History of tennis facts for kids
Tennis is a popular racket sport. It was first called "lawn tennis" and was invented in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. Tennis comes from an older game called real tennis or royal tennis, which is still played today with more complicated rules.
Many of the rules for modern tennis come from this older game. Most historians think tennis started in monasteries in northern France around the 12th century. Back then, players hit the ball with their hands, which is why it was called jeu de paume ("game of the palm"). Rackets didn't start being used until the 16th century. That's when the game began to be called 'tennis'. It was very popular in England and France. Even Henry VIII of England loved playing it!
Many old tennis courts still exist today. You can find them at Oxford, Cambridge, Falkland Palace in Scotland, and Hampton Court Palace in England. The first official rules for lawn tennis were set in 1875. These rules were used for the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877.
The Davis Cup is a yearly competition for men's national teams, and it started in 1900. For women's national teams, the Fed Cup began in 1963.
In 1926, a promoter named C. C. Pyle created the first professional tennis tour. This meant players could earn money from the sport. Before this, top players like Vinnie Richards and Suzanne Lenglen played exhibition matches for audiences. If players became professionals, they couldn't play in the big amateur tournaments.
But in 1968, things changed. People realized some amateur players were secretly taking money. So, the "Open Era" began. This allowed all players, both amateur and professional, to compete in the same tournaments. This made tennis much more popular around the world. Top players could now make a living from the sport.
Contents
- What Does 'Tennis' Mean?
- Where Did Tennis Come From?
- The Start of Lawn Tennis
- Tennis Words and Their Meanings
- Big Tennis Tournaments
- The Open Era (1968)
- Women's Professional Tennis
- International Tennis Hall of Fame
- See also
- Images for kids
What Does 'Tennis' Mean?
The word "tennis" came into English in the mid-1300s. It came from the French word Tenez. This word means 'hold!', 'receive!', or 'take!'. It was a call from the server to their opponent, letting them know the serve was coming.
The first time "tennis" appeared in English writing was in a poem in 1400. The poet John Gower wrote: "Of the tenetz to winne or lese a chase, Mai no lif wite er that the bal be ronne." This means: "Whether a chase is won or lost at tennis, Nobody can know until the ball is run."
Where Did Tennis Come From?
Tennis is mentioned in old stories from the Middle Ages. For example, in a play from around 1500, shepherds give a tennis ball to the newborn Christ. Also, in another story from around 1500, Sir Gawain, a knight from King Arthur's time, plays tennis against 17 giants!
Real Tennis: The Original Game
The old form of tennis from the Middle Ages is called real tennis. This game developed over 300 years. It started around the 12th century in France. Players first hit the ball with their bare hand, then with a glove. By the 16th century, the glove became a racket. The game moved to an enclosed court, and the rules became more stable.
Real tennis became very popular with royal families across Europe. It was most popular in the 16th century. In 1437, James I of Scotland died because of tennis! He tried to escape assassins through a drain, but it had been blocked to stop tennis balls from getting lost. He was trapped and killed.
Francis I of France (1515–1547) loved real tennis. He built courts and encouraged everyone to play. His son, Henry II, was also a great player. In 1555, an Italian priest wrote the first book about tennis. Two French kings died from tennis-related events. Louis X got very sick after playing. Charles VIII hit his head during a game.
In 1571, King Charles IX created the first professional tennis "tour." It had three levels: apprentice, associate, and master.
In England, royal interest in tennis started with Henry V. Henry VIII had a big impact. He built a court at Hampton Court in 1530 and played with lots of energy. It's even believed that his second wife, Anne Boleyn, was watching a game when she was arrested. Henry was playing when he heard the news of her execution. By the early 1600s, London had 14 tennis courts.
Real tennis is also mentioned in William Shakespeare's play Henry V. In the play, King Henry is given a basket of tennis balls to make fun of his youth.
By the 1700s and early 1800s, real tennis became less popular in England. Three new racket sports appeared: racquets, squash racquets, and lawn tennis (the modern game).
The Start of Lawn Tennis
The modern game of tennis has two main origins.
Between 1859 and 1865, in Birmingham, England, Major Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera created a new game. They combined parts of racquets and a game called "ball of wind." They played it on a croquet lawn. In 1872, they started the world's first tennis club, the Leamington Tennis Club.
In 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed an hourglass-shaped tennis court. He got a temporary patent for it in 1874. He also wrote rules for his game, which he called Sphaeristikè. This name was soon shortened to "sticky."
Wingfield claimed he invented his game for guests at a party in Wales in 1874. However, he had been experimenting with his version of lawn tennis for a year and a half before that. He based his game on both outdoor tennis and real tennis. Many modern tennis words come from this time, as Wingfield and others used French words from real tennis for their new game.
Wingfield's game had a higher net and a different serving area. But none of these special rules lasted. In 1875, the Marylebone Cricket Club set the official rules for lawn tennis. These rules are still used today, with only small changes. These rules were adopted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the first Wimbledon Championship in 1877.
Wingfield deserves credit for making lawn tennis popular. He sold all the equipment needed to play in one box set. Because of this, the game quickly spread across Britain. By 1875, lawn tennis had almost completely replaced croquet and badminton as outdoor games for both men and women.
