A Brief History Of The Game Of Tennis

Contemporary tennis games can be traced back to Britain in the nineteenth century too and are attributed to the innovations of Walter Wingfield, a Major in the military at that time.

History Of Tennis:  Its Beginnings

In the nineteenth century, Wingfield created a game he later named Sphairistike.  The name was rooted in Greek and literally translated at “ball game” or “skilled at playing ball.”  Wingfield attempted to patent this ball game in the mid 1870s.  Wingfield derived his gaming ideas from the game Jeu de Paume, a French game created in the thirteenth century.  Jeu de Paume, when translated, comes to mean “game of the palm.”  The latter game involved the use of a net, the striking of the ball with a palm, and the gaming environment was intended for the indoors.  Monks residing in monasteries at the time found the game of Jeu de Paume a suitable pastime.  Interestingly, Jue de Paume was a game that was rooted in a royal game of tennis played by French kings and queens.  In fact, Francis I played the game in the sixteenth century and he had his own tennis court created so that he could enjoy the game on his battleship. Like Francis I of France, King Henry VIII of England also proved a major tennis enthusiast.  During the sixteenth century, tennis players began using rackets instead of their hands to play the game and they also kept the game indoors.  This allowed for plays to be bounced off the indoor walls. 

In the 1870s, Aurgurio Perera and Harry Gem also devices a game that unified gaming elements from pelota, a Basque ball game, and the use of rackets.  This game was then played in Birmingham on a lawn created for the game of croquet gaming.  These same two individuals and two physicians later created the first tennis club in the entire world, the Lemington Spa.

Sphairistike was first played in 1873 in Wales on a gaming court made of grass.  This game was commonly referred to as “Sticky” and it serves as the ancestor game to lawn tennis.  The game soon became popular in England.  The lawn tennis game was particularly popular among upper class citizens as a leisure game.  The regulations regarding the game in the 1890s have remained in place and very little has changed in this regard.  From 1908 until the early 1960s, servers were required to always keep at least one of their feet on the ground.  In addition, a tiebreaker round was added to the game by the 1970s

History of Tennis: Its Evolution

By the late 1880s, the first Wimbledon championships were played in London, England.  These games resulted in a debate pertaining to tennis gaming regulations.  Meanwhile, in the year 1874, a young female socialite by the name of Mary Ewing Outerbridge had taken a trip to Bermuda.  While there, she met Wingfield and learned of the tennis game that he created.  When she returned from her trip, she established a tennis court in New Brighton Staten Island in New York at the Staten Island Cricket Club.  This first tennis club was positioned where the Ferry terminal in Staten Island is located today.  By 1880, the first National tournament in America was played at the club established by Outerbridge.  At this time tennis regulations varied from one tennis club location to another.  IN 1881, the USNLTA was created, otherwise called the United States National Lawn Tennis Association.  Today this organization has shorted its moniker to United States Tennis Association or the USTA.  The latter organization was established in order to help standardize tennis playing regulations as well as to assist in the development of tennis competitions.

In 1881, the first US National Men’s Singles Championship was held: this game is now identified as the US Open.  Six years later the same competition was held for women.  The first French Open occurred in 1891 and the first Open in Australia occurred in 1905.  In 1900, a yearly competition for men identified as the Davis Cup was also organized.  The women’s synonymous competition is the Fed Cup created in the early 1960s.  For more information visit http://www.all-about-tennis.com/history-of-tennis.html.

History of Tennis: Today

Today’s professional tennis games include things like a pin challenge system and electric reviewing technologies, otherwise identified as the Hawk-Eye system, both nonexistent in nineteenth century England.  The latter features of the game allow for better gaming accuracies and for players to challenge an umpire’s ruling when a point is called.  Today, players can challenge an umpire as often as they desire.  Nevertheless, a total of three challenges proving incorrect on behalf of the player lead to the disallowance of future challenges against the umpire until the game moves into the next set.  The latter review technologies are utilized in WTA and ATP high-level tournaments and the offering of such systems is very limited in terms of availability.

Present day professional tennis involves a number of popular competitions.  Championship games include things like the French Open, the US Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon Competitions.  The latter competitions are identified as the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments or the Majors.  Today, tennis games are played on a variety of different courts including grass courts, hard courts, carpeted courts, and clay courts.  Tennis competitions can include singles competitions were the game involves two players only; and doubles competitions where the game involves teams consisting of two players on each team.  Often times, players of the game in professional competitions are pitted against tennis players of the same sex, but there are instances where mixed doubles competitions are played; for example, all of the Majors competitions have a mixed competition.  For more information visit http://www.sportsknowhow.com/tennis/history/tennis-history.shtml.