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Real tennis
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Real tennis is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended. It is also known as jeu de paume in France, "court tennis" in the United States
The term "real" was first used by journalists in the middle of the twentieth century to distinguish the ancient game from modern "lawn" tennis (even though that sport is seldom contested on lawns these days).
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Encyclopedia
Real tennis is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended. It is also known as jeu de paume in France, "court tennis" in the United States
The term "real" was first used by journalists in the middle of the twentieth century to distinguish the ancient game from modern "lawn" tennis (even though that sport is seldom contested on lawns these days). There is no evidence that it is a corruption of the word 'royal' as some have indicated. Real tennis players often just call the game "tennis", while continuing to describe the offshoot as "lawn tennis".
Real tennis is still played by enthusiasts on 47 existing courts in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and France. The sport is supported and governed by
organizations around the world.
History
The term "tennis" likely derives from the French word tenez, which means "take heed" — a warning from the server to the receiver. Real tennis evolved over three centuries from an earlier ball game played around the 12th century in France. This had some similarities to palla, fives, pelota, or handball, involving hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove. One theory is that this game was played by monks in monastery cloisters, based on the construction and appearance of early courts. By the 16th century, the glove had become a racquet, the game had moved to an enclosed playing area, and the rules had stabilized. Real tennis spread across Europe, with the Papal Legate reporting in 1596 that there were 250 courts in Paris alone, near the peak of its popularity in France.
Royal interest in England began with Henry V (1413-22) but it was Henry VIII (1509-47) who made the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court on a court he had built in 1530, and on several other courts in his palaces. It is believed that his second wife Anne Boleyn was watching a game of real tennis when she was arrested and that Henry was playing tennis when news was brought to him of her execution. During the reign of James I (1603-25), there were 14 courts in London.
In France, François I (1515-47) was an enthusiastic player and promoter of real tennis, building courts and encouraging play among the courtiers and commoners. His successor, Henry II (1547-59) was also an excellent player and continued the royal French tradition. During his reign, the first known book about tennis, Trattato del Giuoco della Palla was written in 1555 by an Italian priest, Antonio Scaino da Salo. Two French kings died from tennis-related episodes--Louis X of a severe chill after playing and Charles VIII after being struck with a ball. King Charles IX granted a constitution to the Corporation of Tennis Professionals in 1571, creating the first pro tennis 'tour', establishing three levels of professionals-- apprentice, associate, and master. The first codification of the rules of real tennis was written by a professional named Forbet and published in 1599.
The game thrived among the 17th century nobility in France, Spain, Italy and in the Habsburg Empire, but suffered under English Puritanism. By the Age of Napoleon the royal families of Europe were besieged and real tennis was largely abandoned. Real tennis played a minor role in the history of the French Revolution, through the Tennis Court Oath, a pledge signed by French deputies in a real tennis court, which formed a decisive early step in starting the revolution. In England, during the 18th century and early 19th century as real tennis died out, two other racquet sports emerged, racquets and squash racquets.
In Victorian England real tennis had a revival but broad public interest shifted to the outdoor game of lawn tennis which quickly became the most popular form of the sport. Real tennis courts were built in Australia (1875) and in the United States starting in 1876 in Boston, followed by New York in 1890, and also at a few other athletic clubs. Real tennis also influenced the game of stické, which was also invented in the 19th century and combined aspects of real tennis, lawn tennis and racquets.
Real Tennis has the longest line of consecutive world champions of any sport in the world.
Locations
There are only about 47 left, and over half of those are in Britain. However, a new court was built in the United States in 1997. For a full list, see: List of real tennis organizations
Some particularly noteworthy courts in the UK are:
- Falkland Palace, Fife: The oldest court in the world for real tennis, opened in 1539.
- Jesmond, Newcastle: The court is situated on Matthew Bank and was built in 1894. It was built by the then owner of Jesmond Dene House as a private court and is now a listed building.
- Canford, Dorset: Lord Wimborne, Sir Ivor Guest, opened the court at Canford in 1879 although there had been an earlier court built in the grounds of the manor house dating back to 1541. It is still in use in a building that belongs to Canford School and also now houses 4 squash courts.
