Tennis is a racquet sport that can be played individually against
a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles).
Each player uses a racquet that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball
covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The
object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not
able to play a good return. The opponent who is unable to return the ball will
not gain a point, while the opposite opponent will.
Tennis is an Olympic sport and is
played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by
anyone who can hold a racquet, including wheelchair users. The modern game of
tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as "lawn
tennis". It had close connections both to various field
("lawn") games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older
racquet sport of real tennis. During most of the 19th-century in fact,
the term "tennis" referred to real tennis, not lawn tennis: for
example, in Disraeli's novel Sybil (1845), Lord Eugene De Vere announces
that he will "go down to Hampton Court and play tennis."
The rules of tennis have changed
little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1961 the server
had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tie-break
in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of
electronic review technology coupled with a point challenge system, which
allows a player to contest the line call of a point.
Tennis is played by millions of recreational
players and is also a popular worldwide spectator sport. The four Grand Slam
tournaments (also referred to as the "Majors") are especially
popular: the Australian Open played on hard courts, the French Open played on
red clay courts, Wimbledon played on grass courts, and the US Open played also
on hard courts.
History
Predecessors
Jeu de paume in the 17th century
Historians believe that the game's
ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France, where a ball was struck
with the palm of the hand. 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 was unhappy with playing tennis out of doors and accordingly had
indoor, enclosed courts made in Paris "around the end of the 13th
century". In due course this design spread across royal palaces all over
Europe. In June 1316 at Vincennes, Val-de-Marne and following a particularly
exhausting game, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently
died of either pneumonia or pleurisy, although there was also suspicion of
poisoning. Because of the contemporary accounts of his death, Louis X is
history's first tennis player known by name. Another of the early
enthusiasts of the game was King Charles V of France, who had a court set up at
the Louvre Palace.
It wasn't until the 16th century
that racquets came into use, and the game began to be called
"tennis", from the Old French term tenez, which can be
translated as "hold!", "receive!" or "take!", an interjection
used as a call from the server to his opponent. It was popular in England and
France, although the game was only played indoors where the ball could be hit
off the wall. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game, which is now
known as real tennis. During the 18th century and early 19th century, as real
tennis declined, new racquet sports emerged in England.
Further, the patenting of the first lawn
mower in 1830, in Britain, is strongly believed to have been the catalyst,
world-wide, for the preparation of modern-style grass courts, sporting ovals,
playing fields, pitches, greens, etc. This in turn led to the codification of
modern rules for many sports, including lawn tennis, most football codes, lawn
bowls and others.
Origins
of the modern game
Augurio Perera's house in Edgbaston,
Birmingham, where he and Harry Gem first played the modern game of lawn tennis
Between 1859 and 1865 Harry Gem and
his friend Augurio Perera developed a game that combined elements of racquets
and the Basque ball game pelota, which they played on Perera's croquet lawn in Birmingham,
England, United Kingdom. In 1872, along with two local doctors, they founded
the world's first tennis club in Leamington Spa.
In December 1873, British army
officer Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed and patented a similar
game – which he called sphairistikè (Greek: σφαιριστική, meaning "ball-playing"), and was soon known
simply as "sticky" – for the amusement of guests at a garden
party on his friend's estate of Nantclwyd Hall, in Llanelidan, Wales. According
to R. D. C. Evans, turfgrass agronomist, "Sports historians all agree that
[Wingfield] deserves much of the credit for the development of modern
tennis." According to Honor Godfrey, museum curator at Wimbledon,
Wingfield "popularized this game enormously. He produced a boxed set which
included a net, poles, racquets, balls for playing the game -- and most
importantly you had his rules. He was absolutely terrific at marketing and he
sent his game all over the world. He had very good connections with the clergy,
the law profession, and the aristocracy and he sent thousands of sets out in
the first year or so, in 1874." The world's oldest tennis tournament, the Wimbledon
Championships, were first played in London in 1877. The first Championships
culminated a significant debate on how to standardize the rules.
Lawn tennis in the U.S., 1887
In the U.S. in 1874 Mary Ewing
Outerbridge, a young socialite, returned from Bermuda with a sphairistikè set.
She became fascinated by the game of tennis after watching British army
officers play. She laid out a tennis court at the Staten Island Cricket Club at
Camp Washington, Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York. The first American
National championship was played there in September 1880. An Englishman named
O.E Woodhouse won the singles title, and a silver cup worth $100, by defeating
Canadian I. F. Hellmuth. There was also a doubles match which was won by a
local pair. There were different rules at each club. The ball in Boston was
larger than the one normally used in New York. On 21 May 1881, the United
States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association)
was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions. The U.S.
National Men's Singles Championship, now the US Open, was first held in 1881 at
the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. The U.S. National Women's Singles
Championships were first held in 1887 in Philadelphia.
Lawn tennis in Canada, ca. 1900
Tennis also became popular in
France, where the French Championships dates to 1891 although until 1925 it was
open only to tennis players who were members of French clubs. Thus, Wimbledon,
the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became
and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis. Together these four
events are called the Majors or Slams (a term borrowed from bridge
rather than baseball).
The comprehensive rules promulgated
in 1924 by the International Lawn Tennis Federation, now known as the International
Tennis Federation (ITF), have remained largely stable in the ensuing eighty
years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-break system
designed by James Van Alen. That same year, tennis withdrew from the Olympics
after the 1924 Games but returned 60 years later as a 21-and-under
demonstration event in 1984. This reinstatement was credited by the efforts by
the then ITF President Philippe Chatrier, ITF General Secretary David Gray and
ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens, and support from IOC President Juan Antonio
Samaranch. The success of the event was overwhelming and the IOC decided to
reintroduce tennis as a full medal sport at Seoul in 1988.
