The game of Tennis traces its roots back to ancient Greece when the ancestor of tennis resembled a game of handball played against a wall. It was in the Middle Ages that the concept of the ball being batted back and forth between two opponents came to be. In early matches, there were no boundary lines, but the court gradually evolved into an hourglass shape with a line drawn across the centre. Early tennis balls were made of leather pouches stuffed with horse hair. The racquet started as a leather glove worn to protect the hand from the ball much like a baseball mitt. The glove became longer to allow more reach, and eventually formed into the modern handle and paddle we know today.
The game takes its name from the French word “tenez,” which means to “take” or get “ready.” The game became a favourite of the European nobility and has become so popular worldwide that people can study how to play at a Tennis Academy, and if they excel go on to become famous and well-paid professional athletes!
The scoring system also evolved, and became something so complicated that most commoners couldn’t fathom its intricacies! This was not a problem because the use of the courts was so expensive only the very wealthy and nobility were able to have access to them. By the year 1874, the rules had bloated into something too complex to really be playable, so the scoring system was simplified, after which the game grew in popularity beyond the castle and mansion walls.
Tennis became a widely played game in England and France, and so spread to the far-flung colonies of those nations. Tennis came to the Americas in 1875 when Mary Outerbridge visited Bermuda where tennis was widely enjoyed. She brought all the game’s components, including net, racquets, and balls to her home on Staten Island where she taught her friends to play. The game spread across the east and beyond, becoming one of the country’s most well-loved sports, one can now find tennis courts in nearly every town and city’s public parks, schools, and often in private gardens. Over the years other games have sprouted from tennis like table tennis, pickleball, and badminton, but none have really achieved the global popularity and adoration that tennis has.
The sport has become a professional undertaking with International competitions like the Davis Cup Tournament for male players only, founded in 1900. The Davis Cup moves around the world and has been held in England, France, the USA and Australia. The Wightman Cup Matches were introduced for women players as a competition between the United States and England.
Nowadays there are a great many international tournaments open to players from all across the globe of both sexes. In many cases, the best sixty-four winning players from national tournaments are picked to play in the international matches.
Tennis is very popular in Australia, and a great many international stars have hailed from the Land Down Under!
