• Ball games can be traced back to ancient times
• Egyptian temples hold carvings presenting Ball Games dating back to 1500 B.C.
• The Ancient Egyptians and the people that followed actually played ball games as part of their religious ceremonies.
• These traditions and the whole concept of the ball game spread into Europe in the 8th century, the influence spread by the Moors whose Empire reached into Southern France.
• As strange as it may seem, it was the meeting of this eastern culture with Christianity which eventually gave rise to tennis!
• Christian Monks became interested in the religious rites of the Moors and were the first Europeans to play the ball game that was to become tennis.
• The game was called 'La Soule' where players would hit a ball to each other using either their hands or a stick.
• The game became very popular in Monasteries all over Europe, so much so that the Church of the day even considered prohibiting the game.
• During the 12th and 13th centuries it was to develop further.
• Players found that they had more control over the ball using just their hands.
• The leather glove was soon created.
• Later on it was supplemented the wooden handle
• The very first tennis racket was created.
• The game soon became very popular, particularly in France where it was adopted by Royalty.
• It was in France that the game as we know it today really came into being.
• During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries it became the highly fashionable sport of kings and noblemen and was called ' Jeu de paume' - the game of the palm.
• Early French players participated in game called Real Tennis.
• Real tennis was actually very different to the game that we know today.
• It was played indoors, in large galleries, were won according to how the ball was played off of the gallery walls.
• After its initial rise in popularity with the French nobility, tennis spread throughout Europe, becoming particularly popular in England.

As in France the game became recognised as the sport of kings. Henry VIII was a very keen player and built a court at his palace in Hampton Court Spain, Italy, Holland, The game in the 18th century however, the game went into decline, the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars virtually eliminating it across most of Europe.

In the 19th century houses and the first tennis clubs providing facilities for members began to appear. It was during this period that the game of Lawn Tennis began to emerge. Real tennis had always been the domain of royalty and nobility but in Victorian England the sport was soon embraced by the upper classes.

Soon after lawn surfaces were replaced with various turf derivatives and eventually clay and concrete. The new game was an instant success In 1877 a committee was established to draw up a set of rules the first tournament went ahead with 22 players, watched by some 200 spectators.

The Wimbledon Championship was born.

Over the next years the sport gained tremendous popularity, not just in England but all over the world and in 1905 May Sutton from the USA became the first international player. In 1933 Bunny Austin from USA shocked the crowds, as he stepped out on to centre court wearing shorts. The post war generation went on to transform the sport, adding technical improvements which turned it into a sophisticated pastime for the middle classes. In 1986 the Championships adopted yellow tennis balls for the first time - partly to make the speeding balls more visible for television cameras

Today, tennis is a world-class competitive sport captivating millions of players and fans all round the world.