Indoor tennis might seem a modern invention, a way to keep raking in the revenue when the weather turns chilly. But the ancestor of today’s game was actually played exclusively indoors.
Known now as real tennis, it was a diversion for royalty and their minions in France, England and elsewhere during the Renaissance and beyond. Fewer than 50 of the asymmetric courts with their sloping internal roofs still exist.
It is tough to know who was truly the best in those days: Presumably, they let the kings rule. But there is no shortage of evidence in the digital age, and with the world’s most prestigious indoor men’s tournament, the ATP Finals, set to begin on Sunday in London’s O2 Arena, it is worth a ponder.