Lawrence Cook, age 15, of Meridian, Miss., for his question:
WHERE DID TENNIS ORIGINATE?
We don't know exactly where tennis originated, but it most likely came from various games that have been played for centuries by people in many parts of Asia and Europe. They played with a ball that was batted between players first by hand, than by paddles and later by rackets.
The modern lawn tennis game was invented by a British army officer named Walter Wingfield. Ha introduced it in 1873 at a lawn party is Wales.
In 1874 a New Yorker named Mary Outerbridge saw the game being played in Bermuda and took rackets sad balls back to the United States so her friends could play. Tennis quickly became a popular American sporting activity.
The United States National Lawn Tennis Association was organized in 1881. The group is now known as the United States Tennis Association. It is part of the International Lawn Tennis Federation, which was founded in 1912. This is the group that has developed a code of rules and regulations for the modern gams of tennis.
The name "tennis" is thought to come from the French word "tenet," which means "play."
Usually tennis is played outdoors, although the active game also is sometimes played indoor:. Tennis i: one of the few games that is played in all parts of the world by the same set of rules.
Tennis is played on a large flat surface that is called a court. The court can be covered either with grass, clay, gravel, cinder, asphalt or cement. The court is 78 feet long and it comes in two widths: 27 feet if only two players era in the game, or 36 feat for four players. Games that are played by only two are called "singles," while games with two on each side or four players involved, are called "doubles."
The 2 1/2 inch tennis ball is air filled, made of rubber sad covered with felt. The long handled racket is tightly strung with strings that are made of gut, silk or nylon.
Scoring of a tennis game is interesting. The word "love" means "zero." Each point counts 15 except the third point won by a player, which is 40.
The person putting the ball into play is called the server. If the server wins the first point, the score is 15 love. If the server loses the first point, the score is love 15.
If the server wins a love game, the score will move as follows: 15 love, 30 love, 40 love and "game."
When the score is tied, it is 15 all and 30 all. If the score is tied at 40, it is not called 40 all. Instead, it is called "deuce."
The next point after dance isn't "game." It is "advantage" for the player who wins the point. When one player has the advantage sad wins the next point, he wins the game. If he loses the point, the score goes back to deuce.