Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent or between two teams of two players each. Historians believe that the game's ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand. Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis. It wasn't until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called "tennis", from the French term tenez, which can be translated as "hold!", "receive!" or "take!", an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent. Further, the patenting of the first lawn mower in 1830, in Britain, is strongly believed to have been the catalyst, worldwide, for the preparation of modern-style grass courts. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis". Between 1859 and 1865 Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera developed a game that combined elements of racquets and the Basque ball game pelota, which they played on Perera's croquet lawn in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. In 1872, along with two local doctors, they founded the world's first tennis club in Leamington Spa. In December 1873, British army officer Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed and patented a similar game ;- which he called sphairistikè ("ball-playing"), and was soon known simply as "sticky" - for amusement at a garden party on the estate of Nantclwyd Hall, in Llanelidan. In the U.S. in 1874 Mary Ewing Outerbridge, a young socialite, returned from Bermuda with a sphairistikè set. She became fascinated by the game of tennis after watching British army officers play.
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