Rush my passport wall street journal7/28/2023 ![]() But the social opportunities offered by tennis made it extremely popular among the upper classes. His name for it-“Sphairistike,” from the Greek word for ball playing-never caught on. Modern tennis-known at first as “lawn tennis,” since it was played on a grass court-began to emerge in the 1870s, when an eccentric British Army major named Walter Clopton Wingfield invented a version of the game using rubber balls. It was a very brave or very foolish person who played the game after that. The new National Assembly gathered there after being locked out of its premises, and made a pledge, the Tennis Court Oath, not to disband until France had a constitution. On June 20, 1789, Louis XVI’s tennis court at Versailles hosted one of the most important events of the French Revolution. The association of tennis with royal privilege hastened its demise in the 18th century. Henry ended up granting him a reprieve-more than he did for wives two and five. In 1541, Sir Edmund Knyvett was condemned to have his hand chopped off for striking his opponent and drawing blood. The Royal Tennis Court at King Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace, outside London, was the most luxurious in Europe, but the sophisticated surroundings failed to elevate on-court behavior. This version, known as real or royal tennis, is still played at a small number of courts around the world. Players used angled wooden rackets, and the ball could be bounced off the walls and sloping roof as well as hit over the net. In 1498 another French king, Charles VIII, suffered an untimely end after banging his head on a lintel while hurrying to his tennis court.īy the 16th century, the game had evolved into something in between modern squash and tennis. Legend has it that King Louis X of France, who introduced the first covered courts, took ill and died after an overly strenuous match in 1316. As the sport spread beyond the monastic world, it gained a new name, “tenez,” the French word for “receive.” It had instant social cachet, since it could only be played in large, high-walled courtyards, thus narrowing the pool of players to kings and aristocrats.Įarly “tenez” was not without its dangers.
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