Tennis anyone? Tennis is a sport that's played with a small, felt-covered rubber ball and rackets. The basic goal in tennis is hitting the ball across a net.
There are two types of tennis: singles, when two individuals face off, and doubles, which involves teams of two players. If you can hit a tennis ball with a racket, you can play tennis. Historians believe that tennis grew out of a 12th century French game called la paulme, "the palm," in which players hit a ball with their hands. The word tennis comes from the Anglo-French tenetz, "Hold! Take! Receive!" which players called out before serving.