Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis (usually simply called tennis), is descended. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, formerly royal tennis in England and Australia, now real tennis, and courte-paume in France (a reference to the older, racquetless game of jeu de paume, the ancestor of modern handball and racquet games; many French real tennis courts are at jeu de paume clubs).
The term real was first used by journalists in the middle of the 20th century to distinguish the ancient game from modern lawn tennis (even though that sport is seldom contested on lawns these days outside the few social-club-managed estates such as Wimbledon). Real tennis players often call the game "tennis", while continuing to refer to its more widely played offshoot as "lawn tennis".
Real tennis is still played by enthusiasts or realists on 47 to 49 existing courts in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and France. Despite a documented history of courts existing in the German states from the 17th century, the sport evidently died out there during or after the World War II reconstruction. The sport is supported and governed by various organizations around the world.
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Famous quotes containing the words real and/or tennis:
“We have yet to deal successfully with American transraciality in real terms, as we have failed to redefine race in light of the modern, twenty-first century progress of human kind.”
—Virginia Hamilton (b. 1936)
“Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.”
—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)