TENNIS, A BASQUE INVENTION

clare | arts and media | news report Monday March 22, 2004 10:14 by Oskia Iaben - Esku nabarrak txipi1 at euskalerria dot org

From the Courts of Navarra to Paris

TENNIS, A BASQUE INVENTION

From the Courts of Navarra to Paris

Because of etymology, vocabulary, historical origins, distribution of elements and development of the game, it can be stated that tennis is another variety, now perfected, of the Basque ball games.

16 * TRADICTIONS

Oskia Yaben


The English, or if you prefer the British, recognise very honestly that they weren’t the ones who invented the game of tennis. Inside the museum, which exists below the tribunes of the central court of Wimbledon, there is a computer, which works depositing two coins of fifty pence. You introduce the two coins into the opening, press a button and the device either projects the final match won by Manolo Santana or it tells us in all detail what it knows about the history of this sport.
According to the computer, the game of tennis arrived in Britain “ from some place of the continent “, and people started to practise it during the last years of Queen Elizabeth I of England’s reign, when the tournaments and the hunting games, unique enjoyment at the Courts until the death of Henry VIII, were substituted by less virile games. The Queen died in 1603. Which part of the continent did this sport come from? The French, honouring their so famous classic chauvinism, affirm: “ From France, from the French Court “.
When in the palaces of the English courtesans people began to practise a strange game, which had come from the French Court in Paris, Henry the IV, who, as we all know reigned in France, the neighbouring country between the years 1589 and 1610, year in which he was murdered by the fanatic Ravaillac.
The computer in Wimbledon, that without any doubt possesses the knowledge of this French theory, doesn’t confirm nor deny it. That is why it seems quite logical to think that the sport arrived in England from the French Court, when Henry IV ruled this country.

The name of the sport
If the word tennis isn’t English, like the computer assures us, it will have a continental origin as well. What we know for sure is that in the Court of Henry IV pf France, when this king was only the king of Navarra with the name of Henry III who reigned in Pau (from 1572 to 1589), the courtesans and the very king, borne in this city of Antonio of Borbón and Juana III, Queen of Navarra (Juana of Albret), practised a popular Basque game (see the prints and illustrations which exist in the monarch’s palace in Pau, situated at the entrance of the city when arriving from the south). The French named this game l’étirage (in English the stretch, the action or the act of stretching oneself) and it was practised with the players situated at both sides of a net, in an open field, launching a ball at each other (whose manufacturing elements were specifically fixed by own Royal regulations) with the help of a tool which was named matsardia, of which we can still see some examples in the Basque museum in Bayonne and which was made with a piece of curved branch in the shape of an arch, whose end was formed by a haft, and with very thin branches inserted inside the empty space and with strings which fastened and covered the gap.
The game was quite similar o the present yoko garbi, and it was played with the rule that the ball couldn’t be retained on the rudimentary racquet. ( yoko garbi actually means that there must be a fair play, without neither stopping, nor holding back and then launching the ball. The ball must be launched in just one strike). As the king himself would speak in Basque, like most of his courtesans, it seem very logical that, among themselves, they wouldn’t name the game they practised with a French name, but with a word from Navarra, that is to say, in Basque. The “ stretch “, l’étirage, as denomination of this speciality of game was motivated by the characteristic and typical stretching of the player who carries out the service, which needs to be volleyed from the highest possible point so as to be able to pass the net the best possible way. The game required, furthermore, to stretch other elements, like for example to tauten the strings of the rudimentary racquet or matsardia, the net itself, etcetera.
Everybody who speaks Basque know that in this language stretching is said ten-egin. And, that the act, the action of stretching oneself is called ten-egintz. And, that when speaking we make the elision of the “ g “ in the part of the word egin, which makes the word sound like ein or eintz.
As the first people to practise the game of tennis in the Court of Queen Elisabeth of the United Kingdom were the courtesans of the French king of Béarnaise or Basque origin, which is to say Basque people, it is logical to think that they wouldn’t say: “ let’s play l’éritage “ but “ let’s play ten-eintz “. The explanation is also valid to justify that tennis is still denominated like tennis in France itself, conserving phonetically the final “s” and not “ tien “ or “ tenni “, which would have been more logical if the word had had French etymology.

The racquet has no previous antecedent in other countries and appears very closely tied to the Basque Ball Game History

