The unknown facts about tennis

By Maria Jose de Almeida & Fernanda Elizalde

Did you know that… tennis was born between in the XVIII and XIX centuries in Great Britain? The sport was based on the essence of sports known as “jeu de paume”, “squash”, and “badminton”. The first players used to call it Wingfield (tennis over grass court).

The game consists in two or four players “singles or doubles”. The first one to achieve 6 rounds wins the set. To win the full game there must be a difference of two sets, otherwise the game must continue until this happens. The system of a tie-break can be used as an alternative when the set is 5/5 and you want to end it. Would you believe that the longest tennis match lasted for 11 hours and 5 minutes? Well its true, it was played by John Isner and Nicolas Mahut.

Did you know that a “love game” is a friendly match when the score remains 0-0? It originates in the phrase “neither for love nor for money”, indicating the game was played out of pleasure. There’s another theory that indicates that the word “love” came from a Dutch word “lof” (honor). When a game didn’t have a score, they said they would play for honor (playing for lof). As time went by, “lof” was transformed into “love” for the convenience of the British.

Nowadays, this sport has evolved in terms of equipment and popularity but the rules remain the same as in 1888 when they were created.

In our opinion, it is a really interesting sport although few people take time to find out thoroughly about its origins.