Tennis origin is almost unknown. Some people trust
it came out as a variation of those ancient ball games practiced
by Egyptians, Greeks and romans. Some other believe it comes from
a roman game called "harpastum", and was adapted in
the Basque country, where it was named "jeu do paume"
because the ball was hit on a wall with the hands.
In the Twelfth Century, "paume" were
spread all over France, with many modifications - rules and fields
configurations. It was no longer played hitting the ball on a
wall, but on a rectangle divided by a rope. Thus, "longue-paume"
appeared, being played by up to six players on each side of the
rope.
Later yet appeared the "court-paume",
a similar game played indoors, but with complex rules and demanding
a smaller area to be practiced. The sets took place within 11
games, and the winner team was the one that won six games first.
That's why, nowadays, six games define a set.
The racket, Italian invention, appeared in the
Fourteenth Century, making the game less violent, more interesting
and easier to be played over France. The sport crossed the English
Channel and was soon known all over England. King Henry VIII one
of the most skilled players.
With the appearance of the rubber ball, Nineteenth
Century, appeared in Great Britain an outdoors tennis, or "Real
Tennis", quite similar "court-paume", but with
no lateral or services walls.
In 1873, the English major Walter Wingfield in
a mission in India, answering to the bored English ladies who
had nothing to do, studied the games that had come before tennis
and changed their rules. In1874, Wingfield registered the patent
of the game, naming it "Sphairistike", homage to the
Greek people who called the games with balls like that. Although,
this name didn't last for long, being soon replaced by Tennis,
that probably comes from French "tenez", which means
CATCH! and was shouted when the player served and shot the ball
to his/her opponent.
Tennis - called by then "tennis-in-lawn"
because it was played on grass courts, were soon spread over India,
taken by the enthusiastic ladies, reaching England and putting
"cricket" down.
Then, tennis had its rules changed and smoothed
to be played over the whole world.
In Brazil, tennis was introduced by foreigners
at "Rio Cricket", in Niterói and at "Wahallah",
in Porto Alegre, by 1898, being under coordination of Confederação
Brasileira de Tênis and Federações Estaduais,
both subordinated of Conselho Nacional de Desportos.
Nowadays tennis is not just a simple sport, but
an international event, through the many tournaments around the
world, watched by millions of people. The prizes, patronizing
and players - real international personalities - also collaborate
to the party that modern tennis has become, effectively.
