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ANCIENT ORIGINS
OPEN ERA SWEEPS AWAY COBWEBS OF AMATEUR PAST
It took ancient civilisation
to devise the game, the French to make it popular
and the British to lend order for the modern game
of tennis to be born. Once the British had set
up the rules and led the way for the world, scoring
many an early triumph along the way, they then,
in time-honoured tradition, slipped down the league
of sporting excellence.
Take away the racket, hit
what passes for a ball with the palm of the
hand and you have the game of tennis as played
by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs
and Persians. The French took up a similar game
and called it Tenez, or "take it", in the 9th
and 10th centuries, after it had become popular
among members of the Royal Household.
The early game had indoor
and outdoor versions and involved hitting a
cloth bag with the palm across a mound of dirt
or a rope. This led to the use of the term jeu
de paume, or hand sport. As the game spread
beyond the Royal Court, it became known as Royal,
or real, tennis. Outside France, it became known
as real, or royal, tennis, spreading to Britain
by the 14th century, when the Scots called the
game caitchspeel.
The French introduced an
all-wood racket in the 15th century and by the
16th century a sheep-gut stringed hitting surface
had emerged. The game was popular among the
upper classes and spread widely through society
over the next 200 years.
It was not until 1858 that
the tennis court we recognise today was devised,
in Birmingham no less, when real tennis was
adapted for the summer lawns of England. The
first tennis club was founded in Warwickshire,
in 1872 and a year after the structure of the
modern game was set in place by Major Walter
Wingfield, a retired British officer, who called
his creation Sphairistike, the Greek root for
"ball", in recognition of the orgins of the
sport. It was Major Wingfield who gave the 15-point
game to tennis, and dictated that only the server
be allowed to score. The major's court was shaped
like an hourglass but the rectangular court
familiar today was in place by the time the
first All England Championships were held at Wimbledon in 1877.
The first women's tournament
took place in 1879 in Dublin, which also hosted
the first international match in 1892. The Davis
Cup, devised as a tournament between England
and the United States was staged for the first time in
1900 and the Americans won 3-0. The body that
would become the International Tennis Federation
was founded in 1913.
Today, tennis is best known
for the professional circuit on which players
earn small fortunes. The Olympic amateur ideal
is now a mere footnote in the history of the
game.
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