An indoor racket-and-ball game played on a walled court, similar to rackets, but containing specifically designed hazards. A derivation of the French jeu de paume (palm [of hand] game), which was first played in the 11th-c. The racket developed in the 16th-c, and the game became very popular in the following century. Today, however, it is a minority sport, having been eclipsed by lawn tennis and other derivatives. It is also known as royal or court tennis.
Real tennis is the original racket sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended. Real tennis is still played at a small number of active courts in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and France.
It is also known as "court tennis" (America), jeu de paume (France) and formerly called "royal tennis" (Australia). In fact "real" was first used at the end of the 19th century as a retronym to distinguish it from the then recently invented game of lawn tennis. Real tennis players often just call it "tennis", describing the modern game as "lawn tennis".
History
Henry VII played Real Tennis.The term "tennis" derives from the French word tenez, which means "take it" — a warning from the server to the receiver. Real tennis has evolved over centuries from an earlier ball game played around the 12th century in France. One theory is that this game was played by monks in monastery cloisters, and the shape of the court is certainly to this day reminiscent of a courtyard.
The game spread across Europe and became increasingly popular, with the Venetian Ambassador reporting in 1600 that there were 1,800 courts in Paris alone. He played the game at Hampton Court, and indeed his second wife Anne Boleyn was watching a game of real tennis at Hampton Court when she was arrested, whilst it is claimed that Henry was playing real tennis when news was brought to him of her execution. Real tennis played a minor role in the history of the French Revolution, through the Tennis Court Oath, a pledge signed by French deputies in a real tennis court, which formed a decisive early step in starting the revolution.
The game regained popularity in the 19th century, but soon gave birth to the outdoor game of lawn tennis which quickly became the most popular form of the sport.
Today there are only around forty five real tennis courts remaining in the world and several thousand active players. There has been something of a revival towards the end of the 20th century, with several new courts being built, for example in the UK at Clifton College and the Millennium Tennis Court at Middlesex University and in Australia in Sydney, Ballarat and Romsey. In 1999 Mike Carter became probably the first private individual to build a pair of real tennis courts at Prested Hall near Colchester, England, one with a unique glass viewing wall. In the United States, the court at the Newport Casino, now the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, was restored and brought back to use in 1980 after more than 50 years of inactivity. The Netherlands and Ireland have real tennis interest groups. The Irish Real Tennis Association is currently involved in a legal battle with University College Dublin to restore one of the few two surviving real tennis courts in the Republic of Ireland, which has been used by the college as a gymnasium and more recently a laboratory, since 1939. The Royal Tennis Court at Hampton Court Palace is the oldest court in the world still in use. It is one of several courts in England where members of the public can watch the game being played.
Manner of play
The rules and scoring are similar to those of lawn tennis, which derives from real tennis. Although in both sports game scoring is by fifteens, in real tennis 6 games wins a set, even if the opponent has 5 games. They are much less bouncy than a lawn tennis ball, and weigh about 2½ ounces (71 grams).
A real tennis court (jeu à dedans) is a very substantial building (a larger area than a lawn tennis court, with walls and a ceiling to contain all but the highest lob shots). The courts are about 110 by 39 feet (33.5 × 11.9 m) including the penthouses, or about 96 by 32 feet (29.3 × 9.8 m) on the playing floor, varying by a foot or two per court. They are doubly asymmetric—not only is one end of the court different in the shape from the other, but the left and right sides of the court are also different. The service only happens from one end of the court (the "service" end) and the ball has to travel along the penthouse to the left of the server to the other end, called the "hazard" end.
The game has other complexities, including that when the ball bounces twice at the serving end, the serving player does not generally lose the point outright. Instead a "chase" is called, and the server gets the chance, later in the game currently being played, to replay the point from the other end, but under the obligation of ensuring every shot he plays has a second bounce further back from the net than the shot he failed to reach. gaining a "chase" which ensures a change of end), as opposed to lawn tennis where service alternates between the players by rotation. The resulting strategy of long volleys and shots off the side walls and penthouse roof lead to many interesting shots not normally played in lawn tennis. However, because of the weight of the balls, the small racquets, and the need to defend the rear of the court, lawn tennis strategies like serve and volley are rarely employed.
The level of thinking involved makes real tennis unusual in being a physical sport which people often take up and reach a relatively high level of proficiency later in life.
Tennis in literature
The Penguin book of Sick Verse includes a poem by William Lathum comparing life to a tennis-court:
If in my weak conceit, (for selfe disport), The world I sample to a Tennis-court, Where fate and fortune daily meet to play, I doe conceive, I doe not much misse-say.The Scottish gothic novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1824) describes a tennis match that degenerates into violence.
The detective story Dead Nick takes place in a tennis milieu, and the title alludes to a shot that drops in the nick between the back wall and the floor.
Hazard Chase (1964) by Jeremy Potter is a thriller-detective story featuring real tennis on the court at Hampton Court Palace. During the story the game is explained, and the book contains a diagram of a real tennis court.
The First Beautiful Game: Stories of Obsession in Real Tennis (2006) by top amateur player Roman Krznaric contains a mixture of real tennis history, memoir and fiction, which focuses on what can be learned from real tennis about the art of living.
Tennis in film
Real tennis is featured in the film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a fictionalized meeting between Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud.
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