Tuesday, September 7, 2010

History of Tennis



Tennis is a very old game, most historians believe that it originated in the 12th century, in France, however the game was played by hitting the ball in the palm of the hand, rather than with the racquet. The racquet was introduced about 400 years later. So from then people were serving with palms of steel. When people started to use racquets then the game was known as “tennis.”
     Tennis was an indoor sport and very similar to racquetball, hitting the ball of the wall. Then when the sport was taken seriously, it went outdoors, and was played on the grass. This was known as “lawn tennis.” If you ask a European about a certain game with a racquet and a ball, he would call it lawn tennis, not just tennis, lawn tennis. You should try it sometimes. After a couple of centuries tennis became a international sensation where many countries played, America, Europe, India, Africa, and many others. And in 1877 the first real competition for tennis arose, Wimbledon. However people say that the French Open was first real competition, Wimbledon is the most open of all.
     Now to this very day, every year, Wimbledon is played and just this year, Rafael Nadal won #1 singles in the world. 



1 comment:

  1. This post is very informative but I still have some questions. First, wouldn't it make more sense to say that the game was developed from palmball, because it still played today. Second, what does it mean in the second paragraph that tennis was "taken more seriously"? Also, i think it would've been great for you to mention how tournaments began.

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