This is where "lawn tennis" was used as a name of activity by a club for the first time. In 1872, along with two local doctors, they founded the world's first tennis club on Avenue Road, Leamington Spa. Īn epitaph in St Michael's Church, Coventry, written circa 1705, read, in part: Īugurio Perera's house in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, where he and Harry Gem first played the modern game of lawn tennisīetween 18 Harry Gem, a solicitor and his friend Augurio Perera developed a game that combined elements of racquets and the Basque ball game pelota, which they played on Perera's croquet lawn in Birmingham in England. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game, which is now known as real tennis. It was popular in England and France, although the game was only played indoors, where the ball could be hit off the wall. It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use and the game began to be called "tennis", from the French term tenez, which can be translated as "hold!", "receive!" or "take!", an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent. Another of the early enthusiasts of the game was King Charles V of France, who had a court set up at the Louvre Palace. Because of the contemporary accounts of his death, Louis X is history's first tennis player known by name. In June 1316 at Vincennes, Val-de-Marne, and following a particularly exhausting game, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently died of either pneumonia or pleurisy, although there was also suspicion of poisoning. In due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor, enclosed courts made in Paris "around the end of the 13th century". Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style. Historians believe that the game's ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand.