Tennis is a noble game. A long ago tennis was the game English aristocracy. And now there are many different versions of origin of this game. According of one version Major Walton Wingfield was the founder of this game. He invented a game to entertain guests at a reception in his mansion in Wales. He published the rules of tennis in the magazine. After the French Revolution tennis was the most popular among French aristocracy.

In 1899, four students at Harvard University got the idea of holding a tennis tournament, where national teams participated. One of them - Dwight Davis - developed a scheme for the tournament, and bought with his own money prize for the winner - a silver cup. The first tournament was held in Brooklyn, Massachusetts in 1900, teams of U.S. and UK took part in it. D. Davis played in the U.S. team that unexpectedly won. Since the tournament was held every year (with some exceptions), and after the death of J. Davis in 1945, it was named the Davis Cup and is now a popular annual event in the world of tennis.

With the advent of the Open era and the advent of tennis federations in various countries around the world, tennis has developed in different parts of the world and lost the image of sport of the privileged classes of English speaking countries. Since 70s XX century players from Germany (Boris Becker, Steffi Graf), former Czechoslovakia (Ivan Lendl, Martina Navratilova), Sweden (Born Borg), Russia (Yevgeny Kafelnikov) and many other countries radiated on the tennis arena.

The successful tennis player of today is Raphael Nadal. In our article we want to tell you briefly about him. Raphael Nadal Parera is the popular Spain tennis player. Tournaments with his participation are always fascinating. With sinking hearts admires of tennis are watching tournaments with his participation.

His has achieved success in Grand Slam tournaments: five-time winner of the French Open tennis (2005-2008, 2010); Two-time winner of Wimbledon (2008, 2010); Winner of the Australian Open (2009); Winner of the U.S. Open (2010); three-time winner of the Davis Cup in the national team of Spain (2004, 2008, 2009).
In winter 2009, Raphael Nadal won the Australian Open for the first time, defeating in the finals in 5 sets by Roger Federer. Nadal became the first Spaniard, who won that tournament. In September 2010 Nadal finally have won the last of the Grand Slam - U.S. Open.

Raphael Nadal is the tennis player with the great future. And his fans will be proud of his achievements and success.

Follow the latest tennis bets: news, odds, tips, stats at WilliamHill.com. Start Now!