Martina Navratilova, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker, Roger Federer,
Andre
Agassi, Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles, Serena Williams,
King George
IV (1763-1830), King Edward VII (1842-1910), Jennifer Capriati,
Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Natasha Zvereva . All these names
have one thing
in common. Any guesses? Yes, you are right. All
of them are associated with
Tennis.
How Tennis began...
Ball games have been played for a long time now. In fact, there
are carvings on the Egyptian temples right from 1500 BC showcasing people playing. The
Egyptians played ball games to signify their religious ceremonies.
These traditions and the whole idea of playing ball games spread
in the 8th century in Europe. This came to Southern France through
the Moors. This union of the Eastern culture with Christianity
gave rise to the game of Tennis. The religious ceremonies of
the Moors interested the Christian Monks and they became the
first Europeans to play the
game. The first game of tennis was
known as 'La Soule'. The earliest tennis was played using
hands or a stick like thing to hit the ball.
Different names of Tennis...
Tennis is known differently in different countries. In USA it
is known as Court Tennis, in France as Jeu de Paume meaning
handball, in Australia as Royal Tennis and in UK as Tennis.
But the game remains same everywhere. However, the game that
was played in the ancient times has been refined to a great
extent. In the ancient times, the game was played indoors with
scores kept by way of the number of times the ball hit the walls.
Of course, now everything has changed.
Popular Tennis Tournaments...
Wimbledon is one of the most popular tournaments. People
and the players alike wait for this Tournament.
Roland Garros is the French Open Tournament.
Flushing Meadows is the US Open Championship. The singles'
winners of the men's and women's US Open win a prize money of
$1 million each.
Australian Open is also one of the popular Tournaments.
When these tournaments are being played the ticket sale rises
up like crazy. People are glued to their television sets when
the games are being played. Such is the popularity of this game.
Go through the other pages and find out why.