Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each. Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent’s court. The modern game of tennis originated in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century as “lawn tennis” and had heavy connections to the ancient game of real tennis. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs. Except for the adoption of the tiebreaker in the 1970s, the rules of tennis have changed very little since the 1890s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of “instant replay” technology coupled with a point challenge system, which allows a player to challenge the official call of a point.

Tennis as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. Between 1859 and 1865, Major Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera developed a game that combined elements of rackets similar to the game of Badminton and the Basque ball. In 1872, along with two local doctors, they founded the world’s first tennis club in Lamington Spa. The Courier of July 23, 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall.

In December 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed a similar game for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales. He based the game on the newer sport of outdoor tennis or real tennis. According to most tennis historians, modern tennis terminology also derives from this period, as Wingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of real tennis and applied them to his new game

The first championships at Wimbledon in London were played in 1877. On May 21, 1881, the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association, USTA) was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions. The U.S. National Men’s Singles Championship, now the US Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. Tennis was also popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891. Thus, Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis. Together these four events are called the Grand Slams.

The comprehensive International Lawn Tennis Federation, now known as the International Tennis Federation (ITF), rules promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tiebreaker system designed by James Van Alen. The Davis Cup, an annual competition between national teams, dates to 1900.

In 1968, opportunity was capitalized by inaugurating the open era of tennis game, in which all players could compete in all tournaments, and top players were able to make their living from tennis. With the beginning of the open era, the establishment of an international professional tennis circuit and revenues from the sale of television rights, tennis’s popularity has spread worldwide. In 1954, Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island containing a large collection of tennis honoring prominent members and players from all over the world.