Lawn tennis, Major Wingfield and the rival claims.

Sphairistike and the patent

The International Tennis Hall of Fame dates Major Walter Clopton Wingfield's patent from Queen Victoria to 23 February 1874. The patent covered what it described as a new and improved portable court for playing the ancient game of tennis, the indoor game covered on real tennis and the roots. Wingfield called his game Sphairistike, and the Hall of Fame says it was soon known as lawn tennis.

The Hall of Fame says the patent ran out in 1877, after which other firms could sell boxed sets. It names Jefferies and Co. of Woolwich as one. A Jefferies set in the Hall of Fame's collection holds four ash rackets strung with gut, a net, poles that extend for badminton, a rubber ball and a rule book.

When was the game launched? Three dates

Was it fully patented?

This is disputed too, and the sources were seen only in search summaries. Hall of Fame material is summarised as calling the patent provisional in one place and granted in another. A History Today article on the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum is summarised as saying Wingfield was unable to patent the game at all. The History Today article was not opened, so neither reading is confirmed here.

Gem and Perera at Edgbaston

The traditional account credits Wingfield with inventing lawn tennis. Wikipedia, in its articles on Harry Gem and Augurio Perera, says the two men had been playing their own lawn game, called lawn rackets or pelota, at Edgbaston in Birmingham for a decade or more before Wingfield's 1874 game. Wikipedia describes that earlier play as no longer in dispute. No museum or governing-body page confirming it was read for this site, so it is given here as Wikipedia's account.

The first lawn tennis club: 1872 or 1874

• 1872. The history page of a present-day club at Leamington, an operator statement seen only in a search summary, says Gem, Perera, Frederick Haynes and Arthur Wellesley Tomkins founded the world's first lawn tennis club there in 1872.
• 1874. The Harry Gem Project, citing research by Bob Everitt and the historian Richard Hillway, dates the Leamington club to 1874 and says London clubs formed earlier that year probably came first. It also reports that the All England Club revised its own history to match. That page returned an error when fetched, so this rests on a search summary. Wikipedia also gives 1874.

No primary record, such as minutes or a contemporary newspaper, was read for either date.

Lawn tennis reaches the United States

Who brought the game across the Atlantic is disputed, and the year 1874 is the only point the accounts share.

• Mary Ewing Outerbridge, Staten Island. The traditional account, given by Wikipedia, is that Outerbridge brought a set home from Bermuda in 1874 and that a court was laid out at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. The Hall of Fame's history also dates her court to 1874.
• James Dwight and Fred R. Sears, Nahant. The cultural historian Heiner Gillmeister argues that the first game in the US was played in August 1874 by Dwight and Sears at Nahant, Massachusetts, and that the story of Outerbridge bringing a set in February 1874 does not hold up. His chapter could not be opened, so this rests on a search summary.
• Camp Apache, Arizona. Encyclopedia.com is summarised as placing the first recorded US game on 8 October 1874 at Camp Apache. That page was not opened, so this is unconfirmed.

A tourism body's article on Bermuda's part in the story, an operator statement seen only in a summary, says the debate is unresolved.

The national associations

United States, 1881

The USTA's own history page says it was founded in 1881 at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan as the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA), became the USLTA in 1920 and the USTA in 1975, and that it owns and operates the US Open. The page gives the year only. Tennis Majors, seen in a search summary, dates the founding meeting to 21 May 1881 and says representatives of more than 30 clubs attended and agreed to use the All England Club's rules for one year. The exact day therefore rests on press sources, not on the USTA.

The first US national championship was held later that summer, and is covered on Wimbledon and the early championships.

Great Britain, 1888

The LTA is summarised in search results as saying it has been the governing body of tennis in Great Britain since 1888; its pages were not opened, so the year is unconfirmed here. Wikipedia names William Renshaw as its first president.

How these bodies work today is on tennis bodies and tours.