Noteworthy courts in the United States include:
- Prince's Court, McLean, VA: The newest court in the United States, opened in 1997.
- The Racquet and Tennis Club, NY: New York City's famously exclusive tennis club contains two real tennis courts (built in 1918).
Manner of play
The rules and scoring are similar to those of lawn tennis, which derives from real tennis. Although in both sports game scoring is by fifteens (with the exception of 40, which was shortened from forty-five)), in real tennis six games wins a set, even if the opponent has five games. A match is typically best of five sets.
The 2½ inch (64 mm) diameter balls are handmade and consist of a core made of cork with fabric tape tightly wound around it and covered with a hand-sewn layer of heavy woven woolen cloth, traditionally "Melton" cloth (not felt which is unwoven and not strong enough to last as a ball covering). Until recently the balls were always white, but "optic yellow" has been introduced for improved visibility, as was done years earlier in lawn tennis. The balls are much less bouncy than a lawn tennis ball, and weigh about 2½ ounces (71 grams) (lawn tennis balls typically weigh 2 ounces). The 27 inch (686 mm) long racquets are made of wood and use very tight strings to cope with the heavy ball. The racquet head is bent slightly to make it easier to strike balls close to the floor or in corners, and to facilitate slice or "cut."
A real tennis court (jeu à dedans) is a very substantial building (encompassing an area wider and longer than a lawn tennis court, with high walls and a ceiling lofty enough to contain all but the highest lob shots). It is enclosed by walls on all sides, three of which have sloping roofs, known as "penthouses", underneath which are various openings ("galleries", from which spectators may view the game), and a buttress that intrudes into the playing area (tambour) off which shots may be played. Courts (except at the one at Falkland Palace, a jeu quarré design) share the same basic layout but have slightly different dimensions. Most are about 110 by 39 feet (33.5 × 11.9 m) above the penthouses, and about 96 by 32 feet (29.3 × 9.8 m) on the playing floor, varying by a foot or two per court. They are doubly asymmetric – each end of the court different in the shape from the other, and the left and right sides of the court are also different.
The service is always made from the same end of the court (the "service" end); a good service must touch the side penthouse (above and to the left of the server) on the receiver's ("hazard") side of the court before first touching the floor in a marked area on that side. There are numerous and widely varying styles of service. These are given decriptive names to distinguish them – examples are "railroad", "bobble", "poop", "piqué", "boomerang", and "giraffe".
The game has many other complexities. For instance, when the ball bounces twice on the floor at the service end, the serving player does not generally lose the point. Instead a "chase" is called and the server gets the chance, later in the game, to replay the point from the receiving end, but to win the point being played off, his shot's second bounce must be further back from the net than the shot he originally failed to reach. A chase can also be called at the receiving ("hazard") end, but only on the half of that end nearest the net; this is called a "hazard" chase. Those areas of the court in which chases can be called are marked with lines running across the floor, from left to right, generally about apart - it is these lines that the chases are measured against. One result of this feature is that a player can gain the advantage of serving only through skillful play (viz. "laying" a "chase", which ensures a change of end). This is in marked contrast to lawn tennis where players alternately serve and receive entire games. It is thus not uncommon in real tennis to see a player serve for several consecutive games till a chase be made. Indeed, an entire match (theoretically) could be played with no change of service, the same player serving every point.
The heavy, solid balls take a great deal of spin, which often causes them to rebound from the walls at unexpected angles. For the sake of a good chase (close to the back wall), players often use a cutting stroke, which imparts backspin to the ball, causing it to come sharply down after hitting the back wall.
Another twist to the game comes from the various window-like openings below the penthouse roof that, in some cases, offer the player a chance to win the point instantly by hitting the ball into the opening (in other cases, these windows create a "chase"). Effectively, these are "goals" to be aimed for. The largest such window, located behind the server, is called the "Dedans" and must often be defended from hard hit shots (called "forces") coming from the receiving ("hazard") side of the court. The resulting strategy of long volleys and shots off the side walls and penthouse roof lead to many interesting shots not available in lawn tennis. However, because of the weight of the balls, the small racquets, and the need to defend the rear of the court, many lawn tennis strategies, such as serve and volley, are ineffective.
