Tennis History

As everything in the world does, tennis evolves as time progresses. The beginning of tennis was completely different than the sport is today. The equipment, clothing, game style, and culture have all changed over the many years of its existence. The sport is believed to have originated from a game called jeu de paume which was a French game in the 1300s where a ball was struck with the hand (History of Tennis, The). This was then taken to the next level and played as a racket sport. After many years of different tweaks to the game, tennis was born. Although people are unclear when tennis was truly invented, people believe that Walter Clopton Wingfield invented the sport in 1873. The sport was first called "sticky" and was later renamed lawn …show more content…
Henry Jones, a referee at the first major tennis club, devised a set of rules for the first large tennis tournament in 1877. He came up with the following: players must change side at the end of each set, matches were best three out of five sets, and if the game score reached 5-5 the next game decided the set (which determined the number of games per set). He also came up with the measurements for a tennis court, which we still play on today! The court originally was hour glass shaped and the nets were five feet high at the posts and slightly over three feet in the center. The height of the net was not changed to their current height until 1882. In this first tournament, there were no seeded players and the match selection process was in a draw format. The first champion was Spencer Gore. This tournament was to later be known as Wimbledon (History of Tennis). After this tennis tournament, many others quickly sprung about. In 1881 the first US Open was held, which was followed 10 years later by the French Open, and then tennis in the Olympics in 1896. Interestingly enough, women were allowed to play in tennis tournaments pretty early off. The first major tournament they were allowed to play in was Wimbledon in 1884 (History of Tennis, The). One reason behind this may be that the majority of tennis players were very wealthy men and women of England. Due to this, these women would have …show more content…
A sport where no coaching is allowed, health and fitness are tested to the maximum, and mental strength is key. Tennis is now a high speed game, verses the more relaxed finesse style played through the late 1900s. The advancement in racket technology is what has truly helped to evolve the game so quickly over the last 30 to 40 years. The new tennis racket advancements allow for this change as well as increases the amount of topspin and power able to hit on any average ball. In addition to this players and coaches have tweaked strokes to maximize the body's abilities as well as try to restrain from injuries. By changing the technique and enhancing the equipment, players are capable of hitting smashing shots multiple times harder than was ever thought to be possible in the past. On top of that, every high level tennis player has incredibly explosive footwork. In the past, footwork was not of high importance. Since the game has sped up drastically, so has the footwork aspect (Tennis). The game of tennis has turned into a highly competitive and mentally and physically draining sport. As the years progress so does everything else in life, tennis included. Although we know the progressions leading to the current style of the sport, we do not know how the game will take off and continue to evolve. All we can do is take every bit of knowledge about tennis and try to improve