Lawn tennis was first played in the United States in 1874. Dr. James Dwight (known as "the Father of American Lawn Tennis") and others played it on a grass court in Nahant, Massachusetts.
Tennis Words and Their Meanings
Many tennis terms come from French or Arabic:
- Tennis comes from the French word tenez, meaning "hold!" or "receive!". It was a call from the server.
- Racket comes from the Arabic word rakhat, meaning "palm of the hand."
- Deuce comes from "a deux du jeu," which means "two points away from game." You need to score two points in a row to win the game from deuce.
- The reason "love" means zero is debated. Some think it comes from l'œuf, French for "the egg," because it looks like a zero. Others think it comes from a Dutch saying meaning "to do something for praise," suggesting no money was involved.
- The scoring of "15," "30," and "40" is a bit of a mystery. It might have come from clock quarters (15, 30, 45, with 45 simplified to 40).
Big Tennis Tournaments
The Four Majors (Grand Slams)
The four biggest tennis competitions are called the Grand Slam tournaments. They are Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open. Since the 1920s, these have been the most important events in tennis. If a player wins all four in the same year, it's called a Calendar Grand Slam.
Wimbledon: The Start (1877)
The Championships, Wimbledon began in 1877. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club started it to raise money. The first championship had 22 men competing. The winner received a silver cup and was called "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World."
The next year, Wimbledon became the official British Championships. In 1884, women's singles and men's doubles were added. Later, women's and mixed doubles were also included.
- First Name: The Championships
- Surface: Grass
- Location: Started at Worple Road, Wimbledon, London. Moved to Church Road, Wimbledon, London in 1922.
U.S. Open: American Tennis (1881)
Tennis was first played in the U.S. in 1874. In 1881, the desire for competitive tennis led to the creation of tennis clubs. The first American national tournament was in 1880. Because different clubs had different rules, the United States National Lawn Tennis Association was formed in 1881. This group helped make the rules the same and organize competitions.
The U.S. National Men's Singles Championship, now called the US Open, first took place in 1881 in Newport, Rhode Island. The U.S. National Women's Singles Championships started in 1887 in Philadelphia. This tournament became an official "Major" in 1924.
- Name Changes: U.S. National Championship (1881), U.S. Open (1968)
- Surface Changes: Grass (1881), Clay (1975), Hard (1978)
- Location Changes: Many moves, including Newport, Forest Hills, and now Flushing Meadows.
French Open: European Clay (1891)
Tennis was mostly an English-speaking sport, but it was also popular in France. The French Open started in 1891 as the Championnat de France. It wasn't considered a "Major" tournament until 1925, when players from all countries were allowed to compete.
- Name Changes: Championnat de France (1891), Championnats Internationaux de France (1925), Tournoi de Roland Garros (1928)
- Surface: Mostly Clay
- Location: Shared by various clubs in Paris, then moved to Stade Roland Garros in 1928.
Australian Open: Down Under (1905)
The Australian Open first started in 1905 as The Australasian Championships. Because it was so far away, not many top players attended at first. It became one of the major tournaments in 1924. In 1927, it became known as the Australian Championships.
For many years, top players still didn't often go. But since it moved to Melbourne Park in 1988, the Australian Open has become as popular as the other three majors.
- Name Changes: Australasian Championships (1905), Australian Championships (1927), Australian Open (1969)
- Surface Changes: Grass (1905), Hard (1988)
- Location: Moved between cities like Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. Since 1988, it's been at Melbourne Park.
The Davis Cup: Men's Team Competition
Dwight F. Davis from the Harvard University tennis team came up with the idea for a tournament to challenge the British. The first match was between the United States and Great Britain in 1900. The American team, with Dwight Davis playing, surprised everyone by winning. By 1905, more countries joined.
The tournament was first called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. It was renamed the Davis Cup after Dwight Davis died in 1945. Today, over 130 nations compete!
International Tennis Federation (ITF)
In 1913, 12 national tennis groups met in Paris to form the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). This group was renamed the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in 1977. The rules they set in 1924 have stayed mostly the same. One big change was adding the tie-break system.
Tennis was removed from the Olympics after the 1924 Games. But it came back 60 years later as a special event in 1984. It was so successful that the Olympics brought tennis back as a full medal sport in 1988.
The Fed Cup: Women's Team Competition
The idea for a Davis Cup-style tournament for women's teams is quite old. Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman first suggested it in 1919. When her idea was turned down, she donated a trophy in 1923. This trophy was used for the Wightman Cup, an annual match between the top women's tennis teams from the United States and Great Britain.
Wightman's original idea for a worldwide women's team tournament finally happened over 40 years later. In 1962, Nell Hopman convinced the ITF to start such an event. The first Federation Cup was played in 1963. It had 16 countries and lasted one week. By the 1990s, over 70 nations competed each year. In 1995, the ITF changed the format to be more like the Davis Cup and renamed it the Fed Cup.
Professional Tennis Tours
In 1926, C.C. Pyle started the first professional tour. American Vinnie Richards and Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen were among the first famous pros. Back then, if you turned professional, you couldn't play in the big amateur tournaments.