In literature
The first mention of real tennis in literature comes from a 1581 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses by Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara, printed in Venice in quarto form in 1581. This was the leading Renaissance translation of Ovid's work into Italian. The translation transforms the fatal discus game between Apollo and Hyacinth into a fatal game of real tennis, or "racchetta."
William Shakespeare mentions the game in Act I - Scene II of Henry V; the Dauphin, a French Prince, sends King Henry a gift of tennis-balls, out of jest, in response to Henry's claim to the French throne. King Henry replies to the French Ambassadors:
"His present and your pains we thank you for: When we have matched our rackets to these balls, we will, in France, by God's grace, play a set [that] shall strike his father's crown into the hazard ... And tell the pleasant Prince this mock of his hath turn'd his balls to gun stones". Michael Drayton makes a similar reference to the event in his The battaile of Agincourt, published in 1627.
The Penguin book of Sick Verse includes a poem by William Lathum comparing life to a tennis-court:
- If in my weak conceit, (for selfe disport),
- The world I sample to a Tennis-court,
- Where fate and fortune daily meet to play,
- I doe conceive, I doe not much misse-say.
- All manner chance are Rackets, wherewithall
- They bandie men, from wall to wall;
- Some over Lyne, to honour and great place,
- Some under Lyne, to infame and disgrace;
- Some with a cutting stroke they nimbly sent
- Into the hazard placed at the end; ...
The Scottish gothic novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1824) describes a tennis match that degenerates into violence.
The detective story Dead Nick takes place in a tennis milieu. The title alludes to a shot that hits "the nick" (where the wall meets the floor), called "dead" because it then bounces very little and is frequently unreturnable.
Hazard Chase (1964) by Jeremy Potter is a thriller-detective story featuring real tennis on the court at Hampton Court Palace. During the story the game is explained, and the book contains a diagram of a real tennis court. Jeremy Potter wrote historical works (including Tennis and Oxford (1994)), and was himself an accomplished player of the game, winning the World Amateur Over-60s Championship in 1986.
The First Beautiful Game: Stories of Obsession in Real Tennis (2006) by top amateur player Roman Krznaric contains a mixture of real tennis history, memoir and fiction, which focuses on what can be learned from real tennis about the art of living.
In film
Real tennis is featured in the film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a fictionalized meeting between Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud. One of the film's plot points turns on Freud being forced into a grudge set with a Teutonic nobleman. The film The French Lieutenant's Woman includes a sequence featuring a few points being played. Also The Three Musketeers (1973) and Ever After briefly feature the game. Although presented with varying degrees of accuracy, these films provide a chance to see the game played, which otherwise may be difficult to observe personally. The Showtime series The Tudors (2007) portrays Henry the VIII playing the game. In the film version of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead the two lead characters play the game Questions in a Real Tennis court, scoring points as if playing the game.
Notable Players
- Richard D. Sears: First American amateur champion of court tennis in 1892, and apparent inventor of the overhead "railroad service," currently the most popular serve in the game..
- Tom Pettit
- Eustace Miles: The first foreign winner of the American championship in 1900, Eustace Miles had a widely ridiculed style. Unusually for the period, Miles was a vegetarian, and produced a book on dietetics entitled "Muscle, Brain and Diet."
- Joshua Crane: Perhaps the second greatest player in American history. Champion from 1901 to 1905, Crane was unfortunate that his career coincided with that of Jay Gould.
- P.S. Sears
- Jay Gould: Unquestionably the greatest amateur in American history. Gould learned at the age of 12 at his father's court in Lakewood, NJ. Gould won the American championship from 1906 to 1926, one of the longest streaks in the history of sport. From 1907 to 1925, he lost only one singles match, to English champion E.M. Baerlein. During that period, he never lost even a set to an amateur.
- Fred Tompkins: Head professional of the Philadelphia court. When the New York Racquet and Tennis club opened, Fred Tompkins was invited to be head professional.However, when Fred went to his brother Alfred to borrow money for his passage, Alfred decided to go over in Fred's place. Fred Tompkins later took over the Philadelphia court instead.
- Pierre Etchebaster
See also
External links
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