Origins
Court tennis, also known as "real tennis," is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis (usually simply called tennis) is descended. It is known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in Australia and courte-paume in France. The expression "real" was primarily used by journalists in the mid-20th century to distinguish the ancient game from modern "lawn" tennis (even though the sport is rarely played on lawns outside the few social-club managed estates such as Wimbledon).
Real tennis is played today by enthusiasts on 47 existing courts in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and France. despite a documented history of courts existing in the German states during the 17th century, real tennis eventually died out there during or after the World War II reconstruction.
Read more about this topic: National Tennis Club
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)