Tennis

The 'Stan Smith', Adidas's most iconic sneaker, was originally intended to be named after Robert Haillet, the iconic French tennis star, and not Stanley Smith.

Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles).

Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court.

Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages.

The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis.

It had close connections both to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport today called real tennis.

During most of the 19th century, in fact, the term tennis referred to real tennis, not lawn tennis.

The rules of modern tennis have changed little since the 1890s.

A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point-challenge system, which allows a player to contest the line call of a point, a system known as Hawk-Eye.

Tennis is played by millions of recreational players and is also a popular worldwide spectator sport.