Tennis used to be played inside mansions by the wealth. Around
1200 AD a game called 'Jeu de Paume' was played in Italy and France
and by the13th century it was being played in the United Kingdom.
The French had racquets then allowed players to hit the ball faster
so they started calling out tenez meaning to warn their
opponents that they were going to hit the ball. This indoor game
then developed to be called tennis. In Britain it was called
real tennis.
Indoor courts were very costly to build so this game of tennis was
still only being played by the aristocracy and royalty. The first
strung racquet is believed to have been introduced in the 15th
century .In 1874, Major Wingfield patented the game of lawn tennis.
The game soon came to be known as lawn tennis and it now involved
the middle classes. In 1868 the All-England Croquet Club was founded
and two years later it opened its doors at Worple Rd, Wimbledon. In
1875 the club agreed to allow the playing of tennis. The first
standardized set of lawn tennis rules were drawn up within 2 months.
.In June 1877 the first Amateur Championships were held at
Wimbledon. The event was called the Championships in Lawn Tennis and
it involved 21 players. The first winner was Spencer William Gore.
Women played their first championships at Wimbledon in 1884
The first American Club was established at Staten Island in
1875.In 1881 the United States Lawn Tennis Association was founded
and in that same year the first Championships were held at Newport,
Rhode Island. This was just for men.
Women played their first championships in America in 1887.
The first French international Championships were introduced
in 1925.
The Australian Championships began in 1905.
The International Tennis Federation was formed in 1913.
In 1938 the American Don Budge was the first man to win the Grand
Slam, the winning of all four major championships in one calendar
year.
Australia's Rod Laver achieved the same feat in 1962 and 1969.
Maureen Connelly was the first to achieve the Grand Slam in 1953.
Margaret Court from Australia performed the same feat in 1970.
Steffi Graf also did it in 1988.
