Mary Albrecht, age 12, of St. Paul, Minn., for her question:
WHO INVENTED TENNIS?
Tennis today is definitely one of the world's most popular participant sports as well as being a favorite spectator event. Millions of us are playing the game both indoors and out on asphalt, carpet type material, concrete or clay courts. We play either singles or doubles on a court that is 78 feet long and 27 feet wide with four and a half feet added to the width of a doubles court.
The wonderful game of tennis started in France in the 1200s. It was called (ital) jeu de paume (unital) which means game of the palm. In the olden days a ball was batted over a low net with the palm of a player's hand.
Modern tennis started in 1873 when a man in England named Major Walter Clopton Wigfield introduced a game that is very much like the one we play today. The game was played on a grass court and called sphairistike, a Greek word meaning playing ball. It wasn't long, however, until everybody started calling the game lawn tennis.
In 1877 the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club located in a London suburb called Wimbledon sponsored its first major tennis tournament. This tournament has since become the unofficial world championship for men's and women's singles and doubles.
An American sportswoman named Mary Ewing Outerbridge introduced tennis in the United States in 1894 when she purchased equipment from some British army officers in Bermuda. Her first courts were set up on the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club in New York City.
In 1881 the United States National Lawn Tennis Association was established and a first men's championship tournament was held that year in Newport, R.I. Today the group is called the United States Tennis Association.
In 1900 an American player named Dwight Davis donated the Davis Cup. This trophy now goes to the man who is recognized each year as the top international tennis player.
Men's championship competition at Wimbledon had been going only seven years until the ladies decided they wanted to play the game, too. The first championship competition for the girls was held in 1884. In the United States, championships are held annually in Forest Hills, N.Y. Men's competition began there in 1881 with women's competition starting in 1887.
International tennis has been largely a professional sport since 1968. Lots of colorful players are on the international tennis scene today. Popular girls include Chris Evert and Billie Jean King of the United States and Evonne Goolagong Cawley of Australia. Fans enjoy watching such men as Jimmy Connors of the United States, Bjorn Borg of Sweden, Ilie Nastase of Romania, Manuel Orantes of Spain and Raul Ramirez of Mexico.
Each year the popularity of tennis increases. Around the world, thousands of new courts are being built each year.