Tennis History

Varied Translations of Tennis History

Tennis is the oldest of all the racquet games ever invented. In Great Britain, it is called real tennis, royal tennis as it is in Australia and in the United States as court tennis. Compared to the others such as squash, tennis is a “product of evolution rather than pure invention”. Here you will encounter diverse adaptations of the tennis history.

So much has been said about the origin of the world - renowned sport but, many experts believe that tennis history started in 1873. It was then called as lawn tennis by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, a British army officer. It was initially tested at a garden party in Wales using an hourglass- shaped court, widest at the baselines and narrowest at the net. The game was then presented to Bermuda in that same year and was brought to the United States by New Yorker, Mary Ewing Outerbridge.

In the early years, the initial amateur championships were held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, England. While in the American region, the United States Lawn Tennis Association was primarily structured to come up with standard rules to be followed and certain equipments to be used.

Another version also said that tennis history dated back in the eleventh or twelfth century in France. It was said that the monks played a crude handball against their monastery walls or over a rope strung across a courtyard. The game took on the name jeu de paume, which means “game of the hand”. Many who dispute more primordial origins argued that tennis derived from the French word “tenez”, which meant something to the effect of "take this," said as one player would serve to the other.

By the thirteenth century, the aristocrats learned the game from the monks. It was even reported that there were about 1, 800 courts in France by that period. The popularity of tennis spread that the Pope and Louis IV tried to ban it but were unsuccessful. The sport mushroomed in England where both Henry VII and Henry VIII became enthusiasts and promoted the creation of more tennis courts.

Other stories of tennis history also mentioned that it birthed from the earliest civilizations. Different drawings and descriptions of tennis- like games were not discovered from the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. However, there few Arabic words that were cited as evidence. The theory postulated goes that the name “tennis” was derived from an Egyptian town, Tinnis, which is located beside the Nile River. The very essential equipment of the sport, tennis racquet, evolved from the Arabic word “rahat” which means palm of the hand.

There may have been several narratives of tennis history but one fact remains the same as the years have passed, the sport never ceases to gain millions of audience in a global scale.