Some people believe that Egyptians, Greeks and ancient Romans have played different versions of tennis. No description of a similar tennis game has been disclosed, but a few Arabic words dating back to ancient Egypt are mentioned as evidence of such allegations. According to this theory, the name “tennis” derives from the name of the Egyptian city of Tinis, located by the river Nile, while the name “racket” originates from the Arabic word for the palm of the hand.

In addition to these two words, there is no proof that tennis was played before 1,000 years, so most historians agree that the origin of this sport should be sought in the 11th or 12th centuries when it began to be practiced by French monks. This game started with the name “jeu de paume”, which means “Hand game”. Those who do not accept an older origin of this game say that the word “tennis” originates from the French word “tenez”, which means “Take this,” the word that one player told one another when doing the service.
When the game began to become more popular, it began to be played in closed environments. Rubber balls still did not exist, so the tennis ball was a mixture of hair, sheep’s wool, or even a cork, where later such a ball began to manoeuvers.

The nobles had learned this game from the monks, while some reports say that in the 13th century, in France, there were 1,800 tennis courts. Tennis sports became so popular that the efforts of the pope and King Lui IV to stop it were unsuccessful. Tennis quickly spread to England, where many kings Henry VII and Henry VIII promoted the construction of many tennis courts.

About 1500 began to use a rack with a wooden frame and consisting of the sheep’s intestines. The fields of tennis at that time were different from today’s. The old tennis game was transformed over the years into what today is called “true tennis” where the English court of tennis “Hampton Court”, built in 1625, continues to be used to this day. This field is really strange. The net has a higher height at both ends, while the middle has a lower height. The popularity of the game began to fall during the 18th century, but in 1850, Charles Gudjer discovered the rubber vulcanization process, so the players began to experiment with rubber balls, playing outdoors in the open air. The game in the open environment was naturally completely different from what was developing inside, so some other rules were formulated.

In 1874, London Speaker Uolter C. Uingfild patented the equipment and rules of tennis, which are very similar to those of today. In the same year, the first tennis courts also appeared in the US. A year later, tennis equipment began to be sold to Russia, India, Canada and China as well.

At that time cricket was popular and the smooth terrain of this sport was very suitable as a tennis court. The original tennis field, Uingfild, had the shape of the sandstorm, narrower on the grid and was slightly shorter than today’s field. His rules were criticized by many, so he changed them in 1875, leaving others to further develop the game.

In 1877, the All England club held the first Wimbledon tournament, while the committee of the tournament proposed a rectangular field and rules were introduced, which we all know. But the nets continued to be higher on the edges, so in 1882 the latest changes were made to reach the forms and rules that are still today./Flashsport24