The Fascinating World of Court Tennis

The Jeu de Paume Club is located on the second floor of a tall Haussmann building near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It is the only active court tennis club in the city. Members wear white attire, similar to players at Wimbledon, and call out the scores in French “quinze!” and “trente!” just like umpires at Roland Garros, where the French Open is played through June 11.

Modern tennis, also known as lawn tennis, was invented in England in the 1870s, but it bears many similarities to court tennis, including basic scoring vocabulary. Court tennis, also known as real tennis, dates back 200 years later in France when cities evolved and walled courts replaced open spaces used for longue paume, the ancestor of many racket sports.

Real tennis courts, managed by professionals referred to as maîtres paumiers, who gave lessons, made rackets and balls, and played matches. Today, professionals like Guillaume Dortu, the current club professional at the Palace of Fontainebleau, do not make rackets and balls. They only sell court tennis rackets. Each month, they make 100 to 150 balls, carefully weighing the hard core of cork and cotton webbing before stitching the thick yellow felt exterior by hand. Also, they clean the court daily.

The popularity of real tennis dropped at the end of the 17th century as it was associated with gambling and actions like the 1606 killing of an opponent on a tennis court in Rome, which led to the banishment of an Italian painter. The sport remains strong, and it’s played competitively in four countries, France with “jeu de paume,” Britain and Australia as “real tennis,” and the United States. Today, there are just over 50 courts in the world with about 10,000 active players.

Court tennis players describe the sport as cerebral and make comparisons to chess. It is also esoteric, with an asymmetrical court with buttress, galleries, and numerous nooks and crannies with odd names – no two courts in the world are the same. Players take pride in mastering the game’s tactics, offering a technical and demanding competition. Matthieu Sarlangue, who is ranked No. 10 in the world and is a 13-time French amateur champion, describes the game as a challenge. “You really have to master the tactics because there are so many options on the court,” he said.

Court tennis is the source of endless fascination and described as a sporting conundrum. Martin Village, a 70-year-old court tennis enthusiast from London and member of the Dedanists’ Society, a small group of British players dedicated to the history of the sport, explains this simply. “If you wanted to design a game that was going to put people off from playing it,” he said, “you would probably design a real tennis court.”