Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France. Many French real tennis courts are at jeu de paume clubs.
The term real was first used by journalists in the early 20th century as a retronym to distinguish the ancient game from modern lawn tennis.
There are 45 active real tennis courts in the world, located in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and France. There are also currently six disused courts, such as the two in the Republic of Ireland. The sport is supported and governed by various organizations around the world.
Equipment
Balls
Unlike latex-based technology underlying the modern lawn tennis ball, the game uses a cork-cored ball which is very close in design to the original balls used in the game. The diameter balls are handmade and consist of a core made of cork with fabric tape tightly wound around it, compacted by outer windings of string, and covered with a hand-sewn layer of heavy, woven, woollen cloth, traditionally Melton cloth. The balls were traditionally white, but around the end of the 20th century "optic yellow" was introduced for improved visibility, as had been done years earlier in lawn tennis. The balls are much less bouncy than lawn tennis balls, and weigh about ; lawn tennis balls typically weigh.Despite trials by Dunlop to introduce machine-made balls in the 1970s, almost all balls are entirely hand made by club professionals. The inner core of a ball can last several years, but the cover must be replaced every two to three weeks, depending on usage. Balls are produced in sets of around 60 and hand-sewn by the professional at each club. They are not available for purchase by the general public. Balls are stored in a wicker or plastic basket placed in a hole in the floor underneath the net. A trough under the net allows balls hit into the net to roll into the basket. The entire basket of balls is tipped into a tray in the dedans prior to play to reduce time spent fetching balls; ball boys are not required in real tennis.
Rackets
The spellings racket and racquet are both used by different sources.The short, asymmetrical racquets are made of wood and use very tight nylon strings to cope with the heavy balls. The racquet is oval-shaped to make it easier to strike balls close to the floor or in corners, and to facilitate a fast shot with a low trajectory that is difficult for an opponent to return. However, the rackets have a small sweet spot, which discourages a large swing in a shot and emphasises accuracy. Rackets are made of a combination of ash, hickory, vulcanized fibre and willow. Gut strings have now entirely been replaced by nylon, allowing strings to be tighter. Rackets are laminated, with improvements in epoxy resulting in stronger, sturdier rackets which last longer and have changed the game to be faster and more hard hitting.
Most of the rackets in the world are produced by Grays of Cambridge, based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Companies that have previously produced real tennis rackets include Dunlop, Slazenger and Gold Leaf Athletics. The introduction of graphite rackets in lawn tennis has reduced the demand for wooden rackets of any sport, resulting in the larger companies leaving the industry.
More recently, Harrow Sports has introduced graphite rackets which are not permitted by the rules of the game as of 2025, but are being trialled at the club level.
Due to the small nature of the game, rackets are almost exclusively sold by club professionals, who also provide restringing services to club members. Even at the elite level professionals string their own rackets.
Courts
There are two basic designs in existence today: jeu quarré, which is an older design, and jeu à dedans. Both are doubly asymmetric: the two ends of the court differ in shape, as do the left and right sides. All existing tennis courts in the modern day are of the jeu à dedans variety, except the court at Falkland Palace in Scotland. The jeu à dedans court is a rectangular indoor court with high walls on all four sides and a high ceiling. The floor size of a court can vary from at Oxford to, and can be constructed of dyed concrete or, in some older courts, flagstone. The surrounding walls are usually constructed of brick or cinder block and are plastered smooth. Some courts, notably Prested and Washington have glass walls down to floor level, though many more have installed glass walls higher up to increase viewing capacity without impacting play.Three walls feature sloping wooden roofs, known as penthouses, built above the floor and extending to a width of. The wall without a penthouse is called the main wall. Protruding from the main wall is the tambour, an angled wall wide at an angle of approximately 53 degrees, though some courts can be up to 59 degrees.
Counting clockwise from the main wall, the penthouses are called the dedans penthouse, the service penthouse and the grille penthouse. The side with the dedans penthouse is also known as the service end, and the side with the grille penthouse is also known as the hazard end. Beneath the penthouses are various openings in the wall, which have various mechanics in the gameplay and allow spectators to view the game. Underneath the dedans penthouse is the dedans, between wide positioned centrally along the wall. A net across the opening allows spectators to view the game without fear of injury. Beneath the grille penthouse is the grille, a roughly square opening measuring between and positioned the upper right hand side as viewed from the court. The grille is usually blocked by a solid wood cover with a picture or club logo, though American courts usually have netting instead. Beneath the service penthouse is a long opening, divided up into smaller openings by wooden or metal posts. The central such opening, known as the line, extends to the floor and allows players to enter the court and change ends. Counted from the centre of the court, the openings are known symmetrically as first gallery, the door, second gallery and last gallery, though at the end of the court closest to the grille penthouse the final opening is instead called the winning gallery and contains a bell which rings when a ball enters the opening.
