There are many sports that make people believe tennis has
originated from, but one of the main ones is called Paume. This game dates back many thousands of years ago when some European monks created this game for entertainment. Instead of using rackets though, the monks would hit the ball with their hands. Later on, leather gloves came into existence in this sport so that it wasn’t so hard on the hand. Just a bit further on, the leather glove was replaced with a racket that was then used to hit the ball, this is when rackets came into existence. Because the racket was now being used, the ball had to be changed around a bit to suit the game. The first tennis ball that was ever made was a wooden ball, but later on was replaced by a leather ball which was much more bouncy. The monks all around Europe cherished this game during the 14th century. |
The game became very popular, firstly in France when the royal family started playing it. In France, at the beginning of a tennis game, one of the players would yell out “tenez!” which meant play and then the game would start. The game was called royal tennis or real tennis to start with.
In 1874, the first ‘proper’ tennis court was made in the United States. Not long after, the game began to spread even further to include many different countries e.g. Russia,Canada, China and even India. Before this court was made, the first ever tennis court was in the shape of an hourglass. |