THE BALL
The most characteristic of the balls, which are used in the games of Basque origin is, besides their size and weight, that they are lined with sheepskin in two pieces in the shape of an eight.
The balls, which are used in tennis, if it is not absolutely necessary that their exterior cover presents exactly the same aspect, but however the wool, which covers the rubber of the same, appears cut in the exactly same way as the balls used in the “remonte”, “pala”, “mano (hand)”, “cesta punta”, “rebote, yoko-garbi”, etc.
However, in other games of English origin, in which are used balls of similar size and utilizing the same materials (base-ball, cricket, polo, hockey), the exterior aspect of the balls is completely different. Which is the motive?
The answer is quite clear. The present tennis ball is a derivation of the ones that were used in the primitive ten-egintz, whose outside aspect was conserved along the centuries by the English, traditional people by nature, although they adapted them to the requirements of the modern tennis.
THE NET
For all the varieties of the Basque ball games, the net, as well fixed to the low part of a wall, as positioned in the centre of a square or an open spot, is an essential part of the game. What is known as plate in a “frontón” or “trinquete” nowadays didn’t exist until a little more than a century ago. A stripe was painted on the façade wall, and from this stripe until the floor they placed a net to cover the wall to avoid that, when the ball hit the wall below the stripe, there would be any doubt about the fact that the player had committed a fault.
In the ball games, specially in those on an open square (like yoko-garbi), the nets were those of the fishermen, who would hang them up to let them dry before proceeding with a new nautical day from noon to noon. Actually, the ball game against a wall is very similar to tennis.
In both cases all the balls, which hit below the net are faults. If the players could have to their disposal a wall (church wall, Town Hall wall, etc.) they would place the net below the painted stripe. If they didn’t have any blind wall, something that used to happen in Royal Palaces or in the noblemen’s ones, the players placed the net in the centre like a court and, instead of hitting the wall and receiving from it the ball back, they received it directly from the contrary player passing it over the net.
THE HEIGHT OF THE NET
The height of the net in the middle of it, according to the present rules by the world Lawn Tennis Federation, is exactly the same, as the height the plate must have in a trinquete or frontón in which are practiced specialities like mano, pala, remonte, punta, etc.
THE SERVICE
In all the Basque ball games the service acquires an enormous importance. The same importance has the service in tennis. In other ball games invented by other nations, the service is merely a formality. You don’t score points with services, and whether the player serves well or worse is of very little importance in the course of the game. In golf, football, rugby, cricket, baseball, etc., the service doesn’t really count.
However in the Basque ball game, above all in some of the varieties like the hand ball game and moreover in the single of this hand ball game, the service is of great importance.
In tennis exactly the same happens. A player with a very strong service like, for instance, McEnroe, with a play and technique, on the other hand, of inferior quality than others, can win the Masters based on the volley-services.
THE PASS
In the Basque ball game, with the service the ball must bounce before the line of pass. In tennis the same thing happens. There aren’t, on the contrary, any lines of service passing in foreign games.
THE TWO SERVICES
Only in tennis, among the games supposedly not Basque, the player who serves and surpasses the pass line, is given a second opportunity and can repeat his service.
THE SPACE BETWEEN THE PASS AND THE FAULT OF THE SERVICE
The three squares, which separate, according to the rules, the lines of fault and pass are equivalent to the 12,80 metres between the passing line of one side of the tennis court and the passing line of the contrary side.
THE DIMENSIONS OF THE PLAYING COURT
The width of a tennis court (10,97 metres) is very much the same as the regulation court of the Basque ball game.
THE WAY OF COUNTING
The way of counting the points in tennis is very similar to the way in which it was done traditionally in the game of “rebote” and “yoko-garbi”. It is counted by won games and to win a game you must have won four points of the contrary with a difference of, at least, two points. If there is a three-all draw, then two new ones are required.
This strange (for them) way of counting these four points in tennis is: first point = 15, second point = 30, third point = 40, and fourth point = game, with the advantages in favour of one or the other opponent, in the case of 40-all draw, which is to say, two more points.
THE EFFECTS
Among the ball games, which are not considered, tennis is the only one in which the effects given to the ball are enormously important.
Explaining an English or American boy the entire theory of the effects in tennis and succeeding in actually giving to the ball these effects and moreover knowing the effect that the ball that is coming is carrying, so as to be able to place himself in the court according to this effect and when hitting back the ball, using in each case the suitable counter-blow to counteract these effect, requires years of practise. A Basque boy, who has played “remonte” half a dozen of times, doesn’t need to be explained anything, because the effects he can give to the ball with the basket are exactly the same as the ones, which can be given to the ball with a racquet.

THE PASS IN THE SERVICE ONLY EXISTS IN TENNIS AND IN ALL THE VARIETIES OF THE BASQUE BALL GAME, BEING UNKNOWN IN THE REST OF THE GAMES.

THE LET
Can anybody name any other sport, besides tennis and the Basque ball games, in which you can score marvellous points to the opponent with mathematical lets just over the net or the plate?
AIR, VOLLEY, LOW VOLLEY, HALFVOLLEY, ECT.
Is there any sport not Basque, apart from tennis, in which you can play the ball in the air, or volleying, or with a normal bounce, or low volleying, or half-volleying?
SINGLES AND DOUBLES
Solely in tennis the players meet in singles or in doubles (like in the Basque ball games). In the rest of the foreign games, teams, consisting of several players, play the confrontation. Only golf can be considered a sport of a single player. But in this sport both the opponents don’t meet physically, but each player makes his holes and goes his own way, and it’s the same if there are two or fourteen participants.


