fbpx
Wikipedia

History of tennis

August 29, 2023

The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sport with more complex rules. The first Lawn Tennis Club and tournament was held in Royal Leamington Spa on the 1st August 1882.

Players on a roofless Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2008

Most rules of (lawn) tennis derive from this precursor and it is reasonable to see both sports as variations of the same game. Most historians believe that tennis originated in the monastic cloisters in northern France in the 12th century, but the ball was then struck with the palm of the hand, hence the name jeu de paume ("game of the palm").[1] It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use and the game began to be called 'tennis'. It was popular in England and France, and Henry VIII of England was an enthusiast of the game, now referred to as real tennis.[2]

Many original tennis courts remain, including courts at Oxford, Cambridge, Falkland Palace in Fife where Mary Queen of Scots regularly played, and Hampton Court Palace. Many of the French courts were decommissioned with the terror that accompanied the French Revolution. The Tennis Court Oath (Serment du Jeu de Paume) was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution; it was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789.

Marylebone Cricket Club's Rules of Lawn Tennis have been official, with periodic slight modifications, ever since 1875. Those rules were adopted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the first lawn tennis championship, The Championships, Wimbledon in 1877.

The Davis Cup, an annual competition between men's national teams, dates to 1900.[3] The analogous competition for women's national teams, the Fed Cup, was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Tennis Federation, also known as the ITF.

Promoter C. C. Pyle created the first professional tennis tour in 1926, with a group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences.[4][5] The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen.[4][6] Players turning pro could not compete in the major (amateur) tournaments.[4]

In 1968 commercial pressures and rumors of some amateurs taking money under the table led to the abandonment of this distinction, inaugurating the Open Era, in which all players could compete in all tournaments and top players were able to make their living from tennis. With the beginning of the Open Era, the establishment of an international professional tennis circuit, and revenues from the sale of television rights, tennis's popularity has spread worldwide, and the sport has shed its upper/middle-class English-speaking image[7] (although it is acknowledged that this stereotype still exists).[7][8][9]

Etymology

The word tennis came into use in English in the mid-14th century from French, via the Anglo-Norman term Tenez, which can be translated as 'hold!', 'receive!' or 'take!', a call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve.[10] The first known appearance of the word in English literature is by poet John Gower in his poem titled 'In Praise of Peace' dedicated to King Henry IV and composed in 1400; "Of the tenetz to winne or lese a chase, Mai no lif wite er that the bal be ronne". (Whether a chase is won or lost at tennis, Nobody can know until the ball is run).[a][12][13][14][15]

Origin

 
Real tennis racquets and balls. Cahusac at the Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club.

Tennis is mentioned in literature as far back as the Middle Ages. In The Second Shepherds' Play (c. 1500) shepherds gave three gifts, including a tennis ball, to the newborn Christ. Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's round table, plays tennis against a group of 17 giants in The Turke and Gowin (c. 1500).[16][17]

Real tennis

The Medieval form of tennis is termed as real tennis, a game that evolved over three centuries from an earlier ball game played around the 12th century in France that involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove.[18][19] By the 16th century the glove had become a racquet, the game had moved to an enclosed playing area and the rules had stabilized. Real tennis spread in popularity throughout royalty in Europe, reaching its peak in the 16th century.

In 1437 at the Blackfriars, Perth, the playing of tennis indirectly led to the death of King James I of Scotland, when the drain outlet, through which he hoped to escape assassins, had been blocked to prevent the loss of tennis balls.[20] James was trapped and killed.[21]

Francis I of France (1515–1547) was an enthusiastic player and promoter of real tennis, building courts and encouraging play among the courtiers and commoners. His successor, Henry II (1547–59), was also an excellent player and continued the royal French tradition. In 1555 an Italian priest, Antonio Scaino da Salothe, wrote the first known book about tennis, Trattato del Giuoco della Palla. Two French kings died from tennis related episodes—Louis X of a severe chill after playing and Charles VIII after hitting his head during a game.[22] King Charles IX granted a constitution to the Corporation of Tennis Professionals in 1571, creating the first pro tennis 'tour', establishing three professional levels: apprentice, associate, and master. A professional named Forbet wrote and published the first codification of the rules in 1599.[23]

Royal interest in England began with Henry V (1413–22). Henry VIII (1509–47) made the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court on a court he had built in 1530. It is believed that his second wife, Anne Boleyn, was watching a game when she was arrested and that Henry was playing when news of her execution arrived. During the reign of James I (1603–25) London had 14 courts.[24]

 
Drawing of a Lawn Tennis court as originally designed by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1874
 
Cover of the first edition of the book about Lawn Tennis by Walter Clopton Wingfield, published in February 1874
 
Tennis doubles final at 1896 Olympic Games

Real tennis is mentioned in literature by William Shakespeare, who mentions "tennis balles" in Henry V (1599), when a basket of them is given to King Henry as a mockery of his youth and playfulness; the incident is also mentioned in some earlier chronicles and ballads.[25] One of the most striking early references appears in a painting by Giambattista Tiepolo entitled The Death of Hyacinth (1752–1753), in which a strung racquet and three tennis balls are depicted. The theme of the painting is the mythological story of Apollo and Hyacinth, written by Ovid. Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara translated it into Italian in 1561 and replaced the ancient game of discus in the original text with pallacorda or tennis, which had achieved a high status at the courts in the middle of the 16th century. Tiepolo's painting, displayed at the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid, was ordered in 1752 by German count Wilhelm Friedrich Schaumburg Lippe, who was an avid tennis player.

