There is no definitive point in history at which the game of tennis began. Many argue it was the ancient civilisations in Greece and Rome that first played racquet and ball games similar to that we now know. Others say it was not until the 18th and 19th centuries in France and England, when indoor sports such as Real Tennis and Jeau-de-Paume were moved outside, that modern tennis was born.

Greeks and Romans by the Nile

Thousands of years ago, beside baths on the River Nile in ancient Egypt, citizens journeyed from many miles away to play various ball games that we could now say were the first, albeit very primitive, forms of tennis. Four different games, called follis, pila trigonalis, pila paganica, and harpastum, all involved the striking of a ball with the hand or arm back and forth between two or three players – much like we may see in a game of schoolyard down-ball today.

Real Tennis, Court Tennis and Jeau-De-Paume

Fast forward to the Middle Ages of the 12th century, and the game that led directly to the development of modern outdoor tennis was being played for the first time. Known as Jeu de Paume in France, and as Real Tennis in Britain, the game was played on a peculiarly designed indoor court. The playing area was said to be modelled on a stylised version of a medieval courtyard, with sloping roofs jutting out from side walls an added obstacle for players.
With the invention of Jeau de Paume came the world’s first gutted string racquets, and the first courts to be divided in the centre by a net. Also coming into use for the first time was the word “tennis” believed to be derived from the French word “tenez”- the warning called by the server to the receiver at the beginning of a point in Jeau de Paume.
Right up until the 16th century, Jeau de Paume remained a popular game amongst the upper class of France and Britain, however, largely due to the cost of building a court, the game never caught on amongst common folk, and, by the 1600s, was heading into decline. By the late 1700s, courts that had once been almost a mandatory feature of any noble household had become dramatically fewer, and only seven remained in the whole of France.
Today, there remain those devoted to the traditional game, with some courts still existing in France, Britain, the USA and even Australia. However, the significant cost required to build a Jeau de Paume court (estimated at around $500,000) is likely to mean that the ancient sport will never regain its former popularity.

Let's take it outside

With interest in Jeau de Paume and Real Tennis on the wane, noble gentlemen were left without a use for their Real Tennis racquets, and so began experimenting with new games.
Noblemen in trouble with the law would take their racquets to prison and pass the time by hitting a ball against their cell walls. From this activity came the berth of two sports still popular to this day- squash and racquetball.
Meanwhile, those in the free world were considering the possibility of moving their old game outside the confines of the enclosed walls of the Jeau de Paume courts. In 1767, a game dubbed “field tennis” was played on a lawn bowling green in Battersea, England. Despite the apparent popularity of this experiment, a major problem inhibited its growth. The Jeau de Paume ball, made from wool wrapped in leather, was not bouncy enough for the outdoor lawn surface, meaning the concept had to wait until technology intervened almost a century later.
 In 1858, a solicitor from Birmingham named Harry Gem marked off a court using the same dimensions and markings as those used for Real Tennis (which were radically different from those used in modern tennis). Using a rubber ball sewn together, the game proved considerably popular, and in 1870, Gem and a group of his friends established the world’s first lawn tennis club.
Meanwhile, the man many people credit with the invention of the modern game, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, had been tinkering with an outdoor game similar to that of Harry Gem, and publicly released his innovation for the first time in 1869. The game, named “Sphairistike” (Greek for ball and stick), was still to be heavily reformed before it became modern tennis. For example, the Major’s court was shaped like an hourglass, narrower at the net than the baseline, and points could only be won by the server (as in volleyball). Nonetheless, Wingfield made a very tidy profit from his Sphairistike sets, which sold at $25 each, and were pounced upon by many in the English upper class.

The Championships are born

After the success of Major Wingfield’s “Sphairistike” sets, a multitude of similar kits with different names and different rules began to appear. The game spread to the USA, and became well known in England. In 1875, a meeting was held at the Marylebone Cricket Club to determine a standardised set of rules for the sport of Lawn Tennis. Among the new rules was the directive that the court must be 30 feet wide at the baseline and 78 feet long. The service line was to be drawn from the net; not the baseline as had been the case in Major Wingfield’s game.
In the same year, perhaps the most important meeting in tennis history was held at the All England Croquet Club. Since its foundation in 1868, the club had failed to achieve any great profit, and desperately needed to increase its membership. The decision was made to set aside some of Wimbledon’s club lawn for tennis courts. It proved a very wise move. In 1877, with lawn tennis now a vital part of the club’s success, it was decided to stage a lawn tennis tournament open to all amateurs. Spencer W. Gore, a keen cricketer, beat 21 other entrants to win the first Wimbledon title and a silver cup worth 25 guineas. However, he did not consider his achievement to be of any great significance, writing, “That anyone who has really played well at cricket, tennis (jeau-de-paume), or even rackets, will ever seriously give his attention to lawn tennis, beyond showing himself to be a promising player, is extremely doubtful.”
125 years later, Gore is long forgotten as a cricketer, but remembered as the inaugural champion of one of the world’s most prestigious sporting tournaments.

The history of tennis in Australia

The first tennis tournament ever played in Australia was held in January 1880, on the courts of the Melbourne Cricket Club, built two years earlier. It was called the Championship of the Colony of Victoria, and was won by A.F.Robinson. For the next twenty or so years, tennis grew in popularity around Australia, particularly amongst the well-to-do.
In 1900, the British Isles and the USA had played off for the trophy now known as the Davis Cup. By 1904, the competition had expanded to include Austria, Belgium and France, and many considered that it was time Australia also mounted a challenge. To do this, Australia required a national body, and at a meeting of state representatives in September that year, it was agreed to form the Australasian Lawn Tennis Association, taking in the interests of both Australia and New Zealand. The ALTA would have three main functions: to organise the Davis Cup challenge; to control interstate matches; and to run the annual Australasian Tennis Championships. So, Australia’s great Davis Cup tradition, and the Australian Open, were born.
In 1905, Australasia launched its first assault on the Davis Cup, fielding a team consisting of Alf Dunlop, Norman Brookes and New Zealand’s Anthony Wilding. The trio lost to the USA in the second round. The wait for success did not last long though. In 1907, the great pair of Brookes and Wilding captured the first of Australia’s 27 Davis Cup crowns, and did not relinquish their grip on the trophy until 1912.
1907 also marked the year that Brookes won the first of two Wimbledon titles, becoming the first male from outside of Britain to win The Championships. He was the first of 12 Australian men to take the Wimbledon singles crown, Lleyton Hewitt’s triumph in 2002 making him the most recent.
Australia’s women did not taste success at Wimbledon until 1963, when Margaret Court (nee Smith) won the first of her three titles. Evonne Cawley (nee Goolagong) is the only other Australian female to have held aloft the Venus Rosewater Dish, having won the coveted title in 1971.
Of all the Grand Slam events, Australians have easily experienced the most success at our home tournament, the Australian Open. Australian men have won the singles title on 51 occasions, whilst Aussie girls have accounted for 43 of the women’s titles. Recently, however, success has not been so forthcoming- this country has not seen a singles champion since Chris O’Neil won the women’s in 1978.

Bibliography

Australia and The Davis Cup by Alan Trengove, 2000
A Serve to Authority, 100 Years of Heroes and Headlines, by Richard Yallop 1992
Bud Collins' Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis, by Bud Collins and Zander Hollander, 1978
The Ultimate Tennis Book, 500 Years of the Sport by Gianni Clerici, 1975
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The All England Club
Australianopen.com