The History of Tennis It is difficult to define the exact origin, there are many theories of the birthplace of tennis.

Some believe that a very similar sport was originally practiced by Italians and Greeks, who taught the French. The only certainty is that their definition comes from the French name that the game had long ago, in eighteen century: tenetz. At the beginning, the sport was known as jeu de Paume (palm game) because there were no rackets, the were batting balls with your hands. Approximately one hundred years later, when the British began to practice, was when the rackets began to be used, allowing players to better reach. The rules were still too confusing, the games happened in environments closed and the rackets were too heavy and uncomfortable.

Time passed and the game was spreading throughout the world, until reach American lands, where, in eighteen seventy three, Walter Clopton Wingfield presented a new structure of rules for the games with rackets, which are now practiced outdoors, on grass courts but with a much higher network we today know. With this new definition, the sport was patented by Wingfield and quickly became popular in Britain and the USA.

However, before all this, the international championship first had already happened at Wimbledon in eighteen seventy seven. Years later joined the French championships, Australian and U.S. to compose the Big Four, who later formed the so-called Grand Slam.

Grand Slam The Grand Slam is the sequence of the four major tournaments in the world: the Australian Open (Australia), Roland Garros (France), Wimbledon (England) and U.S. Open (United States). The term Grand Slam came from an association with another sport baseball. When a team can complete, at once, the four bases, it causes a "grand slam in the stage - no one gets tired of applauding the incredible move. In tennis, who wins the four biggest tournaments can one fact as rare as a complete the four successive bases in baseball, hence the comparison.

The biggest winner of Grand Slams is the Swiss Roger Federer (still active) with sixteen titles. Winning all four Grand Slams in a single season is a fact very rare. Two men and three women could this feat: Male John Donald Budge (United States) in 1938. Nineteen thirty eight Rod Laver (Australia) in 1962 and 1969. Nineteen sixty two and Nineteen sixty nine Female Maureen Connolly (USA) in 1953. Nineteen fifty three Margaret Smith Court (Australia) in 1970. Nineteen seventy Steffi Graf (Germany) in 1988. Nineteen eighty eight

Year of creation the tournaments Grand Slam Australian Open 1905 Nineteen five Roland Garros 1925 Nineteen twenty two Wimbledon 1877 eighteen seventy seven U.S. Open 1881 eighteen eighty one

The only Brazilian winner of Grand Slam, was Gustavo Kuerten, three-time champion at Roland Garros (Nineteen ninety seven, two thousand and two thousand one).