Tennis is a sport for the elite. History and development of tennis Where did tennis originate?

Modern tennis originated as a form of indoor tennis that had its own long history.

Various games with a small ball, which was thrown to each other, hit with a hand, etc., were known back in ancient times. There are many references to the game of ball, which was hit by the ancient Romans and Greeks with a hand or a stick. Also, something similar to playing tennis could be seen in Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries. The name of this game was “jidoko”. But it is officially accepted that tennis originated in France. Once upon a time, about eight hundred years ago, the game of small ball originated in France. It all happened like this... With blows of the hand, namely with the palms, medieval tennis players threw this same ball to each other. Rackets came later. Many people liked the game, but primarily the church ministers. The servants played, mainly on the stone floor, under the monastery arches. Time passed, tennis developed, and soon they began to put a special glove on the hand that hits the ball. Later, simple, one might say primitive, wooden rackets appeared, vaguely reminiscent of modern ones. This object began the era of rackets, but they began to stretch the strings only 400 years later. As already mentioned, many people played tennis. The game became more and more popular. Secular people of those times picked up the trend of playing tennis. Such an energetic and exciting battle on the court did not leave people indifferent to this game. Crowds of people came to open matches. Tennis became so popular that King Louis 11 of France (1461-1483) issued a decree obliging manufacturers to tennis balls strictly observe the following parameters: “the ball must be filled with high-quality leather and wool. Under no circumstances should the ball contain sawdust, chalk, soil, metal shavings, bran, sand, ash, chalk, moss, dust or other low-quality substitutes.” Tennis evolved more and more, it became popular not only in France, but also in old Europe itself. The peak of popularity occurred in the 15th-16th century, and there was a tennis boom that continues to this day. He even captured women! According to eyewitnesses and from magazines, we know that in 1427 a young woman made her debut in Paris with great success. Her name was Margot. On the tennis court, she was able to send the ball towards her opponent with high speed and accuracy. It turns out that only a few men managed to beat this medieval tennis star. From old sources it is known that by the end of the 16th century, in Paris alone there were more than 250 tennis courts. They were specially equipped for the army of seven thousand fans of this game. People played, rules were gradually established, and players began to be divided into categories. They were divided depending on their skill level. At that time, there were 3 categories of players: “beginners, partners and masters.” It is clear that the medieval tennis masters were far from poor people. So they received greater rights to build courts and special structures. They also owned them, as well as workshops for making balls and rackets. One of these professional masters developed the first rules of the game in 1542, which were officially published only 50 years later.

France is considered the birthplace of modern tennis (there is an assumption that the word “tennis” itself comes from the French “tenez” - “here you go, take it!”). In the monasteries of France back in the 11th century. there was a known game called “jeu de paume”, i.e. palm game. At first, the players actually played with their hands, but over time they “armed themselves” with rackets, although they only took on their familiar form to us in the 16th century. "je de paume" was extremely popular in France. According to some sources, by the beginning of the 17th century. in Paris alone there were several hundred “ball houses”, and in 1610 the manufacturers of balls and rackets united into an independent guild.

By this time, there was already a score in the game, much like modern tennis rules. Experts have still not come to a consensus regarding its origin. According to one version, the unusual division was introduced by analogy with a watch dial, where each hour was divided into quarters. Supporters of another - no less widespread - theory believe that such a division corresponded to the denomination of French small change coins that were in circulation in the 16th century.

In 1740, the World Tennis Championships took place in France, the first competition of this rank in the history of sports. Ironically, in France itself, tennis at that time was not experiencing the most better times. But in neighboring England, the popularity of the game borrowed from the French, on the contrary, increased, and in the 19th century. the center of world tennis has finally moved there.

In 1872, the first club uniting fans of this game was created in Leamington. Two years later, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield officially patented one of the varieties of tennis called “spheristics”. A year later, he proposed a new name, “lawn tennis.” Already in 1876, the first lawn tennis tournament took place in the United States. And his victorious march around the world began.

Games with a small ball, which was kicked over a net using devices such as a racket, were known back in ancient times V Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages and in modern times, games spread in Europe that can be considered as the closest predecessors of tennis. These are primarily the English “field tennis”, “court tennis”, as well as the games “long-pom” and “court-pom”, cultivated mainly in France, Spain and Italy. In 1874, the Englishman Wingfield developed the rules of a new game quite close to modern tennis, which he called “spheristics”. In 1875, these rules were improved, and the game received a new name - “lawn tennis” (“lawn” means “lawn” in English). In accordance with the decision of the International Tennis Federation, 1875 is considered the year of the emergence of modern tennis.

