Real tennis

Racquets and balls

The rules and scoring are similar to those of lawn tennis, which derives from real tennis, but are more complex. In both sports game scoring is by fifteens ("40" being short for the original forty-five). However, in real tennis, six games wins a set, without the need for a two-game margin as in lawn tennis[4] although some tournaments require more games (as many as 10) to win, usually playing one, single set. A match is typically best of three sets, except matches between men in the major open tournaments, which are best of five sets.

Equipment

Unlike latex-based technology underlying the modern lawn tennis ball, the game uses a cork-cored ball which is very close in design to the original balls used in the game. The 2+1⁄2-inch (64 mm) diameter balls are handmade and consist of a core made of cork with fabric tape tightly wound around it, compacted by outer windings of string, and covered with a hand-sewn layer of heavy, woven, woollen cloth, traditionally Melton cloth (not felt, which is unwoven and not strong enough to last as a ball covering). The balls were traditionally white, but around the end of the 20th century "optic yellow" was introduced for improved visibility, as had been done years earlier in lawn tennis. The balls are much less bouncy than lawn tennis balls, and weigh about 2+1⁄2 ounces (71 grams) (lawn tennis balls typically weigh 2 ounces (57 g)).

The 27-inch (690 mm) short, asymmetrical racquets are made of wood and use very tight nylon strings to cope with the heavy balls. The racquet oval is shaped to make it easier to strike balls close to the floor or in corners, and to facilitate a fast shot with a low trajectory that is difficult for an opponent to return. There are two companies in the world hand-crafting these racquets: Grays of Cambridge (UK) and Gold Leaf Athletics (US).

An example layout of a tennis court. A valid serve must occur from the serving court before the second gallery line, and hit the service penthouse before dropping in the receiving court, marked by the service line and fault line. Corresponding chase lines extend from the centres of the side galleries on both service and hazard ends, including the first, door, second and last. Gallery posts and the net post are marked with circles. Shaded areas are the winning openings, the dedans, grille, and winning gallery. None of these, nor the posts, would be visible with an actual overhead view as depicted.

Courts

Newmarket-Suffolk jeu à dedans court, view toward hazard end

There are two basic designs in existence today: jeu quarré, which is an older design, and jeu à dedans. The court at Falkland Palace is a jeu quarré design which unlike jeu à dedans court lacks a tambour and dedans. Mary, Queen of Scots became especially fond of the game, and it is said that she scandalised the people of Scotland by wearing men's breeches to play. The more common real tennis court (jeu à dedans) is a very substantial building (encompassing an area wider and longer than a lawn tennis court, with high walls and a ceiling lofty enough to contain all but the highest lob shots). It is enclosed by walls on all four sides, three of which have sloping roofs, known as "penthouses", beneath which are various openings ("galleries", from which spectators may view the game and which also play a role in scoring points), and a buttress that intrudes into the playing area (tambour) off which shots may be played. There are no "standard dimensions" for courts. Most are about 110 by 39 feet (34 m × 12 m) above the penthouses, and about 96 by 32 feet (29.3 m × 9.8 m) on the playing floor, varying by a foot or two per court. They are doubly asymmetric: each end of the court differs in shape from the other, and the left and right sides of the court are also different.

Jeu de paume, Paris

The term "tennis" is thought to derive from the French word tenez, which means "take heed" – a warning from the server to the receiver. Real tennis evolved, over three centuries, from an earlier ball game played around the 12th century in France. This had some similarities to palla, fives, Spanish pelota or handball, in that it involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove. This game may have been played by monks in monastery cloisters, but the construction and appearance of courts more resemble medieval courtyards and streets than religious buildings. By the 16th century, the glove had become a racquet, the game had moved to an enclosed playing area, and the rules had stabilized. Real tennis spread across Europe, with the Papal Legate reporting in 1596 that there were 250 courts in Paris alone, near the peak of its popularity in France.[6]

Royal interest in England began with Henry V (reigned 1413–22) but it was Henry VIII (reigned 1509–47) who made the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court on a court he had built in 1530 and on several other courts in his palaces. His second wife Anne Boleyn was watching a game of real tennis when she was arrested and it is believed that Henry was playing tennis when news was brought to him of her execution.[7] Queen Elizabeth I was a keen spectator of the game. During the reign of James I (1603–25), there were 14 courts in London.[8]

In France, François I (1515–47) was an enthusiastic player and promoter of real tennis, building courts and encouraging play among both courtiers and commoners. His successor, Henry II (1547–59), was also an excellent player and continued the royal French tradition. The first known book about tennis, Trattato del Giuoco della Palla was written during his reign, in 1555, by an Italian priest, Antonio Scaino da Salo. Two French kings died from tennis-related episodes – Louis X of a severe chill after playing and Charles VIII after striking his head on the lintel of a door leading to the court in the royal Château at Amboise. King Charles IX granted a constitution to the Corporation of Tennis Professionals in 1571, creating a career for the 'maître paumiers' and, establishing three levels of professionals – apprentice, associate, and master. The first codification of the rules of real tennis was written by a professional named Forbet and published in 1599.[9]

The game thrived among the 17th-century nobility in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Habsburg Empire, but suffered under English Puritanism, as it was heavily associated with gambling. By the Age of Napoleon, the royal families of Europe were besieged and real tennis, a court game, was largely abandoned.[10] Real tennis played a role in the history of the French Revolution, through the Tennis Court Oath, a pledge signed by French deputies in a real tennis court, which formed a decisive early step in starting the revolution.

