History Of Tennis

One popular story behind the invention of modern tennis holds that it was invented around 1860 in Birmingham, England, by an Englishman named Major T. Henry Gem and a Spaniard named Mr. Augurio Perera. The two men would play an older racquet sport of the time known simply as racquets at a local sporting club, and decided to invent a new racquet sport combining some rules of racquets with that of a Spanish sport known as pelota. They dubbed this new sport "lawn tennis," as it was originally played on a croquet lawn.

History Of Tennis

It is also said that modern tennis was adapted from an older, indoor form of the game that is now largely considered archaic and is known as "real tennis."

Tennis History

Whatever the true origin of the sport, it rapidly became a hit with the upper classes of the English-speaking world by the mid-1870s, and the first competitive tennis championship was held in the London suburb of Wimbledon in 1877. Four years later, the first organized men's singles tennis championship was held across the pond in Newport, Rhode Island (which would eventually develop into the U.S. Open Championship).

The History Of Tennis

During these early years, tennis did not spread much beyond the English-speaking world. However, it did become quickly popular in France, and the first French Open Championship was held in 1891. This is why three out of the four most prestigious and popular tennis championships (these four being Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open) take place in English-speaking countries. These four championships are collectively called the Grand Slam tournaments, as winning all four of them is referred to as a "grand slam."

The Grand Slam tournaments are all considered "open" tournaments because they feature professional play. Prior to 1968, these tournaments eschewed professionalism, and stood by amateur, non-profit sportsmanship. The introduction of professional play to these prestigious tournaments transformed the traditional, leisurely image of tennis to the more competitive streak it features today. While tennis still tends to be more popular among the upper class, it has become more accessible to the general public in recent decades.

The professional era of modern tennis made for the rise of bona fide star athletes in the tennis world. On the men's side of professional tennis, the canon of greatest tennis stars typically includes names like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, and Roger Federer. The most famous players of women's tennis include Margaret Smith Court, Steffi Graf, the Williams sisters, and Jennifer Capriati.