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There is
really no telling the exact date of when the game of tennis began. In fact,
there are a lot of different adaptations about the history of tennis. One
of them dates back to the time of kings and pharaohs of ancient Egypt,
Greece, and Rome who were said to have played different versions of this
game. Although drawings and descriptions of “tennis-resembling” games have
not been discovered, Arabic words dating back from ancient Egyptians are
quoted as evidence. The theory says that the name tennis is derived from
the Egyptian town of Tinnis which is on the banks of the river Nile,
and the word racquet evolved from the word rahat, meaning palm of
hand.
No more than
this theory of the words Tinnis and Rahat from ancient
Egyptians, confirmation for any form of tennis prior to those years is
lacking. In the history of tennis books, most historians tribute the first
origin of the game to 11th and 12th century French
monks, who began playing crude handball against their monastery walls or
over a rope that strung across a courtyard. It was then called jeu de
paume which means game of the hand because it was a court game
where the ball was struck by the hand, others on the other hand disputed
that the name tennis came from the French tenez which meant something
like “take this” as one player would serve to the other.
As the
game became more popular, playing areas began to be modified from courtyard
into indoor courts, where the ball was still played off walls, but since
bare hands were found to be too painful, players began using a glove, either
a glove with webbing between fingers or a solid paddle, this was followed by
using webbing attached to a handle, basically a racquet. The ball was a wad
of hair, wool, or cork wrapped in string and cloth or leather. Later in the
years, it was hand stitched in felt that looked something like the modern
baseball. The game of tennis was passed on from the French monks to the
nobility who learned the game from them and soon gained popularity. It’s
been stated that as many as 1800 courts were built for this game in France
during the 13th century. The game became such a popular
diversion that both Pope and Louis IV attempted to ban it but failed. It
soon spread to England where both Henry VII and Henry VIII were devoted
players who encouraged it by building more courts.
The
history of tennis indicates that the game’s popularity decreased during the
1700’s, but in the 1850’s when vulcanization of rubber was introduced by
Charles Goodyear, players began experimenting using bouncy rubber balls
outdoors on grass courts. Since playing tennis outdoors was very different
from playing it indoors where it was only played off wall, several new sets
of rules were put together.
Some
people would credit the history of tennis to Major Walter Clopton Wingfield,
a British army officer who devised the game in 1873. Wingfield in search
for a more dynamic game than croquet, which was highly popular at that time,
thought of an activity that was a mixture of badminton and “court tennis”.
In 1874 in London, he patented the equipment and rules for the game very
similar to our modern day tennis.
At
present, tennis has become a very popular sport and has produced many great
athletes who have become legends of the game, including Andre Agassi, Pete
Sampras, Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe among men, and Steffi
Graf, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, and Martina Hingis among women.
Wherever or however the history of tennis is stated, one fact remains to be
true; that the history of tennis has led it to become one of the world’s top
sport games.
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