Real tennis Real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (originally called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, formerly royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France (a reference to the older, racquetless game of "jeu de paume", the ancestor of modern handball and racquet games; many French real tennis courts are at "jeu de paume" clubs). The term "real" was first used by journalists in the early 20th century as
Valencian pilota it is commonly supposed to have been derived from the medieval Jeu de paume along with several other European handball sports (for example the Basque "laxoa", French Longue paume, Frisian handball and Italian Pallone) similar to the actual Valencian llargues variant. "Jeu de paume" is documented at Paris in 1292 since there were 13 ball workshops and many "tripots" (courtfields); it was first played with the hands, and the scoring system was very similar to the current Valencian one. There were so many resemblances with the "Valencian pilota" sport that, in the 16th century, the humanist Joan Lluís Vives compared