History of Tennis

Tennis
Tennis, game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly
strung rackets to hit a ball of specified size, weight, and bounce over a net on a rectangular
court. Points are awarded to a player or team whenever the opponent fails to correctly return
the ball within the prescribed dimensions of the court. Organized tennis is played according
to rules sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body of
the sport.
Tennis originally was known as lawn tennis, and formally still is in Britain, because it was
played on grass courts by Victorian gentlemen and ladies. It is now played on a variety of
surfaces. The origins of the game can be traced to a 12th–13th-century French handball
game called jeu de paume (“game of the palm”), from which was derived a complex indoor
racket-and-ball game: real tennis. This ancient game is still played to a limited degree and is
usually called real tennis in Britain, court tennis in the United States, and royal tennis in
Australia.
History
Origin and early years
The officially recognized centennial of the game in 1973 commemorated its introduction by
Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. He published the first book of rules that year and
took out a patent on his game in 1874, although historians have concluded that similar
games were played earlier and that the first tennis club was established by the Englishman
Harry Gem and several associates in Leamington in 1872. Wingfield’s court was of the
hourglass shape and may have developed from badminton. The hourglass shape, stipulated
by Wingfield in his booklet “Sphairistiké, or Lawn Tennis,” may have been adopted for patent
reasons since it distinguished the court from ordinary rectangular courts. At the time, the
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was the governing body of real tennis, whose rules it had
recently revised. After J.M. Heathcote, a distinguished real tennis player, developed a better
tennis ball of rubber covered with white flannel, the MCC in 1875 established a new,
standardized set of rules for tennis.
Meanwhile, the game had spread to the United States in the 1870s. Mary Outerbridge of
New York has been credited with bringing a set of rackets and balls to her brother, a director
of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. But research has shown that William
Appleton of Nahant, Massachusetts, may have owned the first lawn tennis set and that his
friends James Dwight and Fred R. Sears popularized the game.
An important milestone in the history of tennis was the decision of the All England Croquet
Club to set aside one of its lawns at Wimbledon for tennis, which soon proved so popular
that the club changed its name to the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. In 1877
the club decided to hold a tennis championship, and a championship subcommittee of three
was appointed. It decided on a rectangular court 78 feet (23.8 metres) long by 27 feet (8.2
metres) wide. They adapted the real tennis method of scoring—15, 30, 40, game—and
allowed the server one fault (i.e., two chances to deliver a proper service on each point).
These major decisions remain part of the modern rules. Twenty-two entries were received,
and the first winner of the Wimbledon Championships was Spencer Gore. In 1878 the
Scottish Championships were held, followed in 1879 by the Irish Championships. There
were several alterations in some of the other rules (e.g., governing the height of the net) until
1880, when the All England Club and the MCC published revised rules that approximate very
closely those still in use.
The All England Club was the dominant authority then, the British Lawn Tennis Association
(LTA) not being formed until 1888. In 1880 the first U.S. championship was held at the
Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club.
History of Tennis in the Philippines

Tennis in the Philippines dates back to the American colonial period. It was one of the sports
introduced by American teachers (Thomasites) as part of the education system. Apart from
being taught in schools, the presence of tennis in the Philippines was hyped up during that
period by Dwight Davis, the first US Governor-General who had a special liking for tennis.
The Philippines participated in the Davis Cup for the first time in 1926, becoming the first
Southeast Asian country to do so. But, that was after the then Philippine tennis team
encountered some challenges. Initially, the team was set to participate in the Davis Cup in
1921 but withdrew from the tournament. The team later decided not to compete in the Davis
Cup 1922 and 1923 tennis tournaments. It then made its debut in the competition in 1926.
Philippine Tennis Association

The Philippine Tennis Association (PhilTA) is the current governing association of tennis in
the Philippines. For a long time, this association has worked to make this sport thrive in the
Philippines. Unfortunately, the association was given a two-year suspension by the
International Tennis Federation in 2020 due to leadership problems within PhilTA. Among
these issues was the controversial election of Antonio Cablitas as the association’s
president, which the Philippine Olympic Committee opposed. This suspension led the
Philippine tennis team to miss out on the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group III in 2021. While
this suspension negatively impacted tennis in the Philippines, the association is doing its
best to have it lifted.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/sports/tennis
https://www.sportnews.ph/tennis-in-the-philippines/

History of Tennis

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History of Tennis

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Tennis

History of Tennis in the Philippines

Philippine Tennis Association

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