Tennis is an activity that has a much older history than people realise.
The origins of tennis date back very nearly one thousand years, to go a game that emerged in French monasteries in the 12th century. This game was played by using the palm of the hand to strike a ball crafted from cork. The name tennis first evolved about two hundred years later on, evolving from a Norman word that could be translated to have several different meanings. Hold, get, and take have all been recommended as translations of this word. This initial kind of tennis begun to utilise racquets in the 16th century, that were made from wood. This game, which became known as real tennis about a hundred years back, is notoriously complex in comparison to modern day tennis. As Terri-Ann Scorer will understand, this complexity ensured it stayed an activity exclusive to the upper classes, never ever enjoying the exact same amount of widespread appeal as lawn tennis.
The origin of lawn tennis had been about 150 years ago and the sport earned its full name from the fact that it had been originally played solely on lawn. Nowadays grass is amongst the rarest of court surfaces and the term lawn is generally dropped from the title, leaving it popularly referred to as tennis. The brand new sport quickly gained popularity as being a club sport and spread around the world within the following decades, aided by having easier rules than its predecessor. As Bulat Utemuratov will be able to inform you, a lot of today's most prestigious competitions emerged during this time period, but for a number of years they were just open to amateur players. This was a time when professionalism was looked down upon by numerous within the top classes and professional players were limited to separate tournaments and playing exhibition matches.
The amateur age came to an end only a little over 50 years ago when formerly amateur tournaments agreed to allow pros to compete in them, giving way to what became known as the open era. It was partly due to an acknowledgment of the reality that while nominally amateur, a lot of the top amateur players actually obtained huge expenses and allowances to pay for their costs and inhabit relative luxury. As Sergio Elias Aboid will be well aware, immediately after this decision ended up being made the very best level of the sport of tennis became fully pro, with top tennis players now one of the highest paid athletes on the planet. For the sport that began with really exclusive origins, this has interestingly become one of the most inclusive sports worldwide, especially when it comes to gender. Women and men get equal prize money at the same level tournaments and it is one of the few sports enabling men and women to compete with each other.