Brief History
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the Governing Body of Tennis in GreatBritain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, was formed in 1888.  In 1889, 43 rules for the game were established by the LTA, few of which have changed since.  By 1897 the LTA sanctioned 73 tournaments.

In the modern day, the role of the governing body for tennis is much broader than simply establishing rules and organising tournaments.  The LTA actively seeks to develop the game in partnership with its member clubs and other organisations

Facilities and Equipment Required
The basic requirements are a tennis racket and balls and suitable clothing and footwear.  Apart from the tennis balls, the key elements are the racket and suitable tennis shoes.  Both products vary in price according to quality.  High priced rackets and tennis footwear are non-essential especially when first beginning to play.  Clothing requirements are based around comfortable sports clothing.  A tracksuit is obviously very desirable outdoors in the winter!

According to the local facilities available you may be able to play indoors or outdoors.  Many outdoor tennis courts have floodlights to extend play in the evenings.

Benefits of Participating
The most important reason for playing tennis is to have fun and enjoy your leisure time.  Let’s explore the reasons why you may want to play:

• Fun!
• Play with friends
• Meet new friends
• Enjoy competing and entering competitions
• Health and fitness
• A game for life — can be played by all ages into your old age!
• A game for all abilities and people with disabilities. There is a thriving network of tennis players with hearing impairments and players who play in wheelchairs for example
• Spectating at tennis events, particularly professional tournaments
• Helping support the structure of the games, e.g. lots of people enjoy refereeing, umpiring and being line judges. There are also opportunities to get involved in running tennis in a club or school by getting involved on the organizational side of things.

Variations of the Sport
There are lots of game variations:

• Mini Tennis — 3 progressive stages linking a 12-m court to the full court. The 3 stages offer a graduated 'system'. The court size, length of racket and length of matches’ increase and type of ball changes as the player improves. The final stage is playing the game on the full court with a special light, low bounce tennis ball. At all stages the emphasis is on the player being comfortably able to play the game.
• Tennis singles — one v one
• Tennis doubles — two v two
• Scoring formats — lots of variations including: knock out, round robin, progressive draws, ladders, box leagues