Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world. One of the reasons for this is that it can be played anywhere, just by using a racquet and ball. It has existed in its current form since 1874 when Major Walter Clopton Wingfield came up with the idea after reading an article on “sphairistike” (the ancient Greek game from which modern lawn tennis derives), which was published in Bell’s Life magazine in July 1873, about a new game combining elements of racquets and the Basque game pelota, that had recently been invented by British army officers in India. The fact that you don’t need any expensive equipment means that people around the world can play it. At the top professional level, tennis is played by both men and women from all over the world in a multitude of tournaments. In singles tennis, unlike many other sports, the best athlete doesn’t necessarily win every time because there are so many aspects to take into consideration – where you place your shots, when you decide to go for a hard or soft shot etc. It would be easy if it was just about running around and hitting a ball as hard as possible! But competition in sports is often more interesting than that because of this variety in strategy employed by the athletes playing against each other. Because tennis has been played professionally since 1877 , there have been plenty of chances for people to come up with new strategies and tactics which their opponents will not be ready for.