Real Tennis is a tactical indoor game where you can hit the walls — in fact, you have to. Players serve from a corner, bounce balls off sloping roofs, and play clever angles. It’s part strategy, part chaos, and every shot feels like solving a 500-year-old puzzle.

Each Real Tennis court is totally unique, with sloping roofs called “penthouses,” quirky corners, and gallery openings that act as targets. It’s like a cathedral built for sport — no two courts are alike, so mastering one doesn’t guarantee success in another.

The ball is handmade, looks like a tennis ball but is hard and slightly irregular. It’s made from a solid cork core wrapped tightly in cloth and stitched felt — designed to bounce less, fly truer, and occasionally bruise your ego. You’ll use a different ball for each point so don’t get used to one of them.

Scoring starts like tennis — 15, 30, 40 — but that’s where the logic ends. Players set “chases,” earn points for hitting targets, and sometimes win rallies they didn’t actually finish. It’s gloriously confusing until it suddenly makes sense.

King Henry VIII was obsessed with Real Tennis and even built his own court at Hampton Court Palace — which you can still play on today. So yes, this is literally the sport of kings (and ambitious ball-slappers).