The Tennis movement all started in the 12th century with French handball called Paum. (A game which you don't use a racket for but your own bare hands) This game was first created by European Monks for entertainment purposes during ceremonial events. At first, tennis was played with your hands, however, then leather gloves came and even later came, what we now use, rackets.
The game became very popular in France, where it was adopted by the French Royal Family. Then, in the year 1316 French King Louis X died of a very rough game of “Je de Paume”.In Britain, the game was introduced to the public and they called it Royal Tennis - which is the same name Australia called it and Court Tennis in the United States. Either way, the death of Louis did not dampen the creation of tennis.
16th century tennis
In the years of the 16th and 18th century, there was a high demand of Paum in France by kings and noblemen. These French players would start the game by shouting “Joue” which in English means to play.
1530s - King Henry the VIII builds a tennis court in Hampton court palace which is now not there any longer but now a new one had appeared.
1583-The first tennis racket was made in Italy.
19th century tennis
1870s-in the district of Wimbledon in London made an all England croquet club. Tennis was still an indoor game played by the rich at the time.
1873s-Major Walter Wingfield created a new type of tennis that can be played outdoors on a lawn. It was called ’ ‘sphairistike’ (play ball in Greek) This was first introduced in Wales and played on an hourglass court by the rich, this when tennis reached its climax when ‘sphairistike’ was sold in boxes, it included two net posts, a net, rackets, and Indian rubber balls, instructions on laying out the court and how to actually play. These boxes soon became a modern form of tennis.
Tennis is still a hugely popular game that is played and watched all over the world.
