Tales of Tennis History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hold!

There are several translations used for the word "tenez", including "hold", "receive", and "take heed". The idea was that the server would call out this word to his opponent before he served, and the recipient of the serve needed to pay attention. Tennis was mostly an indoor game in the beginning, and courts were not uniform in size or construction. Balls would bounce off the walls of rooms, as well as whatever objects they landed on that were also in the room, as it was not cleared out for the game.

It is believed that the game was called tennis by the sixteenth century.

Answer: Monastery

Tennis originated in the twelfth century in French monasteries. At first it was mostly played against monastery walls, or sometimes in the courtyard, by monks. An extremely popular pastime, the monks would play in between their normal duties - or sometimes fail to fulfill their responsibilities altogether.

In 1245 the Archbishop of Rouen banned the priests who were under his supervision from playing because they simply didn't want to do anything but play the new sport. Others joined in too, and kings became alarmed because people played tennis instead of working! Imagine the consternation in England when people were discovered playing tennis instead of practicing their archery!

Answer: Wood

That's right! Modern tennis balls have gone through quite an evolution. First they were made of wood, and then leather that was stuffed with sawdust that was believed to give the ball more bounce. By 1480, however, Louis XI of France decreed that tennis balls had to be made from wool that was covered with leather. Over time, many types of balls were tried.

For example, some made the core of the ball wool that was wrapped with twine. When Charles Goodyear was given the patent for the process of vulcanizing rubber in 1844, that was used for the core of the tennis ball, and, although various types of experimentation have been used for the outside covering over the years, the core of the ball is still vulcanized rubber.

Answer: Hands

Ouch! The balls would be hit with the bare palm of the hand; in fact, the game was originally called "jeu de paume", or game of the palm. Later a black leather glove was used, and a handle was eventually added to the glove. Rackets as we know them today were not invented until the late 1500s in Italy.

There are some who say that tennis was actually invented in Tinnis, Egypt, in the 1000s, because the Arabic word for palm is "rahat" - which sounds like racket, but no clear cut evidence of that fact has ever been found. This is also true of the hypothesis that tennis was first played in ancient Greece and Rome; they may have played games with balls and paddles, but the game as we know it today originated as already stated in France.

Answer: True

A person new to the game of tennis would have to think that the method of keeping score is very odd. There are theories as to how this all came about, but no one will ever know for sure. Some say that it was based on the number 60, which has been used as the basis of number systems since the beginning of history.

The number sixty was then divided into fourths - 15, 30, and 45, which, in French was quarante-cinq and became just quarante, or 40, to make things a bit easier. It wasn't necessary to include the number 60 in the score because whoever got to sixty first was the winner - unless the score was tied at deuce. If that was the case, two points (deuce) were required to win.

Some historians believe that a clock might have been used to keep score and the hand was moved a quarter of the way each time someone scored.

Then why was 40 rather than 45 used? It's quite possible that we will never know!

Answer: True

Yes, there were really many royal fans of the game. France's Louis X is the first named player of the game. Why? He died of causes unknown after playing a game. He did not like playing outside, and had indoor courts constructed instead. Henry VIII was crazy about tennis, and built a court at Hampton Court in the 1530s. It is said that he was playing when he received the news of Anne Boleyn's execution. Incidentally, he did not like bending over to pick up the ball and put it into play, so he had his servants do it instead. That is why the beginning play of the game is called a "service". James V of Scotland built a court that still exists today at Falkland Palace that was used by the ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots. Sources claim that on occasion she would shock guests by wearing male attire when she played.

By the way, there have been other sports that were dubbed "The Sport of Kings" - polo and horse racing, for example. While both have arguably been around in some form as a sport longer than tennis, there is no doubt that tennis was wildly popular among the monarchs of Europe.

Answer: French Revolution

When Louis XVI called a meeting of the French lawmaking body, the Estates General, for the first time in 150 years, the members of the Third Estate, dissatisfied with its method of voting, vowed to demand that voting practices be changed before any other proceedings could take place.

They formed the National Assembly to work out the requested change, and it seemed at first that Louis was in agreement with their proceedings. When they returned to their meeting chamber the next day, however, they found they had been locked out.

The group moved their meeting next door to a tennis court where they took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing they would not quit meeting until the Estates General had a new method of voting. This announcement took place on the royal tennis court at the Palace of Versailles.

Answer: True

Well, this should not come as a surprise since you know what you know now about the origins of the game. Those same athletic monks were also the ones who wrote plays during the Middle Ages. In "The Second Shepherd's Play" the shepherds bring Baby Jesus gifts of cherries, a bird, and a ball. "Have and play thee withal, and go to the tennis".

There is another story from about the same time, "The Turke and Gowin", where Sir Gwain from King Author's court plays the game with seventeen giants.

Answer: Major Walter Clopton Wingfield

By the time Walter Clopton Wingfield came on the scene, tennis in one form or another had been around for quite a while. In 1873 Wingfield received a patent for a game he called "Sphairistikč (Greek for "playing ball") or Lawn Tennis". Played on a hourglass shaped court, his game was marketed in a box which contained poles, a net, rackets, balls, and a copy of his rules, which was sold all over the world. Eventually the court became a rectangle and the game, which acquired the nickname "Sticky", became very popular among the members of croquet clubs.

The first tennis tournament in the world that became an annual event was held at the Leamington Lawn Tennis Club in Birmingham in 1874; a tennis tournament was first held at Wimbledon three years later.

Answer: Real

While the original game goes by many names, including real, royal, and court tennis, tennis as we know it today is called lawn tennis. Lawn tennis had its origins with Major Wingfield as has already been explained. The wealthy wanted to play the game at home in their yard rather than travel to an indoor court that could be some distance away.

The location of the court - inside or outside - is one difference, as well as the composition of the ball. Real tennis uses a ball with a cork center that is wrapped in string and covered in a woolen cloth, while lawn tennis uses a rubber ball that is covered with felt and filled with air.

The scoring of the games is similar, but in real tennis six games typically win the set, and there is no requirement that the winner must have a two game lead.