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Tennis Paintings Gallery |
Tennis
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Children Playing Tennis
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Roland Garro Tennis Championship, c.1992
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Enter Gallery
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Gallery Description
The origin of ball games can be traced back to many years and the representations of them are found in the temple carvings of Egyptian temples dating from the 1500 B.C. These ball games were mainly part of the religious ceremonies. The concept of ball games spread into the Europe during the 8th century. It was actually the meeting of the eastern culture with Christianity that gave rise to this game of tennis.
Christian monks became interested in a game, which could be called the ancestor of modern-day tennis. Their version of the game was called ‘La Soule’ and it involved hitting the ball to each other using a stick or hands. At first hands or sticks were used to hit the balls but when they found that there was better control while using the hand, they designed a leather glove. And then it developed to a crude racket with a wooden handle. The ball also changed from solid wood to much softer versions made of leather and stuffed with bran.
The game became very popular in France during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, mainly played among the kings and noblemen, thus gaining the name Royal, or Real Tennis. But this game was very different from the modern day tennis in many aspects. Afterwards, this game gained popularity in many parts of Europe but went into a decline because of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars.
The 19th century brought about some significant changes to the game with many country clubs and amateurs popularizing the game. People also tried to adapt the game for an open-air sport and it was primarily due to softer balls made of rubber that this was made possible. The game becoming an outdoor one also favored the upper class people who could play the game in their rolling estates. The term lawn tennis was coined by Arthur Balfour, a British Statesmen, but soon the lawn surfaces were replaced with clay and concrete.
Wimbledon championship was one of the most popular developments in the history of tennis and the first of champions was William Renshaw who won the title 7 times – a record yet to be beaten. The game developed over the 70s and 80s gaining popularity through the many championship games and the champion players like Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova.
Today tennis is a world class game with millions of fans around the world. There are many championship games and the players like Andre Agassi, Anna Kournikova, Pere Sampras have all become icons for the new generation. Our gallery of tennis paintings brings to you a collection of paintings of the most famous players from all over the world.
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Friday, September, 3 rd
2010
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