The history of tennis can be traced back to hundreds of years. The game was first created as an entertainment tool in religious ceremonies and it is said that European monks have created this game.
Some of the oldest forms of the game were found in France during 12th century. However, the game had its glove and racquet by 16th century. Once the racquet and glove became the part of the game, it started becoming popular.
The game received a constant boost when Henry V of England was interested in this game. His interest in the game attracted several royal families into the game. You can notice that a couple of writings from William Shakespeare has mentioned about this game.
The origin of tennis courts is an interesting story. The early version of these courts are totally different form the lawn tennis courts that we have these days.
Early version of the game which was known as Real Tennis was played in Hampton Court till 16th century. the initial tennis courts were quite narrow and surrounded by walls which made the game look like an indoor one.
The first tennis championships were held in 1877 and England was the venue for these matches.
The name of the first tournament was All England Croquet Lawn Tennis Club Championship. For this game, Henry Jones was appointed as the referee and the set of rules were chosen with the help of a two man committee.
For the first game, the rules for the players insisted them to change the side after each set. The game had five sets in total and also included tie breakers if a tie occurs accidently. Even for the first tennis championship, warm welcome was received from players and twenty two people had participated in the first match.
Ernest and William Renshaw are the earliest Wimbledon champions. They were known for their excellent strokes that took the game to a higher standard.
There is no doubt that the rising ball of style play was introduced to the game by them. The overhead mash was introduced to the game in 1880. This dominated the game for almost a decade.
The popularity of the game started to cross the borders of England and it was in 1881, the first US Open tournament was founded.
The US Open was restricted to American residents. This championship was held in Newport, Rhode Islands and the first winner was R.D Sears.
R.D Sears was a young Harvard graduate and he could maintain his title for the next six matches.
He later teamed up with United States Lawn Tennis Association founder, Dr James Dwight to play in men's doubles.
They also won the national doubles title for more than five times. William Learned is another great player who has won the title for seven times. Arguably, these three are the greatest players in the history of United States Tennis.
There is no doubt that people's knowledge about various filed and lawn games boosted the popularity of Tennis.
When people from all over the world started playing the game, setting up common rules became very important.
This was significant because the game was slowly spreading all over the world and many organizers of tennis wanted to held international tournaments and for this, they needed an internationally acceptable set of rules for tennis.
This is how the first set of rules were created for tennis and one can argue that tennis rules are one of the oldest rules in the history that remain almost the same without experiencing much changes even after a century of its inception.
Wimbledon, The US Open, The French Open and The Australian Open were the greatest tennis tournaments and these were known as Majors of Slams. The rules that were set remained the same till 1924, when International Lawn Tennis Federation came up with new set of rules for the game.
The changes included the latest tie break system designed by James Van Alen. For the first time, tennis was withdrawn from the Olympics in 1924 and the comeback of the game to Olympics was after a very long 60 year period.
The Davis Cup is an annual tennis competition between men's national teams and the first Davis Cup match was held in 1900. The women's cup was known as Fed Cup and the first Federation Cup match was found as a tribute to the Fed Cup.
The game is played on a rectangular flat surface and the materials used to create a tennis court are grass, clay and hardcourt. These days, concrete and asphalt is also commonly used to the making of a Tennis court.
The length of the court is 78 feet and the width is 27 feet for single matches but for double matches, the width is rearranged into 36 feet.
The court is divided into two with a net and players of the opposite teams shall stand at opposite parts of the court. Even the surface of the court is very important.
The clay court is used primarily in French Open and many other European tournaments. In United States, a green clay is used to create the court.
The hard court is made up of asphalt and concrete. The green clay is used in the American tennis courts. These clay courts are usually used to play slower paced balls and the bounce is said to be more accurate.
The hard surface is usually made up of acrylic and for Australian Open this is used. This can ensure faster pace to the balls and even the bounce is very accurate.
Needless to say, Grass courts are used for one of the most elegant tennis matches in the world, The Wimbledon Tournament. The grass can bring a slower pace to the balls and the effect is different. For amateur games, carpet is used because this is very easy to maintain.
There is no doubt that tennis is one of the most elegant sports played by humans. Learning this game can be quite an achievement.
