In 2011, the tennis final was played at Wimbledon for the 125th time. The traditions that come with the tournament – such as white tennis clothes and strawberries with cream – date from the nineteenth century. But many centuries before that, the popular ball game already existed. The Dutch called it 'kaatsen'.
Tennis can be traced back to the France of the 12 e century. In between religious activities, monks played a ball game for relaxation which they jeu de paume called. The ball was hit by hand towards the opponent. The game was played within the walls of the monastery and the players had to knock the ball through an opening in a wall to score points.
Furthermore, the roof of the gallery was used for storage. The server hit the ball on the sloping roof so that the ball rolled towards the opponent. (Here comes the expression It goes without a hitch.) The opponent had to hit this ball back to the other side, towards the opening in the wall.
Public entertainment outside the monastery walls
The game also became known outside the monastery walls and was introduced in the 15 e and 16 e century a real folk game. It was played all over Europe and in the Netherlands it became known as 'kaatsen'. It could be played anywhere in the street, as long as there were walls and a sloping roof nearby.
The game was mainly played near inns, where drink, games and gambling went hand in hand. The game was especially popular for gambling, which was tolerated as long as small amounts were involved. Players and spectators bet money on the stake or the 'bet' -conflict. The currency was 60 cents and you could bet for a 'quarter' per point. This is where the game's separate scoring, 15-0, 30-0, 45-0 and game, comes from (the 45 is now 40).
Even though the amounts were small, gambling regularly resulted in heated situations. As a result, many quarrels have arisen, some of which have even resulted in fatalities. That is why regulations appeared in 1599 to prevent as many quarrels as possible.
But not only because of the betting, bouncing was a dangerous sport but also because of the ball. The ball filled with hair was very hard and barely bounced. With the rise of the rackets in the 16 e century the balls went even faster. Many windows were broken and passers-by were so badly injured that they did not survive. It was much complained about by the city councils and Amsterdam decided in 1564 to ban handball from the city. Within the city walls, players could only play at the four official handball courts.
Renting jobs cost money and this attracted players of a better class. With that, in the 17 e In the past century, handball was the most popular sport among the wealthy bourgeoisie. The game that was played on these – often covered – courts is the direct predecessor of today's tennis. In addition to playing with balls and rackets on a court with a net, the players also largely used the scoring system that we still know today.
A real student sport
The handball courts in the 17 e century were big business. There were already more than 100 in the regions of Holland and Utrecht. The handball courts were rented out by handball masters, as were the rackets and balls. Three balls were not enough for the bouncers:there was a large basket full of leather balls by the net and they were only picked up by the ball boy when the basket was empty. The handball masters also taught the popular game and provided the drinks.
Kaatsen was a social sport, because of the spectators in the gallery. There was not only played but also drinking, eating, gambling and flirting. It is therefore not surprising that handball was very popular among students. In Leiden, two handball courts were located close to the university buildings and the professors complained that their students could be found more on the court than in the lecture halls.
Princes and nobles
Handball had remained popular among the elite all those centuries. There was not much difference between bouncing within monastery or castle walls. Often the youngest sons of the nobility entered the monastery and the game quickly spread among their relatives. In England, the game was called 'tennis' . from the start and Henry VIII was a big fan. Many of his palaces had one or more 'tennis courts' .
Filips de Schone, the Dutch landlord, was also very fond of the game and already played with a racket. Not long after a heated match in 1506, Philip died and according to eyewitnesses he had literally played tennis to death!
In the 17 e century, the sons of William of Orange were real tennis enthusiasts. Maurits spent many hours on the courts at the Binnenhof and at the palace of Breda and Frederik Hendrik was depicted playing tennis by Adriaen van de Venne.
The amounts put on such matches were a lot higher than on the street! William III, stadtholder and king of England, left at Hampton Court Palace build a walled tennis court in London. The track, monogrammed by Willem and his wife Mary, still exists. Willem himself could not play tennis well; physical defects such as his hunchback made him unfit for the game.
The new tennis
In the 18 e century, the game fell out of fashion in the Netherlands and most of the handball courts were given a different function or were demolished. Only in Friesland, where the Dutch play the game in the 16 e century, is still being reverberated today. In France the game of tennis was banned after the Revolution of 1789 because of its elite content. In England the game remained popular and people continued to think about improvements.
Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, for example, found those walled tennis courts cumbersome and applied for a patent for his new version of the game:‘A new and improved Portable Court for Playing the Ancient Game of tennis’. He received his patent on February 23, 1874 and tennis as we know it today was a fact. He introduced Lawn Tennis on grass courts and afterwards the old tennis game on a walled court became Real Tennis mentioned.
This new version of tennis was a huge hit with the elite. A playing field could easily and quickly be laid out on the lawn of their country houses. Stick lines in the ground, set up a net and you're done. The rest of the game remained the same as Real Tennis :the ball was hit with a racket to the other side and the count also remained the same.
The All England Croquet Club used one of its grounds for the popular game as early as 1875 and even changed its name in April 1877. The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club was born in the London borough of Wimbledon. In July of the same year, the club organized the Wimbledon tournament for men's singles for the first time.
Tennis in the Netherlands
The Netherlands, and in particular The Hague, had close ties with the English nobility and diplomats. It is therefore not surprising that the first Dutch tennis club opened its doors here in 1885. Because the term 'tennis' had never been used in the Netherlands, Lawn omitted here. It can still be found in the name of the Royal Dutch Lawn Tennis Association (KNLTB), founded in 1899.
The tennis clubs were mainly a meeting place for the elite, where diplomatic affairs were handled and where society tennis parties were organized for the public. The elite sport was considered appropriate enough for women and it was finally allowed for the ladies to practice a physical sport. Women's tennis was taken so seriously that Wimbledon – still the most prestigious tournament in the tennis world – already organized official championships for women in 1884.
Since then, the sport has only become more popular among both men and women. Television tennis matches and rebellious American players such as John McEnroe and André Agassi made tennis more e over the course of the 20th century. century less elitist. In the 21 e century, tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world with millions of enthusiasts. With its 700,000 members, the KNLTB is the second largest sports association in the Netherlands after the KNVB (football association). Many of them will be glued to the TV this weekend for the women's and men's finals on the "holy grass" of Wimbledon.