Tennis recreational players and is also a popular worldwide spectator sport. The four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the Majors) are especially popular: the Australian Open played on hard courts, the French Open played on red clay courts, Wimbledon played on grass courts, and the US Open also played on hard courts. Historians believe that the game's ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand. Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis, and became
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