"The number of courts has risen in the last thirty years. There are now 27 in Britain, 10 in the USA, 3 in France and 6 in Australia. There are not more than a few thousand players in the world; but they make up in keenness for any lack of numbers. There are amateur, professional open and world competitions." This was 1530. It is not agreed where the great game of tennis came from. Some histories say France or Egypt and that it developed from handball which seems very feasible.

There is a Kiwi connection also. The name Tennis is thought to have been derived from the Egyptian Nile town of Tinnis. Are you thinking Time Travel? Kelly Evernden travelled back in time with his trusty racquet, balls, sweat bands and lushes long locks and introduced this great summer game to the ancient Egyptians who had only just discovered this place beside the Nile. Searching for a name to call it they went to Kelly who said, "It's called Tennis."

Tennis scoring is a bit funny isn't?
15 – love? 40-30, deuce! If you are a clever one you may have seen the similarities between each point and a quarter rotation of a clock. Yeah? Well then why isn't it 45-love after three 200km/hr aces? Well, it just doesn't sound right does it? It is too long winded and therefore the five was dropped.

As for "deuce" (when both players have 40) that comes from the French "à deux" indicating that two points must be won consecutively to win the game.

The word for a nil score "love" originated and was popularised by a very good early player from east London, who frequently took his girlfriend to play tennis. His girlfriend was not a very good player at all and rarely scored a point. Being the only player in this pair who knew the way to score a game he would shout after each point, 15 nil love, 30 nil love and so on.

Over time the nil was dropped and "love" was adopted as the term for a nil score. The other theory is that it came from the French word oeuf, which means egg. The oval shape of the egg is symbolic of the numeral "0."