坚守与变革

文/五花肉

坚守与变革

Perseverance and Change

文/五花肉

网球，与高尔夫球、保龄球、桌球并称为世界四大绅士运动。自网球诞生至今，标准的坚守和变革，在保留其古典内涵和与时代发展结合方面，都起到了非常巨大的作用。

Tennis, golf, bowling and billiards are known as four major "Gentlemen's Sport" in the world. Through the development of tennis, the solid standard and its change are the motive power of keeping its classical connotation and promoting its development.

最高准则是尊重

Basic Norm is Respect

在网球运动中，尊重是最高准则。“尊重网球场上的一切人与物”，是打网球者的行为标准，包括尊重对手、观众、球网、球拍等等。这是网球运动内涵的体现，也是网球运动一直坚守的标准之一。

In the tennis match, respect is the first-priority. "Respect everyone and everything on the court" means respecting rivals, audience, net, and rackets, which is the tennis player's standard of conduct. Tennis always sticks to standard, which reflects its connotation.

据查，网球运动起源于12至13世纪的法国，最早是传教士在教堂回廊里用手掌击球的一种游戏，后来作为皇室贵族男女的消遣传入法国宫廷，形成古典式网球。

Historians believe that tennis's can be traced back between 12th and 13th century in France, where missionaries played a game that a ball was struck withthe palm of the hand in the cloisters. Then the game spread into French royal palaces and played by regal aristocrats as a pastime, which formed the classical tennis.

14世纪中叶，法国王储将这一盛行于法国宫廷的古典式网球运动所使用的球，作为礼物赠送给英王亨利五世，古典式网球由此传入英国，成为贵族运动。网球运动的绅士内涵，便由此延续至今。

In the middle of 14th century, the French prince gave Henry V a ball of the prevailing classical tennis played in French royal palaces. Classical tennis started to spread into the UK and became a noble sport. Since then the gentility of this sport has been passed down through the generations.

古老的制球标准

Classical Ball-making Standard

网球外观较为特别——橡胶内囊被一层柔软绒面纺织品包裹，这个古老的制球工艺从网球诞生初期就开始使用，并一直沿用至今。

The appearance of tennis ball is very special. It is made of hollow vulcanized rubber with a felt coating. This ancient ball-making crafting was used when it came into being, and is still used today.

网球运动刚传入英国时，球的表皮是用埃及坦尼斯镇所产的斜纹法兰绒制作的，英国人便将这种球及游戏称为Tennis，网球英文名称由此诞生。直到现在，网球的制作标准中，柔软的绒面仍被保留。

When tennis was introduced to UK, the coating was made with twill flannel produced in Tennis Town of Egypt. Therefore, British people named this ball and game as Tennis, which signifies the English name of tennis was born. It is important to note that the soft fabric surface is kept in the ball-making standard until now.

宫廷式计分标准

Tennis Scoring System

1876年，全英统一的网球规则和场地标准出台，这是世界范围内第一部网球比赛标准，也是现代网球运动开始的起点。在这部规则中，计分标准比较奇特。

The UK's unified tennis rule and court standard published in 1876, which is the first standard about tennis in the world as well as the beginning of the modern tennis. The part of scoring is very special in this rule.

由于网球运动起源于宫廷之中，计分手段就地取材，用拨动时钟来计分，每得一次分就将时钟转动四分之一，也就是15分，两次得分再转动四分之一，为30分。

Because tennis comes from the royal palace, clock faces were used to score the game. A quarter move of the hand indicates a score of 15, by such analogy, two quarters move of the hand indicates a score of 30.

至于40分，跟音节有很大关联。在英文中，15分“fifteen”为双音节，30分“thirty”也是双音节，但45分“forty-five”是三个音节。所以英国人在制定第一部网球标准时，为了不改变裁判的计分节奏，就把它改成同为双音节的40分（forty），并沿用至今。

The origin of a score of 40 is related with syllable. In English, fifteen and thirty are disyllable, but fortyfive consists of three syllables. Therefore, when British people set the first tennis standard, in order not to disrupt the referee's tempo of scoring, they changed it into the disyllable forty, which is still used today.

场地标准的变革

Change of Court Standard

如今，四大网球公开赛（又称大满贯）风靡全球，拥有草地（温网）、红土（法网）、硬地（美网、澳网）三种场地标准。为什么在一种运动中，会有三种不同的场地标准呢？

Nowadays, four major professional tennis tournaments, also known as "Grand Slams", have swept the world. There are three different court standards, which are grass court (Wimbledon Open), red clay court (French Open), and hard court (US Open and Australian Open). Why three different court standards exist in one sport?

现代网球诞生于英国宫廷，贵族们用的场地为草地。后来，网球运动传播到世界各地，参加运动的人由贵族扩展到普通群众。但由于草场的维护费用较高，人们便开始在其他场地条件下进行比赛，并逐步衍生出三种场地标准。

Modern tennis originated in British Royalty where aristocrats used grass as the tennis court. Later, tennis spread around the world, the participants expanded from the aristocrat to ordinary people. Due to high maintenance fee, people seek to play the game in other court conditions, and gradually derived three different court standards.

场地标准的变革，使网球运动适应了外部需求，从而推动网球运动快速发展。试想一下，如果死守草地标准，网球就会损失大批平民爱好者，成为小众人群的游戏，或将慢慢消亡。

The development of court standards help tennis adapt to the external requirements better, thus serve to promote its development rapidly. Just Imagine, if clinging to the grass court standard, tennis will lose lots of ordinary fans, and become the extremely poor popular entertainment or gradually die out over time.

结 语

Conclusion

国际网联（International Tennis Federation, ITF）自1913年在法国巴黎成立开始，最重要的一项任务就是制定、修改和实施网球的标准和规则。很显然，人们已经意识到，一项运动生命力的长短，不仅取决于内涵，还取决于它是否改变自身，融合社会发展趋势。而标准，正是实现这一切的技术基础。

International Tennis Federation (ITF) was founded in Paris, France in 1913. Its main task is to develop, revise and enforce standards and rules. Obviously, people have already realized that the vitality of a sport does not only depend on humane connotation, but also whether it can develop itself and involved into human society. Standard is the technical foundation which can help us achieve it.

（支持单位：上海市质量和标准化研究院）