The history of the five racquet sports.

This section is a history of five racquet sports: tennis, badminton, squash, pickleball and padel. They grew up at different times, in different countries and from different older games, so each has its own pages, and no page blends one sport's dates into another's. Real tennis, rackets and battledore and shuttlecock appear only as the older games the sources trace the modern sports back to. It is history only. Nothing here teaches how to play, and how each sport is run today is in Learn.

How these pages are written

• Disagreements are shown, not settled by us. The research behind these pages recorded about 50 points on which sources disagree, from the date of Major Wingfield's lawn tennis game to the year padel was invented. Each is given both ways, or every way, with who says what.
• The source is named in the text. Museums, governing bodies, historians and journals are named where their account is used. Facts that rest on Wikipedia alone are attributed to Wikipedia, and facts seen only in a search summary of a page that could not be opened are labelled as unconfirmed.
• Some well-known stories are left out or flagged. Where a popular account could not be found in any museum or governing-body source read for this site, such as the 1873 lawn party said to have named badminton, the page says so rather than repeating it as fact.
• No money. Contract amounts, prize money and the values of tours and takeovers are left out of every page.
• Clubs and businesses only as history. A club or venue is named where a governing body, museum or historian names it for a historical event. Nothing here recommends a club, maker or business.

The pages in this section

Tennis

1. Real tennis and the roots: jeu de paume in medieval France, the first courts and rules, and how the older game got the name real tennis.
2. Lawn tennis and Wingfield: the 1874 patent and the three dates given for the game, Gem and Perera at Edgbaston, the first clubs, and the dispute over who brought the game to the United States.
3. Wimbledon and the early championships: the 1877 Championship, the first US and Australasian championships, the Davis Cup and the founding of the international federation in 1913.
4. The Open Era and the tours: open tennis from 1968, the ATP and WTA, the computer rankings and the tours as they formed.
5. Women in tennis: the first women's championship at Wimbledon, the Original 9, the founding of the WTA and the Battle of the Sexes.

Badminton, squash, pickleball and padel

6. Badminton origins: Badminton House or India, the 1873 rules, the Badminton Association of 1893, the IBF, the 1978 split and the BWF.
7. Squash at Harrow and after: rackets, the Harrow courts, the national bodies, hardball and softball, the world federation and the professional tours.
8. Pickleball on Bainbridge Island: the 1965 founding and its other dates, the three accounts of the name, the first tournament and the governing-body disputes.
9. Padel from Acapulco: the Corcuera court, the spread to Spain and Argentina, the FIP, glass courts and the World Padel Tour to Premier Padel.

Across the five sports, kept separate

10. Rackets from wood to graphite: wooden, steel and composite tennis rackets, the 1977 double-strung racket ban, badminton's steel racket and synthetic shuttle, and what is and is not recorded for the other three sports.
11. The Olympic story: tennis leaving and returning, badminton's 1992 debut, squash's long campaign and LA28, and where padel and pickleball stand, plus the Paralympic sports.
12. Timeline: every main date in one table, one sport per row, with its source.

Related reading

How each sport is governed today is in tennis bodies and tours, badminton bodies and tours, squash bodies and tours, pickleball bodies and tours and padel bodies and tours. Today's equipment rules are in Equipment, this year's competitions are in Events, and terms are explained in the glossary.