An epitaph in St Michael's Church, Coventry, written circa 1705 read, in part:[11]

Here lyes an old toss'd Tennis Ball:
Was racketted, from spring to fall,
With so much heat and so much hast,
Time's arm for shame grew tyred at last.

During the 18th century and early 19th century, as real tennis declined, new racquet sports emerged in England: rackets and squash racquets.

Real Tennis house at Coburg, Germany

There is documented history of courts existing in the German states from the 17th century, the sport evidently died out there during or after World War II.

In Victorian England, real tennis had a revival, but broad public interest later shifted to the new, much less difficult outdoor game of lawn tennis, which soon became the more popular sport, and was played by both genders (real tennis players were almost exclusively male). Real tennis courts were built in Hobart, Tasmania (1875) and in the United States, starting in 1876 in Boston, and in New York in 1890, and later at athletic clubs in several other cities. Real tennis greatly influenced the game of stické, which was invented in the 19th century and combined aspects of real tennis, lawn tennis and rackets.

Real tennis has the longest line of consecutive world champions of any sport in the world, dating from 1760.

Real Tennis Court building at Falkland Palace, housing the world's oldest tennis court and Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club

The Spectators' Gallery facing the court at Falkland Palace

Inside the Spectators' Gallery, Falkland Palace

There are more than 50 real tennis courts in the world, and over half of these are in Britain.

Tennis is mentioned in literature from the 16th century onwards. It is frequently shown in emblem books, such as those of Guillaume de La Perrière from 1539. Erasmus lets two students practice Latin during a game of tennis with a racquet in 1522, although the playing ground is not mentioned.[20] A 1581 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses by Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara, printed in Venice in quarto form transforms the fatal discus game between Apollo and Hyacinth into a fatal game of real tennis, or "racchetta."

William Shakespeare mentions the game in Act I – Scene II of Henry V; the Dauphin, a French Prince, sends King Henry a gift of tennis-balls, out of jest, in response to Henry's claim to the French throne. King Henry replies to the French Ambassadors: "His present and your pains we thank you for: When we have matched our rackets to these balls, we will, in France, by God's grace, play a set [that] shall strike his father's crown into the hazard ... And tell the pleasant Prince this mock of his hath turn'd his balls to gun stones". Michael Drayton makes a similar reference to the event in his The bataille of Agincourt, published in 1627.

The Penguin book of Sick Verse includes a poem by William Lathum comparing life to a tennis-court:

The Scottish gothic novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1824) describes a tennis match that degenerates into violence.

The detective story Dead Nick takes place in a tennis milieu. The title alludes to a shot that hits "the nick" (where the wall meets the floor), called "dead" because it then bounces very little and is frequently unreturnable.

Hazard Chase (1964), by Jeremy Potter, is a thriller-detective story featuring real tennis on the court at Hampton Court Palace. During the story the game is explained, and the book contains a diagram of a real tennis court. Jeremy Potter wrote historical works (including Tennis and Oxford (1994)), and was himself an accomplished player of the game, winning the World Amateur Over-60s Championship in 1986.

The First Beautiful Game: Stories of Obsession in Real Tennis (2006) by top amateur player Roman Krznaric contains a mixture of real tennis history, memoir and fiction, which focuses on what can be learned from real tennis about the art of living.

The Corpse on the Court (2013) is a mystery by Simon Brett. It features the recurring lead character of Jude learning many details about the sport from aficionados.

In The Chase by Ivor P. Cooper, in Ring of Fire II in the 1632 series, up-timers Heather Mason and Judy Wendell learn the sport from Thomas Hobbes. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden is depicted as an aficionado of the game.

Sudden Death (2013), a novel by Alvaro Enrigue, is interstitched throughout with descriptions of a real tennis match between the Italian artist Caravaggio and the Spanish poet Quevedo. The details of play are interspersed among historical reflections on the game, descriptions of techniques for making the balls, quotations from contemporary sources, gambling that accompanied the game, the backgrounds of the participants and the strategy discussions between the players and their seconds. It is intentionally unclear which details are real and which are imagined by the author.

