Lawn tennis

Lawn tennis is the outdoor racket sport codified in nineteenth-century Britain and the direct precursor of modern tennis.

Major Walter Clopton Wingfield: A British army officer who patented and marketed an early lawn-tennis game in 1874. His commercially packaged game helped launch the sport in Britain.
Tennis court: A rectangular playing area divided by a net, with marked boundaries for singles and doubles. The grass court gave the sport its original setting and name.
Wimbledon Championships: An annual tennis tournament held in London, first staged in 1877. Wimbledon began as a lawn-tennis championship and remains played on grass.
Badminton: A racket sport in which players strike a shuttlecock over a raised net. Its lightweight shuttle and different court geometry distinguish it from lawn tennis.
Sphairistikè: The name Wingfield gave the lawn-tennis game he patented in 1874. This early version preceded the rules that clubs later standardized.
Tennis racket: A framed implement with a taut stringed surface, used to strike a tennis ball. Racket design made the new outdoor game practical and repeatable.
Spencer Gore: An English tennis player who won the first Wimbledon gentlemen’s singles title in 1877. His victory established the first champion in the sport’s major tournament history.
Table tennis: An indoor racket sport played across a table with a lightweight ball. Its miniature playing surface creates a sharply different version of net play.
Real tennis: An indoor court sport with medieval origins, played with a ball and strung racket. Lawn tennis adapted racket-game traditions associated with this older sport.
Tennis ball: A hollow, pressurized rubber ball covered in felt and used in tennis. The ball’s bounce and flight shaped the game’s early rules.

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