The game thrived among the 17th-century nobility in France, Spain, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire but suffered under English Puritanism. By the Age of Napoleon the royal families of Europe were besieged and real tennis was largely abandoned.[26] Real tennis played a minor role in the history of the French Revolution, through the Tennis Court Oath, a pledge signed by French deputies on a real tennis court, which formed a decisive early step in starting the revolution.

An epitaph in St Michael's Church, Coventry, written circa 1705 read, in part:[27]

Here lyes an old toss'd Tennis Ball:
Was racketted, from spring to fall,
With so much heat and so much hast,
Time's arm for shame grew tyred at last.

In England, during the 18th and early 19th centuries as real tennis declined, three other racquet sports emerged: racquets, squash racquets and lawn tennis (the modern game).

Birth of lawn tennis

 
Augurio Perera's house in Edgbaston, Birmingham, where he and Harry Gem first played the modern game of lawn tennis
 
Amateur tennis match in Sweden, 1892.

The lawyer and memoirist William Hickey recalled that in 1767 "in the summer we had another club, which met at the Red House in Battersea fields, nearly opposite Ranelagh.... The game we played was an invention of our own, and called field tennis, which afforded noble exercise.... The field, which was of sixteen acres in extent, was kept in as high an order, and smooth as a bowling green."[28]

The modern sport is tied to two separate inventions.

Between 1859 and 1865, in Birmingham, England, Major Harry Gem, a solicitor, and his friend Augurio Perera, a Spanish merchant, combined elements of the game of racquets and Basque pelota and played it on a croquet lawn in Edgbaston.[29][30] In 1872, both men moved to Leamington Spa and in 1874, with two doctors from the Warneford Hospital, founded the world's first tennis club, the Leamington Tennis Club.[31]

In December 1873 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed an hourglass-shaped tennis court in order to obtain a patent on his court (as the rectangular court was already in use and was unpatentable). A temporary patent on this hourglass-shaped court was granted to him in February, 1874, which he never renewed when it expired in 1877. It is commonly believed, mistakenly, that Wingfield obtained a patent on the game he devised to be played on that type of court, but in fact Wingfield never applied for nor received a patent on his game, although he did obtain a copyright — but not a patent — on his rules for playing it. And, after a running series of articles and letters in the British sporting magazine The Field, and a meeting at London's Marylebone Cricket Club, the official rules of lawn tennis were promulgated by that Club in 1875, which preserved none of the aspects of the variations that Wingfield had dreamed up and named Sphaeristikè (Greek: σφαιριστική, that is, "sphere-istic", an ancient Greek adjective meaning "of or pertaining to use of a ball, globe or sphere"), which was soon corrupted to "sticky". Wingfield claimed that he had invented his version of the game for the amusement of his guests at a weekend garden party on his estate of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales in 1874, but research has demonstrated that even his game was not likely played during that country weekend in Wales.[32][33] He had likely based his game on both the evolving sport of outdoor tennis and on real tennis. Much of modern tennis terminology also derives from this period, for Wingfield and others borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of real tennis, and applied them to their variations of real tennis.[34] In the scholarly work Tennis: A Cultural History, Heiner Gillmeister reveals that on December 8, 1874, Wingfield had written to Harry Gem, commenting that he had been experimenting with his version of lawn tennis for a year and a half.[35] Gem himself had largely credited Perera with the invention of the game.

Wingfield did patent his hourglass court [36] in 1874, but not his eight-page rule book titled "Sphairistike or Lawn Tennis",[37] but he failed in enforcing his patent.[38] In his version, the game was played on an hourglass-shaped court, and the net was higher (4 feet 8 inches) than it is in official lawn tennis. The service had to be made from a diamond-shaped box in the middle of one side of the court only, and the service had to bounce beyond the service line instead of in front of it. He adopted the rackets-based system of scoring where games consisted of 15 points (called 'aces').[39] None of these quirks survived the Marylebone Cricket Club's 1875 Rules of Lawn Tennis that have been official, with periodic slight modifications, ever since then. Those rules were adopted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the first Lawn Tennis Championship, at Wimbledon in 1877 (the men who devised those rules were members of both clubs). Wingfield does deserve great credit for popularizing the game of lawn tennis, as he marketed, in one boxed set, all the equipment needed to play his or other versions of it, equipment that had been available previously only at several different outlets. Because of this convenience, versions of the game spread like wildfire in Britain, and by 1875 lawn tennis had virtually supplanted croquet and badminton as outdoor games for both men and women.

Mary Ewing Outerbridge played the game in Bermuda at Clermont, a house with a spacious lawn in Paget parish.[40] Innumerable histories claim that in 1874, Mary returned from Bermuda onboard the ship S.S. Canima and introduced lawn tennis to the United States,[41] setting up supposedly the first tennis court in the United States on the grounds of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, which was near where the Staten Island Ferry Terminal is today.[42] The club was founded on or about March 22, 1872. She is also mistakenly said to have played the first tennis game in the U.S. against her sister Laura in Staten Island, New York on an hourglass-shaped court.[42] However, all this would have been impossible, as the tennis equipment she is said to have brought back from Bermuda was not available in Bermuda until 1875, and her next trip to Bermuda, when it was available there, was in 1877. In fact, lawn tennis was first introduced in the United States on a grass court on Col. William Appleton's Estate in Nahant, Massachusetts by Dr. James Dwight ("the Father of American Lawn Tennis"), Henry Slocum, Richard Dudley Sears and Sears' half-brother Fred Sears, in 1874.

