The last Russian imperial family playing tennis
Tennis came to the Russian Empire from Great Britain in the 1860s and soon became very popular among the local aristocracy. Members of the Romanov dynasty also played the game. None of them, however, was as obsessed with it as Nicholas II.
Nicholas II played tennis with great alacrity both on cold fall days, when his hands would get cold and during the summer heat, when his shirt could literally be drenched in sweat. “He played very well and his opponents, naval officers and court ladies, were much weaker than him,” noted Lieutenant-General Alexander Mosolov, head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court.
While traveling on their ship on the Gulf of Finland, the Romanovs regularly went ashore to picnic, walk in the woods and pick berries.
Once World War I broke out, the czar had to put the racket away for a long time. As it turned out - forever.
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