Tennis Homes

Tennis Homes

Tennis, everyone? So it would seem. Tennis is a sport for all: pro and amateur, young and old, skilled and . . . otherwise. It’s a low-impact, non-contact, altogether rather civilized endeavor at that: As Scottish dramatist J.M. Barrie put it, “What an extraordinary polite game tennis is.” The ancient game has its origins in the French monasteries’ Jeu de paume in the Middle Ages; its name evolved from the French service cry “Tenez!” (i.e., “Take heed!”). As a racquet sport, “royal tennis” courts had slope-roofed “penthouses” for scoring points and seating spectators. Henry V was a big fan, as Shakespeare wrote, and the English codified the modern game, lawn tennis, in the 1870s.