of handball, mentioned explicitly in Homer's writings, as being played by Nausicaa, King Alcinous' daughter, and her personal maid servants in Phaecia where Odysseus was shipwrecked.
Ancient Egyptians played ball games and passed their enthusiasm on to their successors, the Arabs. The Crusaders introduced the game to Europe which involved hitting a ball around a courtyard with the palm of the hand. The game was taken up and elaborated in France.
Records confirm that tennis was played in France in the twelfth century, at first in courtyards with the palm of the hand only. Rackets then were still unknown. That is why the logical Frenchman came to call the sport not tennis but "the game of the hand."
The courtyard game became so popular in medieval French monasteries that the Pope tried to ban it.
Medieval players of the game wore leather gloves to protect their hands. These evolved into wooden or cork bats covered in leather. The game became popular with royalty and was known as "royal" or "real" tennis.
Together with court tennis the twelfth-century Crusaders also brought some of its terms to Europe. Thus, racket is derived from the Arab rahat for "the palm of the hand." " Deuce, however, is the Anglicised version of the French à deux (two), implying that two successive points must be gained to win the game.
King Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style.
 |
| Jeu de paume in the 17th century |
Louis X and Charles VIII of France both died as a result of a tennis match. Louis died of exhaustion (and possibly of a poisoned glass of chilled wine drunk after the game).
Charles VIII of France died in 1498 after hitting his head on the door on his way to watch a real tennis match and later fell into a coma and died nine hours later.
It wasn't until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called "tennis", from the French term tenez, which can be translated as "receive!" or "take that!".
King Philip of Austria defeated the Marquis de Dorset in history's first international tennis match in the early sixteenth century. It wasn't much of a contest, since the Marquis still played with the palm of his hand and King Philip used a new fangled "battoir."
The early practice to ask a servant to deliver the first ball may account for the introduction of the term "service" into tennis. One theory is that as Henry VIII of England grew older and bigger he played less sport and grew unfit. In his last years he found himself out of breath just walking down the stairs.
By the end of his life, Henry was so fat he had to employ someone to serve at his side during games and throw the ball up in the air for him; hence the origin of the term 'serve'.
The tennis court where Henry VIII of England played Real Tennis, at Hampton Court is still there. Apparently he originated the custom of second serve when he struggled to get his first serve onto the roof. (That's how they played tennis in those days.)
Peter Stuyvesant of the New Netherlands forbade tennis playing during religious services in 1659.
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.
 |
| 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, on February 23, 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.
 |
| Cover of the first edition of the book about Lawn Tennis by Walter Wingfield, published in February 1874 |
Wingfield began advertising lawn tennis sets with special balls and bats, shoes with India-rubber soles, and Sphairistike tape measures (for the net). To make it an all-season game, he even suggested it could be played on ice skates.
Rectangular courts were introduced in 1875 by the All England Croquet Club at Wimbledon when it decided to add tennis to its repertoire.
The Davis Cup, an annual tennis competition for international male teams, first held in 1900, was named after Harvard student and keen tennis player, Dwight Filley Davis (July 5, 1879 – November 28, 1945). He bought a trophy made of 217oz of sterling silver and invited male players from Britain to play against the U.S. America won the first tournament.
 |
| Dwight F. Davis |
Davis was later the American Assistant Secretary of War from 1923 to 1925 and Secretary of War from 1925 to 1929.
The introduction of cement courts in the municipal parks of southern California was important in dispelling the sport's country-club image in the US. Furthermore, by the 1980s the word lawn had been dropped from the names of all the associations that governed the game.
Tennis balls used to be white until Sir David Attenborough, when he was Controller of BBC2, realized they'd be hard to follow on color television so the sport created "optic yellow" balls.
Play Tennis Day is officially observed on February 23rd of every year.
FUN TENNIS FACTS
The 'Golden Slam' of the four tennis Majors and an Olympic Gold in one year has only been achieved once: by Steffi Graf in 1988.
When John Isner of the United States defeated Nicolas Mahut of France, 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68 at Wimbledon, it was the longest match in professional tennis history. In total, they played for 11 hours and five minutes over three days completing their marathon on June 24, 2010.
The final set of John Isner and Nicholas Mahut's epic match consisted of 138 games over 8 hours and 11 minutes - the longest ever both in time and games.
The ball is only in play for about 20 minutes of an average two-and-a-half-hour tennis match.
Tennis players may run 3 to 5 miles during a five-set match, and in some cases even more. This is at least two times more distance than the most active American Football players in each of their respective matches.
A tennis court is 23.8m long and 11m wide for doubles matches and 23.8m long and 8.2m wide for singles matches.
 |
| Pixiebay |
Sources Compton's Encyclopedia, Europress Encyclopedia
Maria de Amorin started her 2nd round womens singles match at the 1957 Wimbledon Championships against Berna Thung by serving 17 consecutive double faults. She only lost the first set 6-3, due to breaking Thung’s serve three times. She lost the match 3-6, 6-4, 1-6.
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