Frontenis

Frontenis is a sport that is played in a 30 meters pelota court using racquets (a tennis racquet or a similar frontenis racquet) and rubber balls. It can be played in pairs or singles, but only pairs frontenis is played in international competitions. This sport was developed in Mexico around 1900, and is accredited as a Basque pelota speciality.

In Frontenis, one player of the pair hits the ball with the racquet toward the front wall. The ball must strike the playable surface of the front wall and return to the playable area of the court. The opposing players must strike the ball before it bounces a second time on the floor of the court. As with other racquet sports, the best stroke is one that the opponent cannot return. Frontenis demands having a great mobility, skill, physical agility, mental agility, coordination and training.

For many years, Frontenis was only played only in Mexico, Spain, Argentina and a few other countries, but now it is played in approximately eighteen countries worldwide.

Frontenis was created in Mexico in 1900. Several famous tennis players (Buttlin, Sharp, Crowle, Pérez Verdia, Maldonado, Clifford, etc.) started playing with rackets and a tennis ball hitting it against a wall. This new game, with its first modern pelota court, built in Fernando Torreblanca’s house (Mexico), was called “frontontenis” (from fronton and tenis — “pelota court” and “tennis” in Spanish, respectively), and later its name was reduced to “frontenis”.

Because of the increase of the number of pelota players, pelota courts proliferated, and frontenis expanded from Mexico to neighboring countries and later to Europe. Frontenis was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula in the 1940s by way of the Canary Islands. In the 1960s, Olympic ball was introduced in Mexico, and many Mexican players travelled to Spain to teach the technique. The game and all its innovations were taken from Spain to the other countries of Europe.

Every European country that plays pelota is member of the Union of European Basque Pelota Federations (UEBPF), and all the countries that play Basque pelota are members of the International Federation of Basque Pelota (IFBP).

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Wikipedia