Tennis first originated in Northern France in the 12th century. It is also known as "game of the palm". Back before we had tennis racquets the ball used to be hit with the palm of the hand. Racquets first started being used in the 16th century, and that is when they called the sport tennis. The racquets that used to be used were way different then the racquets they use now. Tennis was popular in England and France. They used to play it indoors because then you scored point by hitting the ball into netted windows and beneath the rooves and the ball was only made to be able to play indoors. In 1850 Charles Goodyear invented a process for rubber called vulcanization, which made the material that was used to create tennis balls a lot bouncier ( that is what the current tennis ball is made out of). This made it possible to play tennis outside. Before Charles Goodyear came up with this process tennis balls were made up of lots of things like leather stuffed with human and horse hair or wool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tennis
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