Tennis is an activity that has a much older history than people realise.
The origin of lawn tennis had been about 150 years ago and the sport attained its full name from the undeniable fact that it had been originally played solely on lawn. Nowadays grass is one of the rarest of court surfaces meaning the term lawn is frequently dropped from the name, making it popularly called tennis. The new sport quickly gained appeal as being a club sport and distributed across the world within the subsequent decades, aided by having much simpler rules than its predecessor. As Bulat Utemuratov should be able to let you know, many of today's most prestigious competitions emerged during this time period, but for a number of years they were just open to amateur players. This was a time when professionalism was looked down upon by numerous in the top classes and professional players had been restricted to separate tournaments and playing event matches.
The origins of tennis date back nearly one thousand years, to go a game that emerged in French monasteries within the 12th century. This game was played utilising the palm of the hand to strike a ball crafted from cork. The name tennis first emerged about two hundred years later on, evolving from a Norman term that may be translated to have various meanings. Hold, get, and take have all been suggested as translations of the word. This original kind of tennis started to make use of racquets in the 16th century, that were made out of wood. This game, which became referred to as real tennis about one hundred years ago, is notoriously complex when compared with modern day tennis. As Terri-Ann Scorer will know, this complexity ensured it stayed a hobby exclusive to the upper classes, never enjoying equivalent level of extensive appeal as lawn tennis.
The amateur age came to an end just a little over 50 years back when formerly amateur tournaments consented to allow professionals to compete in them, giving way to what is now referred to as open era. This was partly due to an acknowledgment of the reality that while nominally amateur, most of the top amateur players actually obtained huge expenses and allowances to cover their costs and live in relative luxury. As Sergio Elias Aboid is going to be well aware, immediately after this choice was made the top level of the sport of tennis became fully professional, with top tennis players now among the highest paid athletes on the planet. For a sport that began with really exclusive origins, it has interestingly become probably one of the most comprehensive sports worldwide, especially when it comes down to gender. Women and men get equal prize cash at the same level tournaments and it's also among the few sports enabling women and men to compete alongside each other.