Terminology

Wingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of real tennis:

  • Tennis comes from the French tenez, the formal imperative form of the verb tenir, to hold, meaning "hold!", "receive!" or "take!", an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent to indicate that he is about to serve.[43]
  • Racket (or racquet) derives from the Arabic rakhat, meaning the palm of the hand.[44]
  • Deuce comes from "a deux du jeu" - two points away from game (that is, two consecutive points must be scored to win the game).[45]
  • The origin of the use of love for zero is disputed. It is ascribed to derive from l'œuf, French for "the egg", traditionally representing the shape of a zero.[46][47] Another possibility is that it derives from the Dutch expression "iets voor lof doen", which means to do something for praise, implying no monetary stakes.[48]
  • The reason for the numbering of scores being "15", "30" and "40" is unknown. Historical sources suggest the system was originally 15, 30, 45 with the 45 simplified to 40 over time. Common theories are that it originated from the quarters of a clock, or from gambling stakes or just a trick from royal families to confuse the servants and maids so they wouldn't understand the system of scoring (that's why they use 40 in their system and not 45).

Tournaments and tours of the Amateur Era

Amateur tournaments

The Four Majors

The four majors or Grand Slam tournaments, the four biggest competitions on the tennis circuit, are Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open. Since the mid-1920s they became and have remained the more prestigious events in tennis.[4][49] Winning these four tournaments in the same year is called the Calendar Grand Slam (a term borrowed from bridge).[50]

1877: Wimbledon
Main article: Wimbledon, The Beginning

The Championships, Wimbledon, were founded by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in 1877 to raise money for the club.[51] The first Championships were contested by 22 men and the winner received a Silver Gilt Cup proclaiming the winner to be "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World".[52] The first Championships culminated a significant debate on how to standardize the rules. The following year, it was recognized as the official British Championships, although it was open to international competitors. In 1884 the Ladies Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles Championships were inaugurated, followed by the Ladies and Mixed Doubles in 1913.[53]

1881: U.S. Open
Main article: History of U.S. Open

Tennis was first played in the U.S. on a grass court set up on the Estate of Col. William Appleton in Nahant, Massachusetts by James Dwight, Richard Dudley Sears and Fred Sears in 1874.[54] In 1881, the desire to play tennis competitively led to the establishment of tennis clubs.[4]

The first American National tournament was played in 1880 at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club in New York. An Englishman named Otway Woodhouse won the singles match. There was also a doubles match which was won by a local pair. There were different rules at each club. The ball in Boston was larger than the one normally used in NY. On May 21, 1881, the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association) was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions.[55]

The U.S. National Men's Singles Championship, now the US Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island.[56] The U.S. National Women's Singles Championships were first held in 1887 in Philadelphia.[57]

The tournament was made officially one of the tennis 'Majors' from 1924 by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF).

1891/1925: French Open
Main article: History of French Open

Tennis was predominantly a sport of the English-speaking world, dominated by Great Britain and the United States.[58] It was also popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891 as the Championat de France International de Tennis. This tournament was not recognised as a Major or Grand Slam tournament until it was opened to all nationalities in 1925.

1905: Australian Open
Main article: History of Australian Open

The Australian Open was first played in 1905 as The Australasian (Australia and New Zealand) Championships. Because of its geographic remoteness, historically, the event did not gain attendance from the top tennis players. It became one of the major tennis tournaments starting in 1924 (designated by the ILTF). In 1927, because of New Zealand tennis authorities releasing their commitments to the tournament, it became known as the Australian Championships. For most of the 1970s and the early 1980s, the event lacked participation from top ranked tennis professionals. Since its move to Melbourne Park in 1988, the Australian Open has gained the popularity of the other three majors.

The Davis Cup

Main article: Davis Cup

In 1898, Dwight F. Davis of the Harvard University tennis team designed a tournament format with the idea of challenging the British to a tennis showdown.[59] The first match, between the United States and Great Britain was held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900.[60] The American team, of which Dwight Davis was a part, surprised the British by winning the first three matches. By 1905 the tournament had expanded to include Belgium, Austria, France, and Australasia, a combined team from Australia and New Zealand that competed jointly until 1913.

The tournament initially was known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. It was renamed the Davis Cup following the death of Dwight Davis in 1945. The tournament has vastly expanded and, on its 100th anniversary in 1999, 130 nations competed.

International Tennis Federation

 
1896 Summer Olympics men's singles final

1913 also saw 12 national tennis associations agree at a Paris conference to form the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF), renamed in 1977 as the current International Tennis Federation (ITF).[61] The rules the association promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing century, the one major change being the addition of the tie-break system designed by James Van Alen.[62]

The same year, tennis withdrew from the Olympics after the 1924 Games but returned 60 years later as a 21-and-under demonstration event in 1984. This reinstatement was credited by the efforts by the then ITF President Philippe Chatrier, ITF General Secretary David Gray and ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens as well as support from IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The success of the event was overwhelming, and the IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full medal sport at Seoul in 1988.

The Fed Cup

Main article: Fed Cup

The idea of a Davis Cup-style tournament for national women's teams is surprisingly old—it was first proposed in 1919 by Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman. After she was turned down, she donated a trophy in 1923 that would be known as the Wightman Cup, awarded in an annual match between the two strongest women's tennis nations of the time, the United States and Great Britain.[63]

Wightman's original idea for a worldwide women's team tournament would bear fruit more than 40 years later in 1962, when Nell Hopman persuaded the ITF to begin sponsoring such an event. The first Federation Cup was played in 1963 as part of the ITF's 50th anniversary celebrations; it involved 16 countries and was played over one week. By the 1990s, over 70 nations competed each year, and regional qualifiers were introduced in 1992. In 1995, the ITF introduced a new Davis Cup-style format for the competition and rechristened it the Fed Cup.

