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History of tennis: from jeu de paume to today
How a game French monks played with the palm of the hand became a sport played on four continents.
The tennis played today is about 150 years old. But its direct ancestor is nearly a thousand.
Jeu de paume
In medieval France people played jeu de paume, literally 'game of the palm': the ball was struck with a bare hand against a wall or over a cord. It was played in monasteries and later in the enclosed courtyards of the nobility.
Over time came the glove, then the paddle, and finally the strung racquet, somewhere in the sixteenth century.
1874: the patent that changed everything
British Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patented in 1874 an outdoor court game with a net, which he named with the Greek word Sphairistike. It was sold as a complete boxed set: net, posts, racquets and balls, to set up on a lawn at home.
That outdoor format on grass is the direct ancestor of modern tennis. It is where the English name lawn tennis comes from.
1877: the first Wimbledon
The All England Club held the first Wimbledon championship in 1877, with 22 entrants. It is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is still played on the same grounds.
1968: the Open Era
For almost a century the major tournaments were amateurs only, and professionals played separate circuits. In 1968 the Grand Slams opened to professionals. That moment is called the start of the Open Era, and it is the line from which modern records are compared.
The equipment revolution
Until the 1970s racquets were wooden, heavy and small-headed. Metal and then graphite allowed bigger, lighter, stiffer frames. That, more than anything else, produced the fast, heavy-spin tennis seen today.
Read next: the four Grand Slams and court surfaces.