Before the Open Era, professional players had contracts with promoters. These promoters controlled where they played. For example, Suzanne Lenglen was the top female player in the first year of the pro circuit. After she retired in 1927, few women played professionally until the Open Era.
Professional players often played more "head-to-head" tours than tournaments. This was because tours paid much better, and there weren't many professional tournaments. For example, Fred Perry earned a lot more money from a tour than from winning a championship.
The most famous professional tournaments before the Open Era were the Wembley Championship in England, the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, and the French Pro Championship.
The Open Era (1968)
The Open Era started in 1968. This is when the Grand Slam tournaments decided to let professional players compete with amateurs. Before 1968, only amateur players could play in Grand Slam events.
This change happened because people were tired of the "shamateurism" in tennis. This meant amateurs were secretly getting paid a lot to play in tournaments. One British official said, "We must make the game honest."
The first Open Era event was in April 1968 in England. The first open Grand Slam tournament was the 1968 French Open in May. Both were won by Ken Rosewall. The Open Era gave all tennis players a chance to earn a living from the sport.
Player Groups and Rivalries
In 1968, some top players were part of groups like the National Tennis League (NTL) and World Championship Tennis (WCT). These groups had contracts with players. Sometimes, players from these groups didn't play in certain Grand Slams because of disagreements.
To fix this, Jack Kramer, a famous player and promoter, created the Grand Prix tennis circuit in 1969. This was a series of tournaments with a bonus prize pool. It encouraged top players to compete regularly. In 1970, the International Lawn Tennis Federation approved Kramer's Grand Prix.
The rivalry between the WCT and Grand Prix circuits grew strong. In 1971, most top players were on the WCT circuit. This meant the 1971 Australian Open was a WCT event, while the French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open were Grand Prix events.
In 1972, the conflict got so bad that the ILTF banned contract professional players from many Grand Prix events, including the 1972 French Open and Wimbledon.
At the 1972 US Open, players decided to form a group to protect themselves. This led to the creation of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
In 1973, there were four different professional circuits! The ILTF banned Nikola Pilić from Wimbledon because he supposedly refused to play in a Davis Cup match. In response, 81 out of 84 ATP players boycotted Wimbledon. They believed players should decide if they play Davis Cup matches.
Coming Together
In 1978, the ILTF Grand Prix and WCT circuits finally merged. However, the WCT separated again in 1982. The Grand Prix circuit became the main one. The WCT Finals in Dallas continued until the end of the 1980s. Then, the ATP Tour was created in 1990.
The Open Era, the global professional circuit, and television helped tennis become popular worldwide. It also helped change its image from being just for the rich. In the United States, public tennis courts became common. The U.S. Open even moved from a private club to a public park, the USTA National Tennis Center, so anyone could buy a ticket and watch.
The ATP Tour Today
In 1990, the ATP became the main group for men's professional tennis. They created the ATP Tour. The nine most important events were called the "Championship Series – Single Tournament Week," and later the "Super Nine." These were renamed the Masters Series in 2000. Winning a Masters Series event was worth about half the points of winning a Grand Slam.
Since 2000, Grand Slam and Masters Series tournaments became mandatory for top players. In 2009, the Masters events were renamed the ATP World Tour Masters 1000. The numbers in the tournament names (like 1000, 500, 250) show how many ranking points the winner gets. For example, a Grand Slam winner gets 2000 points.
Women's Professional Tennis
Women's professional tennis started in 1926. The world's number one female player, Suzanne Lenglen, accepted $50,000 to play a series of matches. After she retired in 1927, there was almost no women's professional tennis until 1967. That's when promoter George McCall signed Billie Jean King, Ann Jones, and others to join his tour.
In 1970, a promoter offered women only $7,500 in prize money, while men got $50,000. Billie Jean King and others urged women to boycott.
Gladys Heldman, a magazine publisher, started a separate women's tour. It was sponsored by Virginia Slims cigarettes. This tour offered much more prize money. In 1973, the U.S. Open made history by offering equal prize money to men and women. Billie Jean King, a strong supporter of women's rights in tennis, earned a lot of money in 1971 and 1972.
In September 1973, King played a famous match called the Battle of the Sexes against Bobby Riggs. Riggs was a male player who said women weren't as good as men. King beat him, which brought even more attention to women in tennis and other areas of life.
The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) was formed in 1973. It organizes the professional WTA Tour for women. The WTA Tour Championships are considered the fifth most important event for women, after the four Grand Slams.
International Tennis Hall of Fame
In 1954, James Van Alen started the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It's a museum in Newport, Rhode Island. It has a large collection of tennis items and honors famous players and others who helped the sport. Each year, a grass-court tournament and a ceremony to welcome new members take place there.
See also
- Doping in tennis
- Match fixing in tennis
- Tennis technology
- Tennis at the Summer Olympics
Images for kids
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Cover of the first book about Lawn Tennis by Walter Clopton Wingfield, published in February 1874.
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Tennis doubles final at the 1896 Olympic Games.
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Amateur tennis match in Sweden, 1892.
