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TENNIS (sometimes called royal tennis...
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See also:TENNIS (sometimes called royal tennis, and, in See also:America, See also:court tennis) , one of the See also:oldest of See also:ball-See also:games, and one of the most difficult to learn. It is now played in a walled and roofed court, See also:Ito ft. by 38 ft. 8 in., the See also:floor, however, measuring but 96 ft. bY31 ft.8 in., the difference being the width of a roofed See also:corridor, the " See also:penthouse," which'runs along the two end walls and one of the See also:side walls. Across the See also:middle of the court a See also:net is stretched, and the first See also:object of the See also:game is to strike the ball over this with a See also:bat or racquet. The net is 5 ft. high at the ends, 3 ft. 6 in, at the middle, and divides the floor into two equal parts, the " service " side and the " See also:hazard " side. The floor and walls are made of See also:cement and should be smooth but not polished. The court is lighted from the roof and sides. The height of the court to the tie-See also:beam is 30 ft., the height of the See also:play-See also:line, above which the ball must not go, 18 ft. at the sides and 23 ft. at the ends. The roof of the penthouse, which is made of See also:wood, slopes downwards towards the court, the See also:lower edge being 7 ft: ri in. from the floor, the upper to ft. 7 in., the width 7 ft. The illustrations show that each of the walls has its own peculiarities. The "dedans " is an opening in the end See also:wall on the service side, under the penthouse, where See also:provision is made for spectators, who are protected by a net. It is 21 ft. 8 in. in width; the upper edge is 6 ft. to in. from the floor, the lower edge 3 ft. 3 in. The opening of the dedans is 4 ft. 6 in. from the See also:main wall, 5 ft. 6 in. from the other side wall. Looking from the dedans (i.e. from the service side), the right-See also:hand or main wall has one peculiarity, the " See also:tambour," a sloping See also:buttress to See also:form which the wall is built inward, reducing the breadth of that See also:part of the court to 30 ft. 2 in. In the right-hand corner of the hazard side end wall (as viewed from the dedans) is the "See also:grille," an opening lined with wood, 3 ft. t in. square; and on this wall is painted a continuation of the " pass-line." The See also:left-hand wall, along which runs the pent-See also:house, is not continuous, being broken by a See also:long opening between the floor and the penthouse similar to the dedans, and at the same height from the ground. The See also:low walls under this opening and the dedans are called the " batteries." There is no wall in front of the " marker's See also:box," through which the court is entered on either side of the net-See also:post. This long opening in the left-hand wall is divided into " galleries " and " doors," the latter situated where the entrances to the court used to be in See also:early times. The measurements in See also:order from the dedans are as follows, the See also:numbers of the galleries being counted from the net :Service side—last See also:gallery, 9 ft. 6 in.; second gallery, 9 ft. 6 in.; See also:door, 3 ft. 6 in.; first gallery, 5 ft. 8 in.; marker's box or line-opening, 7 ft. to in.; hazard side—first gallery, 5 ft. 8 in.; door, 3 ft. 6 in.; second gallery, 9 ft. 6 in.: last gallery (also called " winning " gallery), 9 ft. 6 in. The last galleries are 15 ft. I t in. each from their respective end walls. The galleries are marked by " posts " which also serve to support the penthouse. The galleries, dedans and grille are known as the openings "; three of these—the grille, dedans and winning gallery—are " winning-in openings "; for if a ball in play is struck into one of these, the striker scores a point. In the earlier See also:French courts were other " winning openings,' l'ais (the See also:board), an upright board 9 ft. by t ft. in the left-hand corner of the dedans-wall, le See also:petit trou or le trou, a hole 16 in. square at the bottom of the other side of that wall, and la Lune, a See also:round opening high up by the play-line, one at each end of the court. In the illustrations are shown certain lines painted on the floor, which are also continued perpendicularly on the walls. On the hazard side is the " See also:half-court line," the " pass-line " and the " service-line." The first is only required when one player gives the other the odds of " half the court " (vide infra, " Scoring and Handicapping "). The pass-line is See also:drawn 7 ft. 8 in. from the main wall; the service-line 21 ft. t in. from the grille-wall. The rectangle contained by the pass and service lines forms the " service-court." The other lines, both on the hazard side and service side, See also:mark the " chases," which will be explained below. The cost of a tennis-court is about 2000. The Implements.