History of the Tennis Game
Most historians trace tennis to 12th-century France and a game called jeu de paume (“game of the palm”). It is believed to have been played by monks in monastery cloisters, where players struck a ball back and forth with the palm of the hand, using the walls and rooftops of the courtyard as part of the court. Over time the game spread beyond the monasteries, and players began wearing gloves and eventually using rackets, which came into use in the 16th century. The game became especially popular in France, where a player about to serve would call out “tenez!”, roughly “take this!” or “here it comes!” Many historians believe this cry gave tennis its name.
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History of Lawn Tennis
The history of tennis took a critical turn in the 19th century with the development of vulcanized rubber, which allowed for the production of balls that would bounce. This allowed the game of tennis to be taken outdoors to any flat, grassy area. Here begins the history of lawn tennis. In 1874, Englishman Major Walter C. Wingfield patented in London the equipment and rules for the game that would later develop into modern-day tennis. He called the game, derived from court tennis, squash and badminton, "Sphairistiké" which is Greek, meaning roughly “the art of ball playing.” Lawn tennis courts soon became commonplace across Europe and the US.
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Women in Tennis History
Women have played tennis for nearly as long as the game has existed. Mary Ewing Outerbridge is traditionally credited with bringing lawn tennis to the United States in 1874, after learning the game while vacationing in Bermuda. Her brother, a director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, soon added a lawn tennis court to the club, one of the earliest in the country. (Some historians believe Dr. James Dwight played the game in Nahant, Massachusetts, around the same time, and the question of who was first is still debated.)
In 1884, Wimbledon added a Ladies’ Singles championship, won by Maud Watson, who defended her title in 1885. The U.S. National Championships followed with a women’s event in 1887. At the 1900 Paris Olympics, Britain’s Charlotte Cooper won the tennis singles title, becoming the first woman to win an individual Olympic championship. She also won five Wimbledon singles titles.
The 1920s brought tennis its first female superstar. France’s Suzanne Lenglen dominated the game with athletic, balletic play and short, flowing dresses that shocked the establishment and changed tennis fashion for good. American Helen Wills Moody followed, winning eight Wimbledon singles titles. In 1953, Maureen “Little Mo” Connolly became the first woman to win the Grand Slam, all four major titles in a single year. In 1956 and 1957, Althea Gibson broke the color barrier, becoming the first Black player to win a major championship and going on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. title.
The modern women’s game was born on September 23, 1970, when promoter Gladys Heldman, founder of World Tennis magazine, signed nine players to symbolic one-dollar contracts for a new women’s tournament in Houston. Known as the “Original 9,” they were Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Kristy Pigeon, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Peaches Bartkowicz, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville Reid and Judy Tegart Dalton. Their stand launched the professional women’s tour, and in 2021 the International Tennis Hall of Fame inducted all nine together. Led by Billie Jean King, the players founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973, the same year the US Open became the first major to offer equal prize money and King defeated Bobby Riggs in the famous “Battle of the Sexes.” Wimbledon became the last of the four majors to award equal prize money, in 2007.
Since then, champions such as Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Venus and Serena Williams have made women’s tennis one of the most watched sports in the world. Graf won the “Golden Slam” in 1988, all four majors plus Olympic gold, and Serena Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any player in the Open Era. Margaret Court has 24 majors overall, but most of hers came before the Open Era began in 1968.
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History of the US Open
The US Open began in August 1881 as an amateur event, the U.S. National Singles Championship for men, held on the grass courts of the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. Only players from clubs belonging to the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter. Women made their mark six years later, in 1887, when the first U.S. Women’s National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club and won by 18-year-old Ellen Hansell.
The men’s championship moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, in 1915. In 1968, at the start of tennis’s “Open Era,” the tournament opened to professionals and became the US Open. The first champion was an amateur: U.S. Army Lieutenant Arthur Ashe, on leave from his post at West Point. Because of his amateur status, Ashe could not accept the $14,000 winner’s prize, which went to runner-up Tom Okker. Ashe received only a $20-per-day expense allowance. His victory made him the first African-American man to win a major title, and the first American to win the U.S. championship since Tony Trabert in 1955. In 1973, the US Open became the first major championship to pay men and women equally. In 1978, the tournament moved to its current home at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, now named the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Today, the US Open is the world’s richest tennis event, with a record $108 million in prize money in 2026.
