Great Players
Numerous great players played in the days before tennis’s Open era, many of whom are unknown by modern sports fans. Among them, chronologically, are:

“Big Bill” Tilden – winner of 21 amateur Grand Slam titles, 7 consecutive Davis Cups, 4 professional Grand Slam titles, the professional doubles title at age 52; was [...]

Tennis has a long history (deriving from the ‘jeu de paume’), but its establishment as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. In 1856, Alex Ryden, a solicitor, and his friend Batista Pereira, a Spanish merchant, who both lived in Birmingham, England played a game they named “pelota”, after [...]

A competent tennis player has eight basic shots in his or her repertoire: the serve, forehand, backhand, volley, half-volley, overhead smash, drop shot, and lob.
Serve
A serve (or, more formally, a “service”) in tennis is a shot to start a point. The serve is initiated by tossing the ball into the air and [...]