Now tennis has gained popularity and distribution throughout the world. For large international tournaments a large number of participants and spectators gather. The strongest players in the world who compete in these competitions are physically well prepared, athletically built, have lightning-fast reactions, excellent mobility and agility. They play with power and precision in an attacking style. They have a subtle sense of game situations and continuous creativity.

The main major international tournaments are the open championships of Australia, France, England and the USA. A tennis player who manages to win all four tournaments within a year becomes the owner of the so-called " Grand Slam"They were Australians.

R. Laver - in 1962 and 1969 and M. Smith Court - in 1970. In Russia, tennis began to develop in the second half of the 70s and early 80s of the last century. Before the revolution, tennis was predominantly a game of aristocrats and bourgeoisie. Under Soviet power, it became available to all working people of our country. The first bright figures among Soviet champions there were S. Maltseva, E. Alexandrova, N. Teplyakova, N. Belonenko, E. Kudryavtsev, B. Novikov, E. Negrebetsky, N. Ozerov, S. Andreev and others. 1958 went down in the history of our tennis as the year the first participation of Soviet tennis players in official international competitions abroad, held on calendar plans International Tennis Federation. 17-year-old A. Dmitrieva (Moscow) and A. Potanin (Leningrad) took part in the Wimbledon junior tournament, as well as in two previous tournaments in England - the Kent County Open Championship (the so-called Becknam Tournament) and the London Open Championship. A. Dmitrieva took first place in the Beknem girls’ tournament, and A. Potanin took second place among boys. A. Dmitrieva performed well among her peers at Wimbledon. The second place she won was an undeniable success. A. Potanin was among the 8 strongest young tennis players peace.

In 1959, Soviet tennis player T. Leius won the Wimbledon junior tournament for the first time. The representative of Tbilisi, I. Ryazanova-Ermolova, becomes the champion of the Universiade in Turin.

The success of T. Leius in the Wimbledon junior tournament was repeated in different years by G. Baksheeva, V. Korotkov, O. Morozova and M. Kroshina. The team of Soviet girls, which began competing in the Suabo Cup, the European Youth Championship, in 1967, became the winner of the competition 4 times and took second place twice. The men's youth team has also repeatedly won or won the Galea Cup.

Multiple champion of the USSR A. Metreveli in 1972 for the first time took third place in the singles competition of the French Open Championship. In the Wimbledon tournament of the same year he reached the quarter finals, and in 1973 he became a finalist. For two years in a row he won the open championships of five Australian states and was proclaimed the first player in Australia. Together with O. Morozova A. Metreveli in 1970 and 1971. reached the final. The pair O. Morozov - M. Kroshina became US champions in 1973. In the same year, O. Morozova won the London Open Championship. Since 1969, the personal and team European Championship has been held. All the past years, Soviet tennis players took first place in it. team competition, and in individual competitions they won most or all first places. O. Morozova and A. Metreveli repeatedly became absolute champions continent.

Absolute winners World Universiade 1973 became O. Morozova and Tbilisi resident T. Kakulia. In 1974, O. Morozova won the French doubles championship and reached the finals of Wimbledon and France in singles competitions.

Which country is the birthplace of tennis?

Currently, it is not known for certain who invented tennis, but, according to the most common version, the founder of the game was Major Walton Wingfield. He invented the game to entertain guests at receptions at his mansion in Wales and published the first rules of the game in 1873. As a basis, he used the game of real tennis, which has existed for several centuries, which originated in the 12th century in France, and which was popular in the circles of the French aristocracy until the time of the Great French Revolution.

According to historical sources, modern tennis terminology originated during the same time period, as Wingfield borrowed both the name and many French words from royal tennis for his game:

The name tennis comes from the French. tenez, the imperative form of the verb tenir, “to hold.” It means, therefore, “hold!” With this shout, the real tennis player warned his opponent that he was about to serve;
racket (English racquet) comes from the French. raquette, which in turn comes from the Arabic rakhat, meaning "palm";
The English term deuce (exactly) comes from the French. à deux le jeu, meaning “to both is the game” (the score in the game is equal); according to another version, the word comes from the French. deux points, meaning that the player needs to win two points to win the game;
English love, used to indicate the score "0" (for example, "40-love" is equivalent to "40-0"), comes from the French. l "oeuf, "egg", implying the "zero" sign in the shape of an egg;
The scoring system in games “15”, “30”, “40” comes from the French. quinze, trente, quarante, which in French pronunciation is a consonant sequence.
Anticipating the commercial potential of the game, Wingfield patented it in 1874, but was subsequently unable to profit from it. Tennis began to develop rapidly in the UK and the USA.

