Culture and RecreationSports |
How old is tennis? |
The game is believed to have originated in France, where it was called jeu de paume (meaning “game of the palm”) in the 1100s or 1200s: Players hit a small ball back and forth over a net using the palms of their hands. The “father of modern tennis” is English soldier and sportsman Walter Clopton Wingfield (known as Major Wingfield [1833–1912]), who in 1873 published a rule book for lawn tennis and in 1874 patented equipment for the game.