Originating in Southern France during the 14th century, the sport of real tennis differs greatly from the modern game of lawn tennis which it helped create. Real tennis, often called royal tennis for its popularity amongst the English royals, is waged indoors on an asymmetrical court designed to mimic the outdoor marketplaces where the game was first played. Because of its unusual playing surface, real tennis also has its own unique rules.
Equipment
Real tennis racquets are made from wood and feature reasonable string surfaces, much smaller than the modern, oversized lawn tennis models. Real tennis balls are handmade and typically feature a cork center wrapped with cotton and twine and then covered in wool cloth.
Playing Surface
A standard real tennis playing surface measures 110 feet long by 39 feet wide. The two end walls and the left wall have sloping roofs called penthouses that extend out over galleries, which are openings from which spectators may watch the contest. A net, three feet high in the middle and five feet high at the ends, stretches across the middle of the court, dividing it into the service end and the hazard end. A buttress called a tambour protrudes from the hazard end's left wall to create even more peculiar bounces.
Service
In real tennis, service is always conducted from the same side of the court. To be a successful serve, the ball must bounce at least once on the penthouse on the hazard end of the court, with the first bounce on the playing surface falling behind the hazard line.
Scoring
As in lawn tennis, real tennis requires four successful points to win a game and six games necessary to win a set. Scoring is also recorded as love, 15, 30, and 40, with 40-all being deuce, and a player must win by two. However, in real tennis, being ahead by two games to claim a set is not required. Instead, the 11th game is the final one contested, regardless of the winning margin.
Galleries
There are galleries, or openings, in three of the four walls. The back wall behind the server features a long gallery called a dedan. Hitting a ball into the dedan wins the hazard player an automatic point. The server may win a point for landing a ball in the winning gallery, an opening along the left wall of the hazard end, or in the grille, which is a small opening in the back right corner of the hazard end.
Chases
Hitting the ball into any other opening on the side opposite of the striker or allowing the ball to bounce twice on the playing surface is known as a chase. In a chase, the spot of the second bounce or the midpoint of the struck gallery is marked and recorded, although no scoring change takes place. The players then switch ends, and the server, now on the hazard end, must try to land the second bounce of his shot closer to the back wall than the marked chase, resulting in a point.
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