After its introduction in mid-century, lawn tennis soon attracted a following among the rich. Like its English parent, the Russian offspring gained royal patronage with several of the tsars taking up the game, which, of course, made it fashionable with both the gentry and the middle class. The Neva Lawn Tennis Circle came into being in St Petersburg in 1860, to be joined, eight years later, by the St Petersburg Tennis and Cricket Club. Both clubs played cricket and croquet, but these games do not appear to have caught on among Russians outside the twin capitals (partly owing to lack of grass). The games imported by foreigners were, of course, not always intended for Russian consumption, although cricket and field hockey were reported as having been played by British residents as far apart as Odessa and St Petersburg between 1870 and 1890, they seem to have made little impact on Russians. Tennis did, however, and courts had been laid in Moscow, Rostov, Taganrog, Kiev, Odessa and Nizhny Novgorod by the end of the century. By 1913, as many as 115 lawn tennis courts had been laid in Moscow and St Petersburg, and the National Association of Lawn Tennis Clubs, formed in 1907, had the large number of 48 member clubs in 1908. Задание по тексту:

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