Strung across the centre of the court is a net, which sags in the middle. At the centre of the court, the net is positioned above the playing surface, rising to at the sides of the court. Most courts have a trough and a sunken basket at the base of the net for collecting balls at the change of ends.
The service court is marked on the hazard side by a line called the service line approximately from the back wall, and a line parallel to the main wall called the fault line. Often, the service court is painted a different colour to the rest of the floor. A series of lines called chase lines measuring distance from the back of the court on the service side and the service line on the hazard side towards the net. Courts in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia mark the distance in intervals yards from the back wall. The lines are numbered on the side walls, up to 6 on the service side and 2 on the hazard side, with the seventh line corresponding to the last gallery and second gallery respectively. Subsequent lines correspond to the gallery openings up to first gallery. Often, the last gallery and second gallery lines on the service end are a different colour to the remainder of the lines to make them easier to identify. At Prested in Essex, the floor is painted in alternating green and blue colours in lieu of chase lines. In France the lines are measured in pied du roi units, numbering up to 14 on the service side and 4 on the hazard side.
As many courts were built before the introduction of electric lighting, most courts have clerestory windows above the main and service walls. Typically, these areas are considered out of court, and are demarcated with an out of court line that extends around the top of the playing area. Often the out of court area is not plastered like the playing area. Notable exceptions include Hobart, where the wall between the windows is considered in play, and Hyde Bridport, where the two windows at the ends of the court are still in play. Alternatively, some courts have skylights in the roof of the building. All courts now use artificial lighting, allowing play at all times of day. Some modern courts, such as Radley and Oratory, do not have windows at all, and are lit entirely artificially. Most courts have gabled roofs, with the ridge line along the length of the court. Each court has local rules as to whether balls hit over the beams are in or out of play.
The court at Falkland Palace is the last remaining jeu quarré design which, unlike jeu à dedans court, does not have a tambour, a dedans and a dedans penthouse. Instead, it has an ais, a piece of wood on what would be the dedans wall adjacent to the service penthouse, and four lunes, openings in the walls high above what would be the dedans. The court is the only existing, playable court in the world to not have a roof.
Manner of play
Service
To begin play, the players traditionally spin a racket or toss a coin to decide who serves first. Serves are always made from the service end of the court, that is, the side of the court with spectator seating. Unlike lawn tennis, at least one foot must be grounded during the service, but the player may serve from anywhere in the court between the dedans wall and the second gallery line. The serve is played onto the service penthouse, and must touch the service penthouse at least once on the receiver's side of the court. It may also touch the service wall above the penthouse or the service penthouse on the server's side. From there, it may touch any other surface including the back wall, back penthouse or battery wall. Serves may be volleyed by the receiver, or be played off a single bounce on the floor. To be a valid serve, the ball must land in the rectangle marked by the service line and the fault line. Serves which land between the fault line and the main wall, beyond the service line, or fail to touch the service penthouse are called fault. Players are permitted a second serve, but if it is also a fault, then the server double faults and the receiver wins the point. Under French rules, balls which land between the fault line and the main wall are not considered a fault, and are instead called a pass, with the serve replayed.In doubles play, the two players in the pair alternate serving or receiving at the end of each game. The first player will serve or receive the entirety of the first game, with the second player serving or receiving the entirety of the second game and so on. This means that a player from one team will only serve or receive from one player from the other team for the entire set. The exception is if a serve lands between the center line and the fault line, in which case either receiving player may elect to play the ball. At the start of each new set, the players may switch who is serving first and second. The pair at the service end must nominate the first server before the pair at the hazard end nominates the first receiver, so players will occasionally play tactically to ensure that they are at the hazard end at the end of each set to ensure they can choose the match-ups for the new set.
Because there are numerous surfaces for the ball to touch during a serve, there are many different styles of serves which are chosen to achieve different tactical advantages. Since the court is asymmetric, different techniques are required for right and left-handed players. Some of the most common serves include:
; Railroad
; Bobble
; Demi-piqué
; Underarm twist
; Side wall
; High serve/Chandelle
; High side wall
; Giraffe
; Drag
; Boomerang
; Piqué
; Caterpillar
; African hunting dog