The professional circuit

In 1926, promoter C.C. Pyle established the first professional tour with a group of American and French players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences.[4][64] The most notable early professionals were American Vinnie Richards and Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen.[4][6] Players turning pro could not compete in the major (amateur) tournaments.[4]

Before the Open Era, the leading professional players were under contract with a professional promoter who controlled their appearances. For example, in 1926, Lenglen and Richards toured North America along with Paul Féret and Mary K. Browne under contract to Charles C. Pyle. The main events of the professional circuit comprised head-to-head competition and by-invitation Pro Championships, which were the equivalent of the Grand Slam tournaments on the professional circuit.

Suzanne Lenglen was the leading player in the first year of the professional circuit, and after she retired in February 1927, few female players played on the professional circuit before the Open Era.

Pro tours

Main article: Tennis Pro Tours

In the years before the Open Era, professionals often played more frequently on head-to-head tours than in tournaments because tours paid much better than tournaments and the number of professional tournaments was small. For example, Fred Perry earned U.S. $91,000 ($1,852,440 today) in a 1937 North American tour against Ellsworth Vines but won only U.S. $450 ($9,355) for his 1938 victory at the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships. Vines probably never entered a tournament in 1937 and 1938. In 1937, Vines played 70 matches on two tours and no tournament matches. Even in the 1950s, some professionals continued to play tour matches. During his first five months as a professional (January through May 1957), Ken Rosewall played 76 matches on a tour against Pancho Gonzales but only 9 tournament matches. Joe McCauley determined that for 1952, only 7 professional tournaments were played by the top international players, and 2 other professional tournaments (the British Pro and the German Pro) were reserved for domestic players. Only during the 1960s did professional tournaments become more significant than tours.

Pro Championships (Pro Slams)

Main article: Major professional tennis tournaments before the Open Era

In addition to head-to-head events several annual professional tournaments were called championship tournaments. The most prestigious was usually the Wembley Championship, held at the Wembley Arena in England, played between 1934 and 1990. The oldest was the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, played between 1927 and 1999. Between 1954 and 1962, it was played indoors in Cleveland and was called the World Professional Championships. The third major tournament was the French Pro Championship, played between 1930 and 1968. The British and American championships continued into the Open Era but devolved to the status of minor tournaments after the late 1960s.

The Tournament of Champions was held between 1957 and 1959, the 1957 Australian editions taking place in Sydney White City and Melbourne Kooyong, while the U.S. editions in 1957, 1958 and 1959 took place at Forest Hills, Queens. There was also the Wimbledon Pro tournament held in August 1967, the first tournament where professional tennis players were allowed to play at Wimbledon.

Open Era

"Open era" redirects here. For other uses, see Open era (disambiguation).
See also: Open era tennis records – men's singles and Open Era tennis records – women's singles
 
The French Championships at Roland Garros was the first Grand Slam tournament to become "open" to professionals

The Open Era began in 1968 when Grand Slam tournaments agreed to allow professional players to compete with amateurs.[65] Before 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in Grand Slam tournaments and other events organized or sanctioned by the ILTF, including the Davis Cup.

The move is made because the English are tired of the hypocrisy in the sport, the shamateurism that plagues high-class tennis. It is well known that amateurs bargain for – and receive – exorbitant expenses to compete at many tournaments. "We must take action on our own account to make the game honest", said Derek Penmam of the British association. "For too long now we have been governed by a set of amateur rules that are quite unenforceable."[65]

During the first years of the Open Era, power struggles between the ILTF and the commercial promoters led to boycotts of Grand Slam events. The first Open Era event was the 1968 British Hard Court Championships held in April at The West Hants Club in Bournemouth, England,[66] while the first open Grand Slam tournament was the 1968 French Open in May.[67] Both tournaments were won by Ken Rosewall. The Open Era allowed all tennis players the opportunity to make a living by playing tennis.[68]

National Tennis League (NTL) and World Championship Tennis (WCT)

In 1968, a few professionals were independent, including Lew Hoad, Mal Anderson, Luis Ayala, and Owen Davidson, but most of the best players were under contract. George McCall operated the National Tennis League (NTL) and managed Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Andrés Gimeno, Pancho Gonzales, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson. Dave Dixon (later succeeded by Lamar Hunt) ran World Championship Tennis (WCT) and managed the "Handsome Eight": John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Nikola Pilić, Roger Taylor, Pierre Barthès, Earl "Butch" Buchholz, Cliff Drysdale and Dennis Ralston. In 1968, none of the original Handsome Eight WCT players participated in the French Open. In 1970, NTL players did not play in the Australian Open because their organization did not receive a guarantee. In 1970, neither WCT nor NTL players played in the French Open.

Grand Prix circuit

Main article: Grand Prix tennis circuit

In the first two years of the Open Era, the National Tennis League and WCT promoters began to take control of the game. To outmaneuver them, Jack Kramer, the best player of the late 1940s / early 1950s, and at that time a promoter, conceived the Grand Prix tennis circuit in late 1969. He described it as:

. . . a series of tournaments with a money bonus pool that would be split up on the basis of a cumulative point system. This would encourage the best players to compete regularly in the series, so that they could share in the bonus at the end and qualify for a special championship tournament that would climax the year.[69]

In 1970, none of the contract players participated in the French Open. The International Lawn Tennis Federation, alarmed by the control of the promoters, approved Kramer's Grand Prix. Twenty-seven tournaments, including the three Grand Slams (French Open, Wimbledon and US Open), were played that year, with Stockholm tournament ending on 1 November. The independent professional players along with a few contract players, entered the Grand Prix circuit. Contract players could play Grand Prix events provided their contracts allowed it, and that they had adequate time apart from their own circuit.

