In my opinion, the real history of tennis doesn’t begin until the 1850s, when the first “modern” tennis balls were invented and used. Before this point, the history of tennis is the history of a completely different game: “real tennis”.
Real tennis is played on indoor courts. In fact, real tennis cannot be played outdoors: Players use the angled walls of a real tennis court to strategically hit and return the ball to their opponents. Yes, real tennis is very similar to modern day tennis, or “lawn tennis”, but only in the same way that handball, badminton, croquet and racquetball are similar to lawn tennis!
That is why I choose to start my history of tennis at the point where lawn tennis separated from real tennis, and this was in the 1850s. It was in the 1850s that Charles Goodyear, of Goodyear tire fame, He invented vulcanized rubber. Vulcanized rubber is a process that prevents natural rubber from deteriorating so quickly (without the vulcanization process, natural rubber could deteriorate within a few days).
So with the vulcanization of rubber cam rubber tennis balls. Rubber tennis balls can be used outdoors on grass courts. These rubber tennis balls were a nice change from bundles of wool, hair, fleece, or cork wrapped in leather or yarn and cloth – these are the ones that have been used in real tennis.
And because these vulcanized rubber tennis balls could be used outdoors, on grass courts, with no walls to bounce off of, new rules had to be invented for this new game of lawn tennis.
Walter Clopton Wingfield is usually the man who is credited with inventing modern tennis or lawn tennis. Around 1874, Wingfield patented the game. And the game became popular among the leisure classes at the end of the 19th century.
The popularity of tennis spread relatively quickly. Tennis clubs were established around this time. The first tennis championships were held in 1877 at Wimbledon… a precursor to the Grand Slam tournament that is held at Wimbledon every year, even today.
The rules of tennis gradually changed throughout the 1800s, changing the shape of the court and the height of the net, and thus changing the history of tennis in the process!
So, as you can see, it makes sense that he would choose to begin the true history of tennis around the 1850s, when Charles Goodyear’s invention of vulcanized rubber made modern tennis possible.