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
One relevant fun fact is that the French constitution started out in one of those tennis courts, as the founders were prevented from meeting in a more suitable space.
A former royal palace not too far away from me (20 mins) has the oldest Royal/Real tennis court in Britain, in Falkland, Scotland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Palace?wprov=sfti1#Early_years
Real as in royal or as genuine?
According to the very long and exhaustive wiki
“The term real was first used by journalists in the early 20th century as a retronym to distinguish the ancient game from modern lawn tennis”, and, is it happens, 'It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France."
I think the kings were pissed when they started playing tennis outside. “That’s not real tennis”, they probably said.
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.
So it’s both? Unexpected. 😄
The NYT link says that “real tennis” was invented 200 years after court tennis, but the real tennis rules link says that court tennis was inspired by real tennis. Which is it?
This Video (French) says it’s a thousand years old, but that seems not to be the case, more like like 4-500 years.
I think the NYT is mistaken, as here’s an engraving of «jeu de paume» from the 16th C
Also Hampton Court Palace had a real tennis court built in the early 1500s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Tennis_Court,_Hampton_Court