—The balls, for which there are no regulation dimensions, weigh 21 oz. and are 2; in. in See also:diameter. They are made of strips of See also:cloth, no twine being used except to keep the outside layerfloor, and away from' him if it is allowed to strike the end wall; the See also:reverse being the effect of twist from a back-hand stroke. " See also:Rest ": a See also:series of strokes between the two players. " Service " the first stroke of a " rest." The server may serve from any part of the court on the service side. The ball must strike the roof of the side penthouse, and fall within the service-court. " See also:Fault": a ball so served that it either does not See also:touch the side penthouse, or falls outside the service-court. " Pass ": a service in which the ball drops beyond the pass-line; the service in this See also:case does not See also:count, but a " pass " does not annul a previous fault, as was once the case. " Force ": to strike the ball hard; a hard-See also:hit stroke. " Volley ": to strike a ball in its See also:flight (d la volse) before it has touched the floor. " Half-volley ": to strike a ball immediately after it touches, and before it rises from, the floor. " Nick ": the See also:angle where the floor and walls meet. " Marker ": the attendant who marks and calls the chases and other points scored in the game. Scoring and Handicapping.—A match consists of three or five " sets "; a set " of eleven games. The winner of six games wins the set. If a player wins six games consecutively he wins a " love set," even though his opponent may have won several games. The loser of a love set, by an old See also:custom, gives the marker a See also:shilling. Should the See also:score be called " Five games all,"• the players may arrange to play a " vantage game," the set in that case not being won till one or other has won two games in See also:succession._ A game
From the Hazard Side.
Tennis-court at Crabbett See also:Park, See also:Sussex,
in See also:place, and are covered with See also: " See also:Bisque ": the See also:privilege, given as a form of odds, of scoring a stroke during any part of the game, except after the delivery of " service " or after a " fault." " Boast ": to hit the ball on to the side wall first. " Cut ": to strike the ball with the head of the racquet held at an angle to the ball's course instead of See also:meeting it with the full See also:face, thus causing backward rotation of the ball (similar to- the " See also:screw " in See also:billiards), which alters its natural rebound from the wall. " Twist ": analogous to " cut," but the strings are drawn across the ball at the moment of impact, so as to make it rotate sideways. A ball so struck with a fore-hand stroke twists inwards towards the other player off the From the Service Side. belonging to the See also:lion. See also:Neville See also:Lytton. consists ordinarily of four winning strokes, called by the marker as " Fifteen," ' See also:Thirty," " See also:Forty," " Game if the score is " forty-all," the marker calls " See also:Deuce," and two strokes have to be won in succession by one of the players. When one has won a stroke his score is called " Vantage "; if he wins the next, he wins the game; if he loses it, the score reverts to deuce. The score of the player who won the last stroke or made the last See also:chase is called first. In handicapping the usual odds are (t) bisques, which may also be given in addition to other odds, or to balaqce odds received; (2) half-fifteen, or one point to be taken at the beginning of the second and every alternate game; (3) fifteen, or one point in every game; (4) half-thirty, or one point in every See also:odd game and two points in every even game; (5) thirty, or two points in every game; (6) half-forty, or two points in every odd game and three in every even game; (7) forty, or three points in every game. Other handicaps are:—" Round services," the giver of odds having to serve so that the ball hits both the side and end penthouse; " half the court, " the giver of th.e odds confining his strokes, except service, to one side of the court as divided by the half-court line, a stroke played into the other half counting to his adversary; " touch no walls," the giver of odds confining his play except service to the floor; " See also:bar the openings," the giver of odds losing a point if his ball goes into a gallery or into the dedans or grille; " bar winning openings," which are closed to the giver of odds, who loses a point if the ball enters them; " side walls," the giver of odds losing a point if he plays the ball on to any side wall, the end penthouses being open to him, and the dedans and grille. In these " cramped " odds the rules do not apply if the ball goes out of limits after the second See also:bound. The Game and Hints on Play.