Some historians believe that tennis originated in Ancient Egypt. There is an opinion that the word “racket” comes from the Arabic “rakhat”, which means palm of the hand. But a more common point of view is the version that monks began playing tennis in France in the 11th-12th century.

Establishment of tennis as professional sports dates back to 1872, when the first tennis club was founded. On the lawns of Leamington Resort, Portuguese merchant Joa Pereira and doctors Frederic Haynes and Wellesley Tomkins played the Spanish ball game pelota. Afterwards, the original rules of lawn tennis (tennis on the lawn) were established.

Although the exact origins of the sport are unknown, it is believed that the rules of tennis, later called "Long Tennis", were invented by English army officer Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. Noticing the great commercial potential of lawn tennis, he patented the game, but was unable to impose a point of view on the invention. games. Wingfield stated that he borrowed the principles ancient greek game, which he called “Sfaristike” (in Greek - “Ball Game”). But many researchers believe that he simply used the principles of popular English games– court play, squash rackets, principles of playing fresh air from badminton. The first players preferred to call Wingfield's game lawn tennis, because... the game took place on a small field covered with grass.

Lawn tennis is also known as “royal tennis”. In medieval France it was very popular, even especially among royalty. It was so common in Britain during the Middle Ages, especially during the time of Henry VIII. Historians believe that many tennis terms are taken from the French dictionary - terms of royal tennis at the court of the King of France.

• “Tennis” comes from “tenez” (“tenir” - to hold, to catch in French). When the tennis players were about to serve the ball, they shouted “tenez!”
• “Deuce” - comes from the French “? deux le jeu”, which means “exactly”, i.e. equal number of points at this stage of the game.
• Counting 15-30-40 comes from the euphonious French “quinze”, “trente” and “quarante”, or from quarters of an hour (15-30-45, where 45 was transformed into 40).

At first the ball was made from sheep's wool, it was filled with sawdust, sand and wool. Later, a ball was invented that had a high bounce, and tennis began to be played on the lawn.

The game appeared in the USA thanks to Mary Ewing - the first tennis match was supposedly held in 1874 at the grounds of the cricket and baseball club on Staten Island.

The first amateur championship was held on the courts of the Universal English club in tennis and cricket - Wimbledon (in 1877 - men's, in 1884 - women's).

In 1900, the international team tennis tournament Davis Cup was held, which attracted even greater world attention to tennis. In 1963 there was women's tournament Fed Cup, which became the equivalent of the Davis Cup. These two championships increased the prestige of tennis.

When the game began to generate large profits in the 20s of the last century, a large number of amateur players joined the professional tour.

By the end of the 19th century, tennis had spread first to the English colonies, especially Australia, and then to the rest of the world. In the USA, the rules of lawn tennis were constantly changed and supplemented until 1881, when the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USTA) was created. The association has standardized the rules of tennis and the parameters for holding tournaments. Under the auspices of the association, annual competitions began to be held in Newport in men's singles (1881). Women's competition were first held in Philadelphia in 1887. In 1968, the championship was renamed the U.S. Open and began to be held in the national tennis center in New York.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the largest tennis tournaments were Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Since 1968, a new era began in tennis - both professionals and amateurs could be admitted to major competitions.

In 1971, the professional Women's Tour (WTA) was founded, which was able to provide financial support to tennis players the same as on the men's tour. Tournaments on the professional tennis tour can rival the Olympic Games in popularity, in which tennis players have been participating since 1988.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

NOVOSIBIRSK STATE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Essay

On the topic: Main stages

development of tennis in Russia (USSR)

Performed:

Second year student

FBE-72 groups

Svechnikova Yu.V.