Real tennis is featured in the film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a fictional meeting between Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud. One of the film's plot points turns on Freud playing a grudge match with a Prussian nobleman (in lieu of a duel).

The film The French Lieutenant's Woman includes a sequence featuring a few points being played. Also The Three Musketeers (1973) and Ever After briefly feature the game. Although presented with varying degrees of accuracy, these films provide a chance to see the game played, which otherwise may be difficult to observe personally.

The Showtime series The Tudors (2007) portrays Henry VIII playing the game. The film The Man Who Knew Infinity features a short sequence of G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) and John Edensor Littlewood (Toby Jones) playing real tennis.

The series Billions, Opportunity Zone episode, very briefly features Damian Lewis and Harry Lennix playing real tennis.

In the movie Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead they play a game of questions in a disused real tennis court.

Real tennis has occasionally been televised, but the court (which does not well lend itself to the placement of cameras), the speed at which the ball travels, and the complexity of the rules all militate against the effectiveness and popularity of televised programming.

Web-streaming is proving a helpful innovation, and realtennis.tv broadcast its first tournament, the European Open, from 8–9 March 2011. There were three 'main events' shown; the two men's semi finals and the men's final. The final was between Bryn Sayers and Robert Fahey, with Fahey taking the title in four sets.

Many top national and international tournaments can be seen live or on replay via YouTube channels:

in the USA: United States Court Tennis Association

in the UK: T&RA Media

in France: Real Tennis France

• Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex who notably played on 50 courts around the world in 2018 to support the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
• Joshua Crane: American champion from 1901 to 1905, Crane's career coincided with that of Jay Gould.[21][22]
• Pierre Etchebaster: World Champion, 1928–1953, d. 24 March 1980.[23]
• Claire Vigrass Fahey: Current Women's World Champion[24]
• Robert Fahey: World Champion, 1994–2016, 2018. Fahey successfully defended his world championship title more times (11) than any previous champion. In April 2018 he regained the title defeating Camden Riviere 7 sets to 5.[25]
• Jay Gould II: American champion from 1906 to 1926, one of the longest streaks in the history of sport. From 1907 to 1925, he lost only one singles match, to English champion E. M. Baerlein. During that period, he never lost even a set to an amateur.[26]
• G. H. Hardy
• John Moyer Heathcote
• King Henry VIII of England
• Jeremy Howard, President and Chief Scientist of Kaggle, Co-Founder of Optimal Decision Group and Fastmail.fm
• King John III of Sweden
• Northrup R. Knox, multiple-time American champion. He retired undefeated.
• George Lambert
• King Louis X of France
• Penny Fellows Lumley, multiple singles and doubles champion in British, US, French and Australian Opens. Grand Slam 1996–97. Now Ladies Masters Champion.[24][27]
• Hon. Alfred Lyttelton
• Julian Marshall
• Eustace Miles: The first foreign winner of the American championship in 1900. Unusually for the period, Miles was a vegetarian, and produced a book on dietetics entitled Muscle, Brain and Diet.[28]
• Tom Pettitt
• Camden Riviere: 2016, 2022 World Champion
• Chris Ronaldson: World Champion, 1981–1987[29][30][31]
• John Rowan – World Interbank Challenge Champion
• Richard D. Sears: First American amateur champion of court tennis in 1892, and apparent inventor of the overhead "railroad service," currently the most popular serve in the game.[32]
• Fred Tompkins: Head professional of the Philadelphia court. When the New York Racquet and Tennis club opened, Fred Tompkins was invited to be head professional. However, when Fred went to his brother Alfred to borrow money for his passage, Alfred decided to go over in Fred's place; Fred Tompkins later took over the Philadelphia court instead.[33]
• Sarah Vigrass: Two-time World Doubles Champion (with her sister; Claire)[24]
• Pierre Cipriano: US National Team member, 3x consecutive Tuxedo Gold Racquet winner and inventor of the ‘Viper’ serve, an automatic way of winning a point when the server stands at Second Gallery and hits the ball as hard as he can directly at (and hopefully striking) his opponent who is set to receive.

• List of real tennis world champions
• Grand Slam (real tennis)
• History of tennis

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jeu de paume.

Wikiversity has learning resources about Games of gain-ground/Real tennis

• Article "Tennis" in the 1797 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica
• The Real Tennis Society
• Real tennis in Jesmond, article at BBC Tyne
• Photos of real tennis court in Jesmond, from BBC Tyne
• A History of Tennis
• An interactive map of all 50+ remaining courts worldwide
• "It Takes a $100,000 Court like This to Play Court Tennis," Life, March 1, 1937, pp. 28–31. (Text and pictures of the court at Manhattan's Racquet and Tennis Club)
• Historic Real Tennis Court in the Casino Building on the campus of Georgian Court University, Lakewood, NJ
• Official site of the French Courte Paume Comité (Real tennis in french) (in French)