Tennis traces back to twelfth-century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand in a game called jeu de paume. Its indoor form, real tennis, was popular with royalty, and Louis X is the first tennis player known by name. The modern outdoor game came in the 1870s, when Walter Clopton Wingfield patented sphairistike in 1873, a boxed kit with a net, rackets and rules he marketed as lawn tennis. The first championship at Wimbledon followed in 1877. The four major tournaments, the Majors, were all established within a few decades, and the sport became professional and open to all in 1968.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.