Tennis history

Tennis history for the sport lovers

On June 4, 1969 fell Mexicana Airlines plane in the Pico del Fraile, dying distinguished nuevoleoneses traveling from Mexico City to Monterrey. Among the list of missing passengers, the means appropriated the name of tennis player Rafael “El Pelon” Osuna , the best athlete of his specialty that our country has had in its history as it had won in 1963 the tournament US Open, which is no small thing.

His triumph in such individual competition was not a casual inspiration, then just won three Grand Slam tournaments in doubles, the only Mexican so far with that honor. Therefore, the International Tennis Federation called it the number one player in the world in the year 1963. At the time of his tragic death, Osuna was 30 years old, so it is considered a great loss for Mexico and for sport white world.

At that time tennis was considered a sport of the rich, and it is now the seventh most popular sport on the planet. About a thousand 100 million people love this sport and practice it 200 million on the planet, between professionals and amateurs. Tennis requires effort and commitment to the extent that only a hundred men and women live comfortably practicing this game as professionals. To give an idea, I will tell a player ranked the top 50 worldwide charges up to 70 000 euros per game.

Of course I’m talking about professional players, because that sport live hundreds of thousands in the world as instructors or teachers courts, workers in manufacturing, sales, and administration of articles and tennis associations and private and public clubs the planet. Monterrey has had several prominent players, among which Eduardo Velez, who on July 6, 1986 won the Junior Wimbledon, England.

– Its rules are simple –

He practiced tennis with a racket on a rectangular field that can be paved with hydraulic concrete, or clay, or planted grass, bounded by lines and divided by a net. The competition is between two players when it comes to singles, couples or two games, if a double play.

Involves throwing a ball hitting with the racket so that boat within the field rival looking that it can not return before the second bounce on the ground. A tennis game is divided into three “sets” and win the first four errors causing counter or exceeded this number, which exceeds by two errors. It is one of the most expensive sports for the fans; a set of the Wimbledon final costs 3 times more than a ticket to the World Cup final soccer and 6 times more than a ticket to the Super Bowl American football.

– The origin of ball games –

These include tennis and pelota, and dates back to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures. (The word comes from the Arabic rahat racket which means palm). In the eleventh century the monks in European monasteries played something like tennis, paddle tennis and pelota. Cloisters happened in a short time to the palaces. That game was to dominate and rag balls pass paddle.