Origination and Evolution of Tennis in UK
Tennis is one of the most popular sports and enjoyed by millions of people of all age groups. The Players like Rafael Nadal Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams, to name a few are superstars in their own way.
Origination of tennis
It is believed that Tennis originated from a 12th century French game referred to as “paume”, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand. The court was divided in 2 by a net, with each half marked in sectors numbered from 1 to 15. The winner of an exchange counted 15 in his favour and then, successively, 30, 45 and game, thus providing the basis for the scoring the idea of the rating methodology of today.
Though, the history of modern tennis officially began in 19th century Britain with a man named Major Walter Wingfield. He is the one who bought rules to the game of tennis and also got a patent of invention for his court, which was shaped like an hour glass for playing the Ancient Game of Tennis. During the initial stage of popularity of tennis game, instead of rackets, players used to play with hands only. Later, the leather glove came into the picture. The leather glove later was replaced with an adaptive handle for effective hitting and serving. That was the birth of tennis racquet.
Evolution of Tennis
A landmark event in the history of tennis occurred in 1877 when the All England Club held the first ever tournament at Wimbledon. The organizing committee decided to use a rectangular court rather than Wingfield’s hour-glass style where the court narrowed at the net. Wimbledon Grand Slam is the only championship that is still played on grass, the game’s original surface, which gave the game its original name of “lawn tennis”.
Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and has evolved as one of the most prestigious titles. It is not hyperbole that Wimbledon is considered as the birthplace and school of tennis. The All England Lawn Tennis Club, that has been hosting the tournament since the beginning of the same, continues to hold its leadership in the 21st century as well. Every year, the championship begins in the last week of June and continues till July. The players battle each other out for total prize money of $22.1 million.
How Andy Murray popularized tennis in UK?
The real Tennis began in the United Kingdom, mainly in the city of Birmingham between 1859 and 1865. Though there was a dull phase in the history of Tennis UK. But, this Jinx was broken by Andy Murray! When he defeated Novak Djokovic and won US Open in 2012. He became the first British player since 1977 and the first British man since 1936 (Fred Perry), to win a Grand Slam. Andy Murray came in the list of the Top 10 players by the ATP in 2007 for the first time and after that there was no looking back.
He reached a career peak of World No. 2 in August 2009 and again 2013. In 2013, he became the 6th man in tennis history to have won over $30,000,000 in career prize money. Also, he is the current holder of the Wimbledon Championships singles title.
There is no doubt that Andy Murray has again made people of UK enthusiastic about the game of tennis.
Credit: http://www.racketcity.com/
