Who Invented Tennis
Tennis is an Olympic sport which has been played since the late 19th century. But who invented tennis? This post will answer that question!
Who Invented Tennis?
Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera are credited as the first inventors of tennis. The invented the game sometime between 1859 and 1865. They created the game by combining parts of two sports- rackets (called racquets in some countries) and a Basque ball game called pelota. In 1872 Gem, Perera and two doctors founded the world’s first tennis club in Leamington Spa.
The following year (December 1873), Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed a very similar game which became known as lawn tennis. He published rules for the game a year later. As he was the first to publish anything, many people consider Wingfield to be the inventor of tennis. However, we now know that Gem and Perera first invented the game and played it for many years before Wingfield so they are the true inventors of the sport!
Summary: While Major Walter Clopton Wingfield first published the rules of tennis, Harry Gem and Augurio Perera were the first people to invent and play tennis sometime between 1859 and 1865.
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