I was watching The Seven Percent Solution (Nicol Williamson is a swell Sherlock Holmes) wherein Sigmund Freud (Alan Arkin) is challenged to a ‘duel’ of tennis. The match takes place in a black, blue, uneven and totally enclosed space. Like tennis, but with incomprensible rules and instant win spots to hit along the court. I looked it up, and it’s called ‘real tennis’. Still played today, and way cooler than tennis. ‘Real’ tennis. Don’t know what to call it anymore.
Here’s an archive article from the NYT - https://archive.is/IoXWx
Here are the rules - https://www.tennisandrackets.com/real-tennis/play
Even in the video, the modern version looks like the kind of game where the “gentlemen” decided that the riff-raff have taken over squash and made it an undignified game.