—The players decide who shall serve by See also:spinning a racquet on its head. One spins and the other calls " rough " or " smooth," the " rough " side of the head of the racquet showing the knots of some of the lower is an important point of See also:etiquette—it is not " correct " to force for the dedans when the striker is close to the net, unless the force is " boasted " or there is no danger of hitting his opponent. In some clubs such a stroke is forbidden by a by-See also:law. Some modern players play a faster and harder game than their predecessors, who considered strokes " on the floor," i.e. carefully judged chases, to be the true feature of the game; but in any case the beginner should remember that it is better to See also:save his breath and to See also:trust to winning an easy chase by-and-by than to run after a hard-hit stroke, which if left alone would leave " chase the door " or " second gallery " to be played for afterwards. Similarly in defending a chase, he should remember during the rest what that chase is, and not endeavour to return a stroke which would have lost it. Chases See also:act as breathing-spaces, especially to the player who can trust to his skill " on the floor," and these, together with See also:good service, form the See also:reason why men can play tennis, and play it well, at a See also:time of See also:life when See also:cricket, racquets and other active games have to strings. The winner takes the service side, service being an See also:advantage. He serves from any part of the court, and in any way he thinks best, and the ball must go over the net, strike the side penthouse, and fall into the service-court (see " Fault " and " Pass "). His opponent (" striker-out ") tries to return the ball over the net before it has touched the ground a second time; he may volley or half-volley it. For a stroke to be " good " it must be made before the second bound of the ball, and the ball must go over the net (even if it touches it), and must not strike the wall above the play-line, nor touch the roof or rafters. The first point to be attained is to be sure of getting the ball over the net, the next to do so in such a way as to defeat the opposing player's See also:attempt to make a "good" stroke in return. It often happens that a player, either intentionally or from inability, does not take or touch a ball returned to him over the net. In this event, chiefly on the service side, a " chase " (in Italian caccia, in French See also:chasse) is made, the goodness or the badness of which'depends upon the spot on the floor which the ball touches next after its first bound. The nearer this spot is to the end wall the better the chase. The chase lines are numbered, being one yard apart, the shorter lines representing the half-distance. The chases are noted and called by the marker. Thus if a ball See also:fell on the line marked 4, he would See also:call " chase four "; if between 4 and 3, he would call " Better than four " if it fell nearer to 4 than the short line, and " Worse than three " if it fell on the short line or between the short line and 3; for if the ball fall on a line the striker is credited with the better stroke. Strokes into the galleries and doors, with the exception of the winning gallery (last gallery, hazard side) count as chases. The making, or, in technical See also:language, the " laying down" of a chase does not immediately affect the score: it has to be won first, i.e. the other player tries to make a better chase; if he fails, the See also:original maker wins. For this purpose after two chases have been laid down (or one, if either player's score is at 40) the players See also:change sides, e.g. if X has been serving and Y has laid down two chases, Y becomes the server and tries to defend them, X to win them by making the ball fall nearer to the back wall after its first bound than Y did. Either player wins the chase if he " finds " (i.e. hits the ball into) one of the winning openings, or if his opponent fails to make a good return. The winner of the chase scores a point. The chases are played off in the order in which they