Tennis, like many other ball games, dates back to Ancient Greece. It is rooted in the ancient game ‘sferistiki’ (5th century B.C.), which used a light ball stroked by the feast or the elbow. According to literary accounts, the players later fixed a square board with a loop to the forearm and attempted to hit the ball in the air with various strokes. In medieval times, tennis was a social game practiced in noble courts. In the 16th century, tennis appears in England. King Henry VIII himself was a champion in tennis. The field of play, referred to as tennis court or real tennis was made of stone. The game entailed stroking of the ball over a net. The first book on tennis, under the title Tartallo dello Palla, was written in 1555, while at the end of the 16th century the first string racquet was manufactured and the first rules were set. In 1858, the first tennis court was built in the suburb of Burningham, and in 1872, the first tennis club was founded.
Tennis was an Olympic sport from 1896 to 1924. It returned in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles as an exhibition sport, and in 1988, in Seoul it became a part of the Olympic program again.
The International Tennis Federation, founded in 1913, is the worldwide authority of the sport. 198 National Federations are members of ITF.
The Hellenic Tennis Federation, founded in 1938, is the nationwide authority of tennis in Greece. 214 member clubs belong to HTF.
Tennis on the Spotlight
