Ancient and Modern Tennis

Now that the French Open 2010 is close enough to almost touch, the world starts heating up again for another Summer, and another round of great games. With Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer leading the men, and Safina, Wozniacki, and Williams for the women, the games promise to offer lots of international flair. And a very good helping of charismatic personalities on the court. Tennis draws that out of people, and seems to be a sport particularly capable of attracting very interesting personalities.

It should, too, because it is a very interesting game. What we know as tennis has its origins in the late 19th century, at least formally so, but there are many sources quoting evidence that brings it back much, much further. That’s only reasonable, when so many games played on courts can be seen as having roots with the ancient Maya , and the contemporary Maya have more than a few stories about how games evolved to the present time. There are other ancient cultures who also have similar games, from the Greeks to the Arab empires, suggesting that perhaps there really is nothing new under the sun, or that history likes to repeat itself. Or also perhaps that we are all alike in some fundamental ways.

There are many differences, too, of course, and when the French Open scores are announced, it’s apparent that the way of keeping count is something particular to this game, and the way that it’s played in the so-called Western cultures. Except even here there are questions that pose more questions than answers. Some think it has something to do with the face of the clock , where 15 and 30 are appropriate points to stop. The number 40 becomes a big question, then. Another theory poses that it comes from medieval systems of numerology, where 60 is considered to be a complete number.

That’s certainly plausible, but the systems of numerology all come from somewhere else, and the roots could be in the Arab world, Africa, the Americas, or any number of mysterious origins. At the root, then, is mystery, and there may be no end to the beginnings.