Tour rivalries and the creation of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP)

The first WCT tournaments were held in February 1968 and the first NTL tournaments in March 1969. In July 1970, the WCT absorbed the NTL.[70] At the end of 1970, a panel of journalists ranked the players, leading the WCT to send invitations to the 32 top men to play the 1971 WCT circuit: among the 32, Ilie Năstase, Stan Smith, Jan Kodeš, Željko Franulović and Clark Graebner stayed independent. In 1971, the WCT ran 20 tournaments, and concluded the year with the WCT Finals. In 1971, the majority of the best players still mainly played the WCT circuit. Thus, the 1971 Australian Open was a WCT competition whereas the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open were ILTF Grand Prix events.[citation needed]

By then, the rivalry between the two groups became so intense that Rosewall, Gimeno, Laver, Emerson and some other WCT players boycotted the 1971 US Open (although Newcombe played and lost in the first round to Kodes). Bill Riordan (the future manager of Jimmy Connors) complicated matters further with a third professional tour, the U.S. Indoor Circuit. In 1972, the conflict between the ILTF and the WCT culminated in the ILTF banning the contract professional players from all ILTF Grand Prix events between January and July, which included the 1972 French Open and 1972 Wimbledon.[citation needed]

At the 1972 US Open in September, all the players attended and agreed to form a player syndicate to protect themselves from the promoters and associations, resulting in the creation of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

In 1973, there were four rival professional circuits: the WCT circuit, the Grand Prix circuit, the U.S. Indoor Circuit with Connors and Ilie Năstase and the European Spring Circuit with Năstase as their star. During the year, the ILTF banned Nikola Pilić from 1973 Wimbledon, due to Pilic's alleged refusal to play in Yugoslavia's Davis Cup tie against New Zealand. In retaliation, 81 out of 84 of Pilic's fellow players who were ATP members, boycotted 1973 Wimbledon in response, stating that professional players should have the right of deciding whether to play Davis Cup matches or not. The only ATP players who refused to boycott 1973 Wimbledon were Ilie Năstase, Roger Taylor and Ray Keldie. They were later fined by the ATP for their participation in the tournament.

Between 1974 and 1978, any tennis player who participated in the nascent World Team Tennis, which conflicted with the European leg of the Grand Prix circuit, was banned by the French Tennis Federation from playing in the French Open in the same calendar year.[71][why?]

Integration

In 1978 the ILTF Grand Prix and WCT circuits merged. However, In 1982, the WCT circuit separated again and created a more complex WCT ranking, similar to the ATP ranking. The WCT was not as successful in the 1980s, and the Grand Prix circuit became the primary circuit. The Grand Prix's governance was led by the Men's International Professional Tennis Council (also called the Men's Tennis Council).[72] The WCT Finals in Dallas continued being held until the end of the 1980s, and then disbanded with the creation of the ATP Tour for 1990.

The Open Era, the global professional circuit, and television helped tennis spread globally and shed its elitist, anglocentric image. In America, since the 1970s, courts have been a common feature of public recreational facilities. Accordingly, in the 1970s, the U.S. Open moved from the private West Side Tennis Club to a public park (the USTA National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows Park) that is accessible to anyone who buys a ticket.[73] About the same time, the ruling body's name changed from the United States Lawn Tennis Association to the United States Tennis Association.[74]

ATP Tour

In 1990, the Association of Tennis Professionals, led by Hamilton Jordan, replaced the MTC as the governing body of men's professional tennis. They established the ATP Tour, and packaged the nine most prestigious events as the "Championship Series – Single Tournament Week", and beginning in 1996, as the "Super Nine". Twelve of the Grand Prix which were slightly less prestigious than the first nine events were renamed as the "Championship Series – Double Week" (meaning in most cases, 2 of those tournaments occurred the same week). Winning a Super Nine tournament was worth roughly half the points (370) of winning a Grand Slam tournament (750), while Championship Series tournaments were worth as much as 360 points depending on the total prize money. The format continued until 2000 at which time the Super Nine were renamed the Masters Series (the winner being awarded 500 points), occupying the rank below the Grand Slams (1000 points for the winner), and the Championship Series was renamed to simply the International Series Gold (worth 250 to 300 points for the winner). In 2000, the Grand Slam tournaments and the Masters Series tournaments became mandatory professional events if a player's ranking qualifies them for the tournament. Players were automatically entered and Masters and Slam events became the baseline for player rankings with up to an additional 5 tournaments also counted (18 in all plus the ATP Finals if they qualify). Before 2000, a players' best 14 tournaments were counted towards the ATP Point Rankings.

In 2009, the Masters events were renamed the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 with the Monte-Carlo Masters becoming a non-mandatory event, meaning a player could use his results from a lower-level tournament in place of it. International Series Gold became the ATP World Tour 500 and the remaining events became the ATP World Tour 250. The numbers in the tournament type name indicate the winners' ranking points. By way of comparison, a winner of one of the four Grand Slam tournaments is awarded 2000 points. In 2009, a greater emphasis began to be placed on winning a tournament, as the points awarded to the runner-up dropped from 70% of the champion's points to 60% (i.e. from 700 points to 600 points in a Masters 1000 event). Points also began to be awarded for Davis Cup singles play.