THE POSITION AND THE NUMBER OF REFEREES
In the matches of the Basque ball game three referees lined in the counter-court rule the games. The referee in the centre is the one, who definitely takes the decisions. The other two lateral ones watch respectively the pass and the fault lines. In tennis the same occurs.
MATCHES BETWEEN COUPLES (DOUBLES)
In the Basque ball games, in some of the varieties (mano,pala, remonte, cesta punta) when two couples are faced, one of the players act at the front, ready to take a volley or to catch up a let and the other at the back. Also in tennis there’s one of the players who plays at the front and one who plays at the back, and the mission of the first, placed next to the net, is to take volleys, smashes and to catch up a let of the opponent.
BACKHAND IN TENNIS
It would be much more logical, seeing the slowness, with which this game was played three centuries ago, that the players would pass from one hand to the other the tool, instead of conserving it in the same hand, making it turn 180 degrees and hit the ball backhands.
This could obey to the fact that, being tennis a derivation of “yoko garbi” on an open square, and using, to hit the ball, as well racquets as “txisterak” with gloves tied to the player’s wrist (to the right or the left arm, according to the player’s being right- or left-handed), it resulted impossible to untie the knot made to tie the basket and put it on the other hand, like happens nowadays with the players of “cesta-punta” or “remonte”.
But if we watch in slow motion the movements made by a tennis player and by a player of “remonte”, at the moment when they hit the ball with their backhand, we can see that the techniques are the same. Even the backhand with two hands, which sometimes can be seen, and which is considered a modern innovation of Borg and Connors or Chris Evert and Mandlikowa, you can see that the way of supporting the racquet with the second hand is the same as how the “remonte” players hold the basket when they launch the ball backhanded to the front wall.
“THE YOKO-GARBI”
Substituting mentally the gloves or “txisterak” used by the players of “yoko-garbi” by racquets. Who, who has seen a match of “yoko-garbi” in an open square, wouldn’t be reminded by this Basque game of a tennis match?
DEUCE
This is a cabalistic word, pronounced like dius or yus and which in tennis means that the two players or the two couples are drawn at three points in one of the games and that they have to go for two new points (five points in total) so as to win the game.
For English and French the etymologic origin of this so typical word in tennis is practically unknown. Deuce in English means devil, evil, misfortune, meanness, confusion, etc. and the word has also a second acceptance: from the Latin dúos and the French deux.
But, in spite of this invitation to the unrepentant French chauvinism, not even our neighbours accept the French origin of the word, refusing its use and naming égalité to this draw at three points with two new points which the English call deuce.
However, when we research the Basque language as the etymologic source, the explanation of this typical word, which doubtless is a linguistic treasure which has subsisted along the centuries and has a profound link with the roots of the game, is quite easy.
There is proof of the fact that during the matches of Basque ball, which were played, as well four decades ago as four centuries ago, the audience used to bet on one of the players. And, that in the Court of Henry III the bets used to be rather high.
As is told, when Jesus Abrego, the magician from Arróniz, played against the lion of Vera, Irigoyen, on the pelota court Jai Alai in Ategorrieta, hundreds of thousands pesetas were crossed on bets. If Jesus or Joshe finally were able to change the match and get at a draw at 40 points, Etxeberria the old, the bookmaker with a turned neck and a belling voice would address the referees and would ask them in Basque to stop the game for some minutes so that the betters could cover themselves against the eventuality that the player who had been going behind during the whole match could end up winning it. And the main referee if he accepted, (which he always did), would address to the players and would say diruz…. to them. And the players either went back for two minutes to the cloakrooms or moved towards the front wall for some time and spent these minutes of break bouncing and trying out balls.
To the people who don’t speak Basque, we must explain that diru means money and that diruz (pronouncing deuce) means for money, or for the money, etc.
The cabalistic deuce, which is produced when the two opponents draw at 40 points is nothing else than the break the referee of the match conceded to the betting audience so as to be able to cover up for the possibility of a winner different than expected.
THE RACQUET
This is another element that gives evidence that tennis is another variety of the Basque ball games. It has no antecedents in other countries and on the contrary appears closely linked to the history of the Basque ball games in their diverse varieties. Racquets with wooden frames, covering the gap with either a spanning of branches and ropes, or with ropes and sheepskin, like drums, appear in the engravings that reproduce the Basque ball games along the latest centuries.
Up to nowadays, in the non-covered open air Pelota Courts which exist in Iparralde and Hegoalde and which do not have a net to protect the audience, the referees flourish racquets with which they catch up the balls that could fall upon the people in the audience.
On the other hand, besides the matsardia, which is represented in the Basque Museum in Bayonne, the variety of share uses a racquet very similar to the ones used in tennis during the beginnings of the former century in England and that can be seen in the Museum in Wimbledon. These racquets, like those used in the share game, have an oval shape and have been getting rounder since the end of the former century. However, curiously, the models designed lately are getting back to the oval design of the racquet with which share used to be played.
EPILOGUE
J. Borotra, the Basque player from Biarritz who won the Davis Cups for France, used to say that a Basque youth who plays one of the varieties of the Basque ball games, can situate himself at the same tennis level as any other player of any other country of the world in the fourth of the time. It would be very nice if the authorities would support the young people in this native, so Basque ball games, so as to obtain players in tennis, like Retegi, Beloki, Tolosa, Eugi, Arretxe, Ezkurra, etc, competing in the best championships of the world.
(Many thanks to J.M. Bellido and Jon Urrujulegi for the facts provided).