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There has been much dispute over the invention of modern tennis, but the officially recognized centennial of the game in 8️⃣ 1973 commemorated its introduction by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. He published the first book of rules that year and 8️⃣ took out a patent on his game in 1874, although historians have concluded that similar games were played earlier and 8️⃣ that the first tennis club was established by the Englishman Harry Gem and several associates in Leamington in 1872. Wingfield's court 8️⃣ was of the hourglass shape and may have developed from badminton. The hourglass shape, stipulated by Wingfield in his booklet "Sphairistiké, 8️⃣ or Lawn Tennis," may have been adopted for patent reasons since it distinguished the court from ordinary rectangular courts. At the 8️⃣ time, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was the governing body of real tennis, whose rules it had recently revised.After J.M. |