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The History of Tennis Equipment
History of the Tennis Court
The earliest games of tennis were likely played in the courtyards and cloisters of monasteries in France. As the game evolved into Real Tennis, a favorite of European nobility, it moved onto rectangular indoor courts with hard floors of wood or stone. In 1874, Major Walter Wingfield took the game outdoors onto grass with his patented lawn tennis court, which shared many of the markings of today’s courts but had an hourglass shape, wide at the baselines and narrow at the net. For the first Wimbledon Championships in 1877, the All England Club adopted a rectangular court measuring 78 by 27 feet, the same dimensions used for singles today.
Clay courts were born on the French Riviera in the late 19th century, when English champion William Renshaw, wintering in Cannes, protected sun-scorched grass courts by covering them with powdered terracotta from rejected clay pots made in nearby Vallauris. For most of the 20th century, three of tennis’s four major championships were still played on grass. The US Open moved to clay in 1975, then to hard courts at Flushing Meadows in 1978, and the Australian Open switched to hard courts in 1988. Today, hard courts are the most widely played surface in the world, and many indoor courts use synthetic mats or carpet laid over concrete or other hard surfaces.
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History of the Tennis Racquet
In the earliest form of tennis, jeu de paume, players struck the ball with the palm of the hand. Gloves came next, then paddles, and by the 1500s players were using wooden racquets strung with gut. That basic design lasted for nearly four centuries.
The first big change came in 1967, when Wilson introduced the T2000, a steel racquet based on a design by French champion René Lacoste. Billie Jean King won the U.S. Championships with it that year, the first major title won with a non-wood racquet. Aluminum frames followed, and in 1976 Prince introduced the first oversize racquet, greatly enlarging the sweet spot. By the late 1980s, graphite had replaced wood at the top level of the game, and today’s lightweight graphite racquets with larger heads and wider frames are the result.
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History of the Tennis Shoe
Like the tennis ball and lawn tennis itself, the tennis shoe owes its existence to vulcanized rubber, developed in the 1800s. The process made possible the first rubber-soled canvas shoes, called plimsolls, which became the footwear of choice on early lawn tennis courts. In 1931, German shoemaker Adi Dassler, whose company would become Adidas in 1949, produced one of the first shoes designed specifically for tennis. Four years later, Canadian badminton champion Jack Purcell designed a court shoe for B.F. Goodrich. Later made by Converse, the “Jack Purcell” became a classic, popular with Hollywood stars and the “bad boy” crowd.
Today’s tennis shoes are built for specific court surfaces, with outsoles designed for the grip and durability needed on hard, clay or grass courts.
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History of the Tennis Ball
Early tennis balls were handmade from leather or cloth stuffed with wool, hair or even sawdust. In 1480, King Louis XI of France decreed they be made of “good leather, well-stuffed with wool.” Vulcanized rubber changed everything in the 1800s, producing hollow balls that bounced well enough for lawn tennis, and by the 1880s balls were covered in cloth for better control. In 1926, the Pennsylvania Rubber Company introduced the pressurized metal can, keeping balls fresh until opened. In 1972, the International Tennis Federation (now World Tennis) approved yellow balls because they were easier to see on television, though Wimbledon kept using white balls until 1986.
History of Tennis String
For most of tennis history, racquets were strung with natural gut, made from animal intestine. Despite its old name, “catgut,” it never came from cats. Babolat of Lyon, France, began making natural gut tennis strings in 1875 and is still a leading string maker today. Synthetic strings made from nylon offered a durable, affordable alternative, and in recent decades polyester strings have become the choice of most professionals, allowing players to generate the heavy topspin that defines the modern game. Many players now combine the two in a hybrid setup, pairing the feel of gut with the durability and spin of polyester.
History of Grips and Accessories
Early lawn tennis racquets had plain wooden handles, often with a flared end to keep the racquet from slipping out of the player’s hand. Leather grips became the standard through the wooden-racquet era, and today most racquets come with synthetic replacement grips that are cushioned, absorbent and easy to change. Many players add a thin overgrip on top for extra tack and sweat absorption, replacing it as often as every few matches. Modern accessories, from vibration dampeners to sweatbands and racquet bags, continue to help players stay comfortable and play their best.
