Who is the founder of modern lawn tennis?

Major Walter Clopton Wingfield (16 October 1833 – 18 April 1912) was a Welsh inventor and a British Army officer who was one of the pioneers of lawn tennis. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997, as the founder of modern lawn tennis, an example of the original equipment for the sport and a bust of Wingfield himself can be seen at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.

Wingfield patented a 'New and Improved Court for Playing the Ancient Game of Tennis' and began marketing his game in the spring of 1874 selling boxed sets that included rubber balls imported from Germany as well as a net, poles, court markers, rackets and an instruction manual. The sets were available from Wingfield's agent, French and Co. in Pimlico in London, and cost between five and ten guineas.

In 1877 the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) launched the Wimbledon Championship and prior to this, in cooperation with the MCC representatives, developed a new set of rules that excluded some of Wingfield's introductions. Wingfield authored two tennis works: "The Book of the Game" (1873) and "The Major's Game of Lawn Tennis" (1874).