are made. Should X in trying to win a chase make the same chase as Y originally laid down, the chase is off and neither side scores. In See also:France the chase is played again. The " rest " goes on till one of the players fails to make a good return, or deliberately leaves the ball alone in order that his opponent may See also:lay down a chase (a See also:procedure to be followed at the discretion of a player in whose See also:judgment the chase will be a See also:bad one), or lose a chase already laid down and in the course of being played off. Either player can score, there being no " hand-in " or " hand-out " as at racquets. A point is scored by that player whose opponent fails to make a good return stroke in a rest, or who strikes the ball into a winning opening, or wins a chase, or to whom two faults are served in succession. A player loses a stroke who strikes the ball twice, or allows it to touch himself or his clothes. " He who would excel as a tennis-player must learn to serve," is the dictum of an See also:amateur See also:champion, but the necessary See also:variations, the difference between the " railroad " and the " See also:giraffe," &c., can only be explained by an experienced player and in the court. Variety is all-important, as is the knowledge of what sort of service is most valuable in defending a particular chase. All service should be heavily " cut." For the winning of hazard-side chases, indeed for all purposes, the " nick " service is useful, the endeavour being to make the service drop at the nick of the grille-wall and the floor. In attempting this service it should be remembered that it is better for the ball to hit the floor first than the wall, as this allows the cut to act. It is See also:wise to cultivate one sort of service to perfection, if possible, with a reserve of others to suit the occasion. Again, the tennis " stroke," differing essentially as it does from the racquet stroke, can only be learnt in the court from a good teacher; but it is an See also:axiom that tennis is not a game in which hard hitting necessarily tells, though force may be usefully employed in trying to " find " the winning openings. This, however,be abandoned. See also:History.—Tennis may well be called a royal game, having been popular with various See also:kings of See also:England and France, though it is fanciful to connect it with See also:Homer's See also:Nausicaa, princess of Phaeacia (Odyss. vi. 115), who is represented by him as throwing, and not as hitting the ball to her maids of See also:honour. In the ball-games of the Greeks and See also:Romans we may see the rudiments of the French jeu de paume, which is undoubtedly the ancestor of modern tennis in a See also:direct line. The origin of the name is quite obscure. Some give a numerical derivation from the fact that la longue paume was played by ten players, five on each side; others regard it as a corruption of tamis (See also:sieve), for in a form of la paume the server bounced the ball on a sieve and then struck it: there is no possible reason for connecting " tennis " with the See also:term Tenois, or Senois; most probable is the derivation from Tenez! (Take it! Play!), especially when we remember the large number of French terms that adhere to the game, e.g., grille, tambour (See also:drum, from the See also:sound on the board that formed the face of that buttress) and dedans. Further, a poem dealing with the game, written in Latin elegiacs by R. Frissart, makes the striker cry " Excipe!" (Take it!) after each stroke: this seems to correspond with the custom which enjoins the racquet-marker to call " Play " when-ever a legitimate stroke has been made. In the " Alexiad " of See also:Anna Comnena (about A.D. 1120) is a reference to a game played on horseback in which a See also:staff, curved at the end and strung with strings of plaited gut, was used. This game was played in a court called " a court for goff (sic)" (according to the See also:Lexicon of Alexandrine See also:Greek), and some similar game, corrupted through tchangan into See also:chicane, was played in France. In A.D. 1300 the game was also known as La boude. Throughout the See also:century indeed it was played in France and by the highest in the See also:land: thus•See also: In reply to messengers from the dauphin, who had sent him a present of tennis-balls by their hands, Henry says:
" When we have match'd our rackets to these balls
We will, in France, by See also:God's See also:grace, play a set
Shall strike his See also:father's See also:crown into the hazard.
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chases."
—(Henry V., Act i., sc. 2.)