Women's professional tennis

Women's professional tennis began in 1926, when world number one female player Suzanne Lenglen accepted $50,000 for a series of matches against three-time U.S. Champion Mary K. Browne. The series ended in 1927, and the women did not compete as professionals again until 1941 when Alice Marble headlined a tour against Mary Hardwick. World War II hindered most professional competitions and many players were involved with entertaining the troops.

In 1947, women professionals were again in action with a short-lived series of exhibition matches between Pauline Betz and Sarah Palfrey Cooke, both U.S. National Champions. In 1950 and 1951, Bobby Riggs signed Betz and Gussie Moran to play a pro tour with Jack Kramer and Pancho Segura, wherein Betz dominated Moran. Althea Gibson turned professional in 1958 and joined with Karol Fageros ("the Golden Goddess") as the opening act for the Harlem Globetrotters for one season.

There was virtually no further women's professional tennis until 1967, when promoter George McCall signed Billie Jean King, Ann Jones, Françoise Dürr, and Rosie Casals to join his tour of eight men for two years.[75] The professional women then played as independents as the Open Era began.

In 1970, promoter for the Pacific Southwest Championships in Los Angeles Jack Kramer offered the women only $7,500 in prize money versus the men's total of $50,000. When Kramer refused to match the men's prize money, King and Casals urged the other women to boycott.

Gladys Heldman, American publisher of World Tennis magazine, responded with a separate women's tour under the sponsorship of Virginia Slims cigarettes. In 1971 and 1972, the WT Women's Pro Tour offered nearly 10 times the prize money of other pro women's tennis events. The USLTA initially would not sanction the tour; however, the two groups determined to give Virginia Slims the individual events, and the USLTA the tour, thus resolving the conflict. In 1973, the U.S. Open made history by offering equal prize money to men and women. Billie Jean King, the most visible advocate for the women's cause, earned over $100,000 in 1971 and 1972.[76]

In the famous Battle of the Sexes exhibition match against the vocally sexist Bobby Riggs in September 1973, King brought even more media attention to tennis, and to women professionals in all walks of life by beating Riggs.

The Women's Tennis Association, formed in 1973, is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis, organizing the worldwide, professional WTA Tour. From 1984 to 1998, the finals matches of the championship event were best-of-five, uniquely among women's tournaments. In 1999, the finals reverted to best-of-three. The WTA Tour Championships are generally considered to be the women's fifth most prestigious event (after the four Grand Slam tournaments.) Sponsors have included Virginia Slims (1971–78), Avon (1979–82), Virginia Slims again (1983–94), J.P. Morgan Chase (1996–2000), Sanex (2001) Home Depot (2002), and Sony Ericsson (2006).

International Tennis Hall of Fame

In 1954, James Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island.[77] The building contains a large collection of memorabilia as well as honoring prominent players and others. Each year, a grass-court tournament takes place on its grounds, as well as an induction ceremony honoring new members.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The first known instance of the word tennis in the English language dates to 1396 when a William Terrey had to appear before the burghmote of Canterbury for allowing people to play le Closhe and le Tenesse on his ground.[11]

