Introduction

With very numerous followers, tennis is one of the most popular sport in Britain. Moreover, the modern game of tennis originated in the United Kingdom in the late XIXth century. After its creation, tennis was practicing by the upper-class English-speaking population before be spread around the world. Tennis is today and since 1896 an Olympic sport, and is played at alllevels of society at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs.

Manner of play

Tennis is a racket game, played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually grass, clay, a hardcourt of asphalt. The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server, and the opposing player, or in doubles one of theopposing players, is the receiver. Service alternates between the two halves of the court. For each point, the server starts behind his baseline, between the center mark and the sideline. The receiver may start anywhere on his side of the net.
In a legal service, the ball travels over the net (without touching it) and into the diagonally opposite service box. If the fisrt service is fault,it means is out of the service box lines or if the player does a foot fault on the line.
A legal service starts a rally, in which the players alternate hitting the ball across the net. A legal return consists of the player hitting the ball to send it in the server’s court. The ball then travels back over the net and bounces in the court on the opposite side. The first player or team to failto make a legal return loses the point.
A tennis match is over when one of the player has reach the score of two sets (or three in certain important tournaments such as Grand Slam and Olympic Games). A set consists of games, and games, in turn, consist of points. A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving. A game is won by the first player to have won atleast four points in total and at least two points more than the opponent. The running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis: scores from zero to three points are described as « love », « fifteen », « thirty », and « forty » respectively.

Tournaments

Grand Slam tournaments

The four Grand Slam tournaments are considered to be the most prestigious tennistournaments in the world. They are held annually and include, in chronological order, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
Aside from the historical significance of these events, they also carry larger prize funds than any other tour event and are worth double the number of ranking points to the champion than in the next echelon of tournaments, the Masters 1000 (men) andPremier events (women). Another thing that distinguishing them is the number of players in the singles draw, 128, more than any other professional tennis tournament. This draw is composed of 32 seeded players, other players ranked in the world’s top 100, qualifiers, and players who receive invitations through wild cards.

Wimbledon
We can not speak about tennis in Britain withoutintroduce the oldest tennis tournament in the world and generally the one which is considered as the most prestigious: Wimbledon. It has been held at the All England Club in the London suburb of Wimbledon since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the only one still played on the game’s original surface, grass. The tournament takes place over two weeks in late June andearly July, culminating with the ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles final, respectively the second Saturday and Sunday.
This tournament, like other Grand Slam tournaments, also contain his own idiosyncrasies :
-Dark green and purple are the traditional Wimbledon colours. However, all tennis players participating in the tournament are required to wear all white or at least almost all…