TENNIS

Dimensions of a tennis court, tennis racket, and tennis ball original name Lawn Tennis, game played on a rectangular court (see illustration), in which two (singles) or four (doubles) players use strung rackets to hit a ball back and forth over a net at the centre of the court. The object is to hit the ball so that an opponent cannot reach or return it correctly. Games of racket and ball (including real tennis in Great Britain, royal tennis in Australia, and court tennis in the United States, all of which are the same game and played indoors) originated from a 12th- and 13th-century French handball game called jeu de paume (game of the palm). In 1873 Major Walter Wingfield invented a game called Sphairistik, from which modern outdoor tennis evolved. The game caught on quickly in Great Britain and spread throughout the British Empire. The All-England Croquet Club at Wimbledon later added the term Lawn Tennis to its title, and in 1877 it sponsored the first world tennis championship. Professional tennis in the United States began in 1927 with the formation of the U.S. Professional Lawn Tennis Association. In 1968 the International Tennis Federation (founded 1913), the governing body of tennis, sanctioned open tennis, which allowed amateur players to compete against professionals in the same tournament. The current major international team tournaments are the Davis Cup for men (begun 1900) and the Federation Cup (1963) for women's teams. The Wightman Cup (1923) between British and U.S. women's teams was discontinued after 1989. The major tournaments for individual players constitute the grand slam of tennis and consist of the national championships of Great Britain (Wimbledon), the United States, Australia, and France. Tennis, an Olympic sport from 1896 to 1924, returned to the Games in 1988. The dimensions of the tennis court are 78 by 27 feet (23.77 by 8.23 metres) for singles and 78 by 36 feet (23.77 by 10.97 m) for doubles. The height of the net at the centre is three feet, and it is supported at each side of the court by posts 3 1/2 feet high at three feet outside the court. Tennis was originally called lawn tennis, and grass courts are still in use, but the most common court materials today are clay (called hard courts in most places, although in the United States that term refers to any hard surface), cement, and a number of cushioned asphalt derivatives and synthetic surfaces. A tennis ball consists of a pressurized rubber core covered with a high-quality cloth, and is approximately 2 5/8 inches (68 mm) in diameter and two ounces (56.7 g) in weight. The game is started by a player who serves the ball from behind the baseline so that it goes over the net and bounces in the opposite diagonal service court. Each player serves for an entire game, but service is alternated between players after each game. Points are scored as 15, 30, 40, and game. If a score is tied at 4040, or deuce, play continues until one competitor has achieved a two-point margin, although a one-point margin may be agreed to in some competitions. The first player to win six games, with a lead of two games, takes the set. In men's competition, depending on the tournament, the side that wins two out of three sets or three out of five takes the match; the best two out of three wins a match in women's competition. To accommodate the rise in television coverage, the tiebreaker was introduced in the early 1970s in some tournaments to limit the length of matches; it is usually employed when play is tied at 66 games. Most major tournaments use a 12-point tiebreaker in which the first player to reach 7 points by a 2-point margin wins. original name lawn tennis game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly strung rackets to hit a ball of specified size, weight, and bounce over a net on a rectangular court. Points are awarded to a player or team whenever the opponent fails to correctly return the ball within the prescribed dimensions of the court. Organized tennis is played according to rules sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body of the sport. Tennis originally was known as lawn tennis, and formally still is in Britain, because it was played on grass courts by Victorian gentlemen and ladies. It is now played on a variety of surfaces. The origins of the game can be traced to a 12th13th-century French handball game called jeu de paume (game of the palm), from which was derived a complex indoor racket-and-ball game: real (royal) tennis. This ancient game is still played to a limited degree and is usually called real tennis in Britain, court tennis in the United States, and royal tennis in Australia. The modern game of tennis is played by millions in clubs and on public courts. Its period of most rapid growth as both a participant and a spectator sport began in the late 1960s, when the major championships were opened to professionals as well as amateurs, and continued in the 1970s, when television broadcasts of the expanding professional tournament circuits broadened the appeal of the game. A number of major innovations in fashion and equipment fueled and fed the boom. The addition of colour and style to tennis wear created an entirely new subdivision of leisure clothing. Tennis balls, which historically had been white, now came in several hues, with yellow the colour of choice. Racket frames, which had been of a standard size and shape and constructed primarily of laminated wood, were suddenly manufactured in a wide choice of sizes, shapes, and materials, the most significant milestones being the introduction of metal frames beginning in 1967 and the oversized head in 1976. While tennis can be enjoyed by players of practically any level of skill, top competition is a demanding test of both shot making and stamina, rich in stylistic and strategic variety. From its origins as a garden-party game for ladies in whalebone corsets and starched petticoats and men in long white flannels, it has evolved into a physical chess match in which players attack and defend, exploiting angles and technical weaknesses with strokes of widely diverse pace and spin. Tournaments offer tens of millions of dollars in prize money annually. Additional reading Morys G.L.B. Aberdare, The Story of Tennis (1959), provides a historical survey; and Max Robertson, Wimbledon: Centre Court of the Game: Final Verdict, 3rd ed. (1987), is a history of tennis championships. See also Angela Lumpkin, Women's Tennis: A Historical Documentary of the Players and Their Game (1981). Bill Shannon (ed.), United States Tennis Association Official Encyclopedia of Tennis, new rev. ed. (1981), is an informative reference source, including records and statistics; for rules and techniques in all phases of the game, see United States Professional Tennis Association, Tennis, a Professional Guide (1984). Barry Steven Lorge