Even if it be an See also:anachronism that the poet should put these technical terms into the See also: King Edward VII., when See also:prince of See also:Wales, frequently played tennis at " Prince's " Court. The See also:evolution of the court as now built is not easily traced, but courts undoubtedly existed side by side which differed from each other both in detail and in dimensions. It is generally assumed that such details as the penthouse, grille, galleries, &c., were deliberately planned to elaborate the game, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that the game, played , as it must often have been, in extemporized courts, took some of its modifications from them: it is at least significant that in an old See also:illustration of la paume a See also:miniature penthouse appears (from which the ball is See also:rolling), apparently a shelter' for a See also:bell. The net does not appear till the 17th century, a rope, fringed or tasselled, being stretched across the court: further, the racquet was not in universal use in 1527, since See also:Erasmus in his Colloquies says, " Reticulum (net, or racquet) piscatoribus relinquamus: elegantius est See also:Palma uti." An Italian, See also:Antonio Scanio de Salo, is the first bibliographer of tennis. In his Trattato della See also:Palla (See also:treatise on the Ball) he mentions a large court for the game as played with a racquet, and a small court for the hand-game. The large court was 121 ft. long; it was entered by two doors, one between the first and second galleries on either side of the net; there were four galleries on each side; the dedans ex-tended across the whole width of the court: the tambour was there and two grilles. He also mentioned chases, but these were decided by the place where the ball finally stopped, the spot being marked by a small movable See also:standard.' In another See also:kind of court he says that there was no tambour, but two grilles. The penthouse was sometimes confined to two walls, sometimes to one, the end wall service side. In the hand-court one side was open all its length, with the exception of the See also:battery and some pillars that perhaps gave variety to the stroke. The Latin poem to which allusion has been made shows the similarity of the 17th-century game to the modern: the racquet is spun; the marker (signator) is there to mark the chases (metae) with the movable standard; there is the grille (fenestra); the scoring by " 15, 30, 40, game "; the volley (volatu ludere) ; the nick (pedi ludere, French au pied); the See also:appeal to the spectators; the board (tatella, French l'ais); deuce and vantage, and the penthouse. In the 15th and 16th centuries tennis-balls were so largely imported from France that the See also:Iron-mongers' See also:Company, who were the English manufactures, twice petitioned—the last time in 1591—for " See also:protection " in the See also:matter of balls. The term " bilk " (bisque, originally bisquaye) does not appear in English tennis till 1697 (See also:Shadwell's True Widow), nor is the winning gallery mentioned before 1767. In the 17th century tennis became a spectacle in France, and the professional player came into existence, the most famous of that time being Le Pape, Clerge and Servo, and about the same time was formed the gild of Paulmiers-racquetiers (manufacturers of tennis material) with its arms, " See also:Sable, a tennis-racquet proper; in a See also:cross four tennis-balls of the same." De Garsault, See also:writing in 1797, says, " La Paume is the only game that can take See also:rank in the See also:list of Arts and Crafts," and his See also:book, L'See also:art du Paumier-Racquetier, was adopted by the See also:Academic Royale. In France very large sums of See also:money were wagered on the game, especially at the end of the 16th century, the stakes being deposited under the See also:cord or net, while in England, about 1750, there was so much betting and swindling, especially by professional players, that the game as played in the public courts fell into disrepute. In the middle of the 19th century, tennis-courts were rare indeed in England, the best known being those of the Marylebone Cricket See also:Club (built in 1838), of the Messrs Prince in Hans Place, S.W., besides one at See also:Brighton, one at Hampton Court, two at Cambridge, and one at Oxford; but the game progressed so fast that in 1910 there were between thirty and forty courts in England, one each in See also:Ireland and See also:Scotland, five in America, six in France, one in See also:Melbourne (See also:Australia) and one in See also:Tasmania. The game has disappeared in See also:Italy, See also:Germany, See also:Austria