Teacher

Zatolokina Galina Vasilievna

Novosibirsk, 2009

History of tennis………………………………………………………3

Development of tennis in Russia………………………………........5

The main stages of the development of tennis in Russia (USSR)……………………6

Tennis Moscow……………………………………………………………...8

1. History of tennis

If we do not take into account the games of the ancient Greeks and Romans, in which the ball was hit with a hand or a wooden stick, then we will find the first mention of a game similar to tennis in the 12th - 13th centuries in Italy. The game was called "jidoko", and the ball was hit with a mitten, a wooden shield or a leather belt worn on the hand. In the 14th century, the French nobility was already fond of the so-called “play of the palm” (“jeux de paume”), which had a great influence on the development of modern tennis. It was played in halls and in open-air areas. Over time, they began to hit the ball with rackets. The game was also recognized by the British, who gave it the name “real tennis”.

The leather balls played in those days were stuffed with sawdust, rags, grass, etc. They could only bounce off a hard surface. With the advent of rubber balls, playing on grass became possible. In England in 1874, thanks to Major W. Wingfield, the so-called lawn tennis (tennis on grass) arose. Lawn tennis, or today simply tennis, quickly spread throughout Europe and other continents. It is played by millions of people of all ages.

The number of so-called open tournaments is growing every year, and today both professionals and amateurs with the necessary qualifications can participate in any of them. Annually best players Based on the results of the games, they are evaluated within the framework of the “Grand Prix” (a series of tournaments organized by the International Tennis Federation), as well as on the ATP scale (Association of Professional Tennis Players).

In the Czech Republic, grass tennis began to be played very early - already in the second half of the 70s of the last century (the first tournament was held here in 1885). But at that time, tennis was available only to the nobility, and subsequently, until the Second World War, it was practiced by the wealthy.

Over time, the concept of playing tennis and the technique of striking have changed. The first lawn tennis players played only from the baseline, giving the ball mainly underspin or combining underspin with sidespin. This is how they played until the beginning of the First World War. In the 1920s, the game began to be played all over the court. The players moved towards the net at the first opportunity and tried to finish the ball with a volley or a mixer, mostly flat. A typical representative of such a game was the famous American W. Tilden.

In the second half of the 1930s, the importance of playing at the net increased. Here the Americans D. Budge and R. Riggs achieved the greatest success. Immediately after serving or receiving it, they went to the net and tried to hit a winning shot overhead or with a volley.

Currently, the game is enjoying success both all over the court and at the net. On clay courts, the most optimal play is around the entire court, on grass and smooth artificial surfaces - at the net.

In the 70s, some world-class tennis players began to achieve success by executing shots from the baseline, mainly with topspin and very strong backspin.

At the same time, they focused on a long exchange of balls, ending, rather, with an opponent’s mistake or an accurate dribbling shot than with reaching the net. Whether this style of play will become dominant or whether other currently accepted methods will be more successful, time will tell.

It must be said that with the development of the game itself, the conditions in which it was played also changed: shape and size playground, rackets, balls, players' clothes. Pay attention, for example, to the shape and size of the tennis court in 1874 (the year of the birth of lawn tennis - Fig. 2), 1877 (the first year of Wimbledon - Fig. 3) and now (Fig. 4); the shape and size of the racket of 1874 and 1898 and the modern one (Fig. 1); clothes of the last century (Fig. 5), the 20s of the 20th century (Fig. 6) and today's (Fig. 7) (only in the early 30s were male players allowed to compete in short trousers, and women in short skirts).

2. Development of tennis in Russia

Tennis began to develop in Russia from the end of the 19th century. In St. Petersburg, the first tennis club was organized in Lakhta, which was called “Lawn Tennis”. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first tennis tournaments in Russia were held in Moscow in 1901, in St. Petersburg in 1903 (the St. Petersburg Open was the first international tournament in Russia). By 1914, there were already 50 tennis clubs in the country.

In 1920, a tennis player from Russia, Arthur Macpherson, participated in the Wimbledon tournament for the first time, and later Anna Dmitrieva, the first woman.

Among the most famous tennis players in the history of Soviet Russia, it is necessary to note Evgeny Kudryavtsev (champion of the union), Nina Teplyakova (first racket of the country), Olga Morozova (was 4th racket of the world), Alexander Metreveli (first included in the top ten strongest tennis players in the world), Alexander Chesnokov (included in the top ten, the first Russian to become a professional).

In 1956, the USSR Tennis Federation was founded, becoming a member of the International Tennis Federation. In 1989, it was transformed into the All-Russian Tennis Federation, which organized international tournaments. Since the 1960s, the USSR has participated in the Davis Cup and Fed Cup.

