The first known Tennis player was a King. This person was King Louis X of France which is also the one who popularized the early version of tennis. He was such a huge fan of the game that he actually became the first person to build indoor tennis courts. (In the past nobles are the only ones who have it but now it can be commonly used by ordinary people who want to take tennis lessons.)
Tennis was so popular that the government and churches once banned it. In the early history, tennis lessons became so popular among the people to the point that they started to neglect their duties. Since then, the government and churches became concerned about how much time the citizens and even priests spend in playing the game. So in England on 1388, tennis was banned so that the citizens would not neglect on their archery practice which was crucial at that time. Paris also followed suit on banning the game in 1397 to stop its citizens from neglecting their works.
Tennis was not originally called Tennis. Walter Clopton Wingfield, a man you probably heard during your tennis lessons, is the man who made our Modern Tennis become what it was today and he was also the one who named the game as “Sphairistike” which thankfully didn’t stick around and just simply became known as “lawn tennis”
There is only 8 Basic Shots in Tennis. Serve, backhand, forehand, volley, half-volley, overhead smash, drop shot, and lob. These are the skills that a good tennis player should have. (These skills can be learned by taking tennis lessons. You can try them at Inspire Tennis)
There are 4 types of tennis court surfaces. If people were asked which kinds of tennis court surfaces they know, most of them would probably answer grass, but it wasn’t just that because there are a total of 4 court surfaces used in professional matches in tennis, which is clay, hard surface, grass, and carpets.