and See also:Spain, though in Spain it was popular in the days of See also: As an in-stance of the meagre See also:interest taken in tennis at the time, See also:Julian See also:Marshall in his See also:Annals of Tennis states that in Bell's Life, the leading sporting See also:paper, Barre is reported as playing See also:Cox and Tompkins " giving 71 for a bisque," the tennis term " half fifteen " being arithmetically rendered. C. G. See also: Fairs (" See also:Punch ") challenged Latham for the championship, but was beaten; but in 1908 Latham resigned his title, and Fairs then issued a See also:challenge to any other player in the world to contest his right to the position of champion. The challenge was taken up in 1910 by G. F. Covey, the match for the championship, played at Brighton in the summer of 1910, being won by Fairs after a close contest, in which the younger player secured six sets to his opponent's seven, and fifty-three games to fifty-nine won by the champion. Among amateurs a formal championship was not established till 1889, the recognized champion being the winner of the See also:gold See also:prize annually given by the Marylebone Cricket Club to its members, the competition not being made " open " till 1896. For fifteen years, from 1867 to 1881, J. M. See also:Heathcote held the title, among those whom he defeated during that See also:period being such See also:fine tennis-players as Julian Marshall, G. B. Crawley, the Hon. C. G. See also:Lyttelton (afterwards See also:Lord See also:Cobham), R. D. See also: See also:Webbe, See also:Sir Edward See also:Grey and H. E. Crawley. Grey's perseverance—he won the silver prize on six occasions—was rewarded with the gold prize in 1896, but he was dispossessed in 1897 by E. H. See also:Miles, who won for the next ten years, with the exception of 1900 when he was beaten by J. B. Gribble. On six occasions during this series Sir Edward Grey was second to the winner. In-1889 the amateur championship, open to all amateurs, was instituted at See also:Queen's Club, See also:West See also:Kensington. The following list shows the winners:-- 1889. Sir E. Grey. 1890. E. B. See also:Curtis. 1891. Sir E. Grey. 1892. H. E. Crawley. 1893. H.' E. Crawley. 1894. H. E. Crawley. 1895. Sir E. Grey. 1896. Sir E. Grey. 1897. J. B. Gribble. 1898. Sir E. Grey. 1899. E. H. Miles. It may be mentioned that Heathcote and Lyttelton, who monopolized the Marylebone Club's gold prize for twenty-nine years, were strict adherents to the old-fashioned classical game, the winning and defending of chases and the See also:clever placing of the ball being the leading feature of their game. A different and less attractive See also:style of play, consisting of harder hitting, asserted itself in IVliles's first success, which was followed by many others; but See also:Jay See also:Gould, an American amateur, who beat Miles for the champion-See also:ship in 1907 and again in 1908, owed his success to the perfection of his style in the older and more scientific tennis. He did not defend his title in 1909, when Miles again became amateur champion in his See also:absence, a title which Miles again retained in 1910. The See also:universities of Oxford and Cambridge have played two matches, two-handed and four-handed, ever since 1859, with the exception of 1864 when neither match was played. The games are played at the court of the Marylebone Club. Tennis in America.—Few tennis-courts existed in America before 1880, about which time the buildings of the Boston Athletic Association and the New See also:York Racquet and Tennis Club were built. There are now also courts at See also:Chicago, See also:Tuxedo, See also:Lakewood and several other places, but the game is naturally played by comparatively few persons. Tom Pettitt, mentionedabove as for several years champion of the world, was for many years in See also:charge of the Boston courts. Other first-class men are Alfred Tompkins of New York, Boakes of Chicago, and Forester. See also:Richard Sears first won the American championship in 1892, and it has been won since by F. See also:Warren, B. S. de Garmendia, L. M. See also:Stockton (four times), Eustace Miles (champion of Great See also:Britain), See also:Joshua See also:Crane, and Jay Gould (amateur champion 1907 and 1908). The older courts at Boston and New York are rather low and small, but the newer ones are perfect. See J. M. Heathcote, Tennis, See also:Lawn Tennis, Rackets, See also:Fives, in " The See also:Badminton Library," new and revised edition (London, 1903); Racquets, Tennis and Squash, by Eustace Miles (London, 1902). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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