In the 1990s, the history of tennis in Russia took on a new meaning. Yevgeny Kafelnikov wins Grand Slam tournaments and becomes world number one in 1999. Anastasia Myskina was the first in the history of women's tennis in Russia to win the Grand Slam tournament - Roland Garros. Now both in the men's and women's tours, our tennis players occupy the top lines in the rankings. There are more Russian tennis players in the top twenty than tennis players from any other country.

3. The main stages of the development of tennis in Russia (USSR)

First stage (1878-1917)

1888 - Creation of the first club in Russia - Lakhtinsky Lawn Tennis Club

1890 - Publication of the first book on tennis (author - M. Volkov)

1901 - First Moscow Championship

1903 - The first open championship of St. Petersburg (at the same time the first international tournament in Russia). First participation Russian tennis players in competitions abroad (Stockholm).

1907 - First All-Russian lawn tennis competition (Russian championship)
1908 - Establishment of the All-Russian Union of Lawn Tennis Clubs (VSLTK)

1909 - Publication of the first VSLTK Yearbook

1913 - Publication of the first issue of the Lawn Tennis magazine

1912 - First participation of Russian tennis players in Olympic Games(Stockholm)
1913 - VSLTK joins the International Lawn Tennis Union

1913-14 - The first international matches of the Russian national team - with the teams of England (1913) and France (1914)

Second stage (1918-92)

1918 - The first Moscow championship after the Civil War

1920 - First match Moscow - Petrograd

1920 - Debut of a Russian tennis player (A. Macpherson) at Wimbledon

1924-92 - Participation of Russian tennis players in many international competitions, including ATP and WTA tours (since 1990)

1927 - First RSFSR Championship

1928 - All-Union Spartakiad

1924-91 - Participation of Russian tennis players in the USSR championships

1956-91 - Participation of Russian tennis players in the Spartakiads of the Peoples of the USSR

1959 - Creation of the RSFSR Tennis Federation

1962 - Davis Cup debut

1968 - Debut in the Fed Cup

1989 - Transformation of the RSFSR Tennis Federation into the All-Russian Tennis Association (VTA)

1989 - First WITA tournament in the USSR-Russia

1990 - First ATP Tour tournament in the USSR - Russia (Kremlin Cup)

Third stage (since 1993)

1993 - Entry of the BTA into the ITF and ETA as the successor to the USSR and CIS Tennis Federations

1995 - First ATP-Tour tournament in St. Petersburg - “St. Petersburg Open”

4. Tennis Moscow

Moscow began playing tennis in the second half of the 19th century. In 1878, a decree was proclaimed on the development of this sport in Russia. The official adoption of tennis was achieved by enthusiasts from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga and Kharkov. It is noteworthy that this voluntary committee was organized not by an athlete, but by writer and historian Dmitry Solovyov. Moscow responded quickly to the manifesto on the development of tennis. History claims that this sport was warmly supported by members of Leo Tolstoy’s family.

From the very beginning, aristocratic Moscow played tennis. The game became a habit of people of princely and count origin, officers, businessmen, and factory owners. Moscow and St. Petersburg became centers for the development and cultivation of tennis clubs - a century after the official manifesto on tennis, there were about a dozen such institutions. These were respected and even prestigious associations, where, as usual, after the game, issues of a national scale were often resolved. With the advent of the Soviet era, tennis became a public game. Sports Moscow began to take part in world-class tennis competitions. The Wimbledon tournament became available to domestic athletes in 1958, the Davis Cup competition in 1962. As for the first tennis championship of its own, it was organized in Moscow in 1901. Two years later, St. Petersburg joined Moscow. Then the northern capital expanded the scale of the tournament to an all-Russian one, and domestic tennis masters were sent to a foreign championship - in Sweden.

The year 1918 is significant for the history of tennis - this championship was held for the first time after the Civil War. Two years later, tennis united athletes from Moscow and Petrograd; At the same time, the Russian tennis player went to Wimbledon for the first time. Subsequently, many international competitions and the All-Union Spartakiad were organized. In addition, according to Soviet sports policy, tennis competitions between many cities of the USSR were held in Moscow more than once. Returning to the debut in the Davis Cup, it should be noted that, despite all efforts, it was won only back in 2002. It also took half a century to win the Wimbledon tournament - in 2004, a Russian tennis player won in Great Britain.