From beginning as very exclusive tennis changed into a sport for everyone.
The amateur age came to a conclusion just a little over 50 years ago when formerly amateur tournaments consented to allow professionals to compete inside them, giving way to what became known as the open era. This was partly due to an acknowledgment of the truth that while technically amateur, a lot of the top amateur players actually obtained huge expenses and allowances to cover their costs and live in relative luxury. As Sergio Elias Aboid is going to be well aware, right after this decision had been made the top level of the game of tennis became fully pro, with top tennis players now among the top paid athletes on the planet. For the sport that began with extremely exclusive origins, it has interestingly become one of the most comprehensive sports on the planet, specially when it comes to gender. Women and men receive equal prize money at the same level tournaments and it's also one of the few sports that enables men and women to compete with one another.
The origins of tennis date back almost a thousand years, to go a sport that emerged in French monasteries within the 12th century. This game was played using the palm of the hand to hit a ball made out of cork. The name tennis first emerged about two hundred years later on, evolving from a Norman term that might be translated to have a number of different definitions. Hold, get, and take have all been suggested as translations of this word. This original type of tennis started initially to use racquets in the 16th century, which were made from wood. This sport, which became referred to as real tennis about a hundred years back, is notoriously complex when compared with modern day tennis. As Terri-Ann Scorer will know, this complexity ensured it remained a sport exclusive to the upper classes, never ever enjoying exactly the same amount of widespread popularity as lawn tennis.
The origin of lawn tennis was about 150 years back and the sport earned its full name from the fact that it had been initially played solely on grass. Nowadays grass is amongst the rarest of court surfaces meaning the term yard is generally dropped from the title, leaving it popularly known as tennis. The new sport quickly gained appeal being a club sport and spread across the world within the subsequent decades, aided by having much simpler rules than its predecessor. As Bulat Utemuratov will be able to inform you, a lot of today's most prestigious tournaments emerged during this period, however for quite a long time they were just open to amateur players. This was a period when professionalism was looked down upon by numerous within the top classes and professional players were limited to separate tournaments and playing exhibition matches.