References

  1. ^ Gillmeister, Heiner (1998). Tennis : A Cultural History. Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press. p. 117. ISBN 081473121X.
  2. ^ Crego, Robert. Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries, page 115 (2003).
  3. ^ "Davis Cup History". ITF.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Suzanne Lenglen and the First Pro Tour". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  5. ^ "History of the Pro Tennis Wars Chapter 2, part 1 1927–1928". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  6. ^ a b Open Minded 2007-10-31 at the Wayback Machine – Bruce Goldman
  7. ^ a b Jon Henderson (2008-12-10). "Middle-class heroes can lift our game". London: The Observer, theguardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-08-02. it was no longer true that tennis was a middle-class sport
  8. ^ Kate Magee (2008-07-10). "Max Clifford to help shed tennis' middle-class image". PR Week. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
  9. ^ The Sugarman. "There are 3 levels of social class in tennis: Upper middle class, middle class and lower middle class". BookieBusters.net. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
  10. ^ "tennis – Origin and history of tennis by Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  11. ^ Gillmeister, Heiner (1998). Tennis : A Cultural History. Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press. p. 106. ISBN 081473121X.
  12. ^ Gillmeister, Heiner (1998). Tennis : A Cultural History. Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press. p. 40. ISBN 081473121X.
  13. ^ Whitman, Malcolm D. (2004) [1932]. Tennis : Origins and Mysteries (Dover ed.). Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. pp. 25, 26. ISBN 0486433579.
  14. ^ United States Tennis Association (1979). Bill Shannon (ed.). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (Rev. and updated 1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row. p. 2. ISBN 0060144785.
  15. ^ "John Gower: In Praise of Peace". University of Rochester. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  16. ^ Gillmeister, Heiner (1998). Tennis : A Cultural History. Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press. pp. 75, 76. ISBN 081473121X.
  17. ^ Hahn, Thomas(1995). Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Medieval Institute Publications
  18. ^ Clerici, Gianni (1976). Tennis. London: Octopus Books. p. 21. ISBN 9780706405231. OCLC 16360735.
  19. ^ Schickel, Richard (1975). The World of Tennis. New York: Random House. p. 32. ISBN 0-394-49940-9.
  20. ^ Roger Morgan (1991). "The silver ball of rattray: a note on an early form of tennis". The International Journal of the History of Sport. 8 (3).
  21. ^ McGladdery, The Kings & Queens of Scotland: James I, p. 143
  22. ^ Schickel, Richard (1975). The World of Tennis. New York: Random House. p. 32. ISBN 0-394-49940-9.
  23. ^ The Encyclopedia of Tennisp. 17
  24. ^ The Encyclopedia of Tennis, p. 18
  25. ^ Shakespeare, William (Early 1600s). The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth. Act 1, Scene 2
  26. ^ The Encyclopedia of Tennis, p. 21
  27. ^ John Astley (1885), The Monumental Inscriptions in the Parish Church of S. Michael, Coventry, together with drawings of all the arms found therein, p. 21, Wikidata Q98360469
  28. ^ Quennell, Peter, ed. The Prodigal Rake: the Memoirs of William Hickey (1962) p.58.
  29. ^ Tyzack, Anna, The True Home of Tennis Country Life, 22 June 2005
  30. ^ Lawn Tennis and Major T. H. Gem February 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Birmingham Civic Society
  31. ^ "Leamington Tennis Club". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  32. ^ E. M. Halliday (June 1971). "Sphairistiké, Anyone?". American Heritage.
  33. ^ The History of Tennis – Mary Bellis
  34. ^ Robertson, Max (1974). Encyclopedia of Tennis. The Viking Press. pp. 22–24.
  35. ^
  36. ^ "23 February 1874 in History". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  37. ^ "When the Girls Came Out to Play: The Birth of American Sportswear". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  38. ^ The Beginnings Of Lawn Tennis – University of South Carolina Libraries
  39. ^ Barrett, John (2010). The Original Rules of Tennis. Oxford: Bodleian Library. pp. 13–19. ISBN 9781851243181.
  40. ^ "Bermuda's Place in Tennis History". Blackburne.
  41. ^ "Bermudas Place in Tennis History > The IC of Bermuda". Ictennis.net. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  42. ^ a b "Our History". Staten Island Tennis Association. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  43. ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. 1927-06-10. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  44. ^ . Archived from the original on 2007-11-01. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  45. ^ "The Online Guide to Traditional Games". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  46. ^ Palmatier, Robert (1995). "Speaking of animals: a dictionary of animal metaphors". p. 245. ISBN 9780313294907.
  47. ^ Horn, Geoffrey. Rafael Nadal, page 13 (2006).
  48. ^ Bondt, Cees de (1993). Heeft yemant lust met bal, of met reket te spelen...?. Hilversum: Verloren. p. 10. ISBN 9789065503794.
  49. ^ Grand Slam – Australian Open
  50. ^ "Originality of the phrase "Grand Slam"". Archived from the original on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  51. ^ "History of Tennis". International Tennis Federation. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  52. ^ . wimbledon.org. Archived from the original on 2009-04-27. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
  53. ^ . wimbledon.org. Archived from the original on 2010-12-09. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
  54. ^ . Archived from the original on 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  55. ^ . Archived from the original on 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  56. ^ "Fact & History of Rhodes Island". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  57. ^ Leading The Way – BBC Sport
  58. ^ . Archived from the original on 2006-02-25. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  59. ^ "Davis Cup History". daviscup.com. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  60. ^ . Archived from the original on 2007-07-27. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  61. ^ History of The Davis Cup. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  62. ^ . Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  63. ^ "Fed Cup History". International Tennis Federation (ITF).
  64. ^ "History of the Pro Tennis Wars Chapter 2, part 1 1927–1928". Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  65. ^ a b "Open tennis accepted for Wimbledon". espn.go.com. ESPN. 14 December 1967.
  66. ^ Henderson, Jon (15 June 2008). "Now I'd choose tennis". The Observer. 'Yes, "open" tennis has come at last and Bournemouth has been entrusted with the task of a world shaking launching,' said the programme notes for the 1968 Hard Court Championships of Great Britain, which brought an end to the sport's segregation of amateur and professional players.
  67. ^ . Roland Garros Official Website. IBM Corporation and Fédération Française de Tennis. Archived from the original on 2008-07-04. Another significant turning point came in 1968 when the French Internationals became the first Grand Slam tournament to join the "Open"" era.
  68. ^ "Power struggle on the tennis courts". The Canberra Times. 19 June 1969. p. 30 – via National Library of Australia.
  69. ^ THE GAME My 40 Years in Tennis, by Jack Kramer with Frank Deford, pages 275–276
  70. ^ "New grip on masters". Press & Sun-Bulletin. 29 July 1970. p. 3C – via Newspapers.com.
  71. ^ "French to lift ban on W.T.T. players". The New York Times. 4 November 1974.
  72. ^ "ATP corporate history". Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  73. ^ . Archived from the original on 2004-05-19. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  74. ^ . Archived from the original on November 12, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  75. ^ Max Robertson, The Encyclopedia of Tennis, 1974, The Viking Press, New York, ISBN 978-0-670-29408-4, p. 68
  76. ^ Max Robertson, p. 70
  77. ^ . Archived from the original on May 18, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of tennis.

August 29, 2023
history, tennis, racket, sport, traditionally, named, lawn, tennis, invented, edgbaston, birmingham, england, commonly, known, simply, tennis, direct, descendant, what, denoted, real, tennis, royal, tennis, which, continues, played, today, separate, sport, wit. The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis invented in Edgbaston Birmingham England now commonly known simply as tennis is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis which continues to be played today as a separate sport with more complex rules The first Lawn Tennis Club and tournament was held in Royal Leamington Spa on the 1st August 1882 Players on a roofless Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2008Most rules of lawn tennis derive from this precursor and it is reasonable to see both sports as variations of the same game Most historians believe that tennis originated in the monastic cloisters in northern France in the 12th century but the ball was then struck with the palm of the hand hence the name jeu de paume game of the palm 1 It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use and the game began to be called tennis It was popular in England and France and Henry VIII of England was an enthusiast of the game now referred to as real tennis 2 Many original tennis courts remain including courts at Oxford Cambridge Falkland Palace in Fife where Mary Queen of Scots regularly played and Hampton Court Palace Many of the French courts were decommissioned with the terror that accompanied the French Revolution The Tennis Court Oath Serment du Jeu de Paume was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution it was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates General on 20 June 1789 Marylebone Cricket Club s Rules of Lawn Tennis have been official with periodic slight modifications ever since 1875 Those rules were adopted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the first lawn tennis championship The Championships Wimbledon in 1877 The Davis Cup an annual competition between men s national teams dates to 1900 3 The analogous competition for women s national teams the Fed Cup was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Tennis Federation also known as the ITF Promoter C C Pyle created the first professional tennis tour in 1926 with a group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences 4 5 The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen 4 6 Players turning pro could not compete in the major amateur tournaments 4 In 1968 commercial pressures and rumors of some amateurs taking money under the table led to the abandonment of this distinction inaugurating the Open Era in which all players could compete in all tournaments and top players were able to make their living from tennis With the beginning of the Open Era the establishment of an international professional tennis circuit and revenues from the sale of television rights tennis s popularity has spread worldwide and the sport has shed its upper middle class English speaking image 7 although it is acknowledged that this stereotype still exists 7 8 9 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Origin 2 1 Real tennis 3 Birth of lawn tennis 4 Terminology 5 Tournaments and tours of the Amateur Era 5 1 Amateur tournaments 5 1 1 The Four Majors 5 1 1 1 1877 Wimbledon 5 1 1 2 1881 U S Open 5 1 1 3 1891 1925 French Open 5 1 1 4 1905 Australian Open 5 1 2 The Davis Cup 5 1 3 International Tennis Federation 5 1 4 The Fed Cup 5 2 The professional circuit 5 2 1 Pro tours 5 2 2 Pro Championships Pro Slams 6 Open Era 6 1 National Tennis League NTL and World Championship Tennis WCT 6 2 Grand Prix circuit 6 3 Tour rivalries and the creation of the Association of Tennis Professionals ATP 6 4 Integration 6 5 ATP Tour 7 Women s professional tennis 8 International Tennis Hall of Fame 9 See also 10 Notes 11 ReferencesEtymology EditThe word tennis came into use in English in the mid 14th century from French via the Anglo Norman term Tenez which can be translated as hold receive or take a call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve 10 The first known appearance of the word in English literature is by poet John Gower in his poem titled In Praise of Peace dedicated to King Henry IV and composed in 1400 Of the tenetz to winne or lese a chase Mai no lif wite er that the bal be ronne Whether a chase is won or lost at tennis Nobody can know until the ball is run a 12 13 14 15 Origin Edit Real tennis racquets and balls Cahusac at the Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club Tennis is mentioned in literature as far back as the Middle Ages In The Second Shepherds Play c 1500 shepherds gave three gifts including a tennis ball to the newborn Christ Sir Gawain a knight of King Arthur s round table plays tennis against a group of 17 giants in The Turke and Gowin c 1500 16 17 Real tennis Edit The Medieval form of tennis is termed as real tennis a game that evolved over three centuries from an earlier ball game played around the 12th century in France that involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove 18 19 By the 16th century the glove had become a racquet the game had moved to an enclosed playing area and the rules had stabilized Real tennis spread in popularity throughout royalty in Europe reaching its peak in the 16th century In 1437 at the Blackfriars Perth the playing of tennis indirectly led to the death of King James I of Scotland when the drain outlet through which he hoped to escape assassins had been blocked to prevent the loss of tennis balls 20 James was trapped and killed 21 Francis I of France 1515 1547 was an enthusiastic player and promoter of real tennis building courts and encouraging play among the courtiers and commoners His successor Henry II 1547 59 was also an excellent player and continued the royal French tradition In 1555 an Italian priest Antonio Scaino da Salothe wrote the first known book about tennis Trattato del Giuoco della Palla Two French kings died from tennis related episodes Louis X of a severe chill after playing and Charles VIII after hitting his head during a game 22 King Charles IX granted a constitution to the Corporation of Tennis Professionals in 1571 creating the first pro tennis tour establishing three professional levels apprentice associate and master A professional named Forbet wrote and published the first codification of the rules in 1599 23 Royal interest in England began with Henry V 1413 22 Henry VIII 1509 47 made the biggest impact as a young monarch playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court on a court he had built in 1530 It is believed that his second wife Anne Boleyn was watching a game when she was arrested and that Henry was playing when news of her execution arrived During the reign of James I 1603 25 London had 14 courts 24 Drawing of a Lawn Tennis court as originally designed by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1874 Cover of the first edition of the book about Lawn Tennis by Walter Clopton Wingfield published in February 1874 Tennis doubles final at 1896 Olympic GamesReal tennis is mentioned in literature by William Shakespeare who mentions tennis balles in Henry V 1599 when a basket of them is given to King Henry as a mockery of his youth and playfulness the incident is also mentioned in some earlier chronicles and ballads 25 One of the most striking early references appears in a painting by Giambattista Tiepolo entitled The Death of Hyacinth 1752 1753 in which a strung racquet and three tennis balls are depicted The theme of the painting is the mythological story of Apollo and Hyacinth written by Ovid Giovanni Andrea dell Anguillara translated it into Italian in 1561 and replaced the ancient game of discus in the original text with pallacorda or tennis which had achieved a high status at the courts in the middle of the 16th century Tiepolo s painting displayed at the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid was ordered in 1752 by German count Wilhelm Friedrich Schaumburg Lippe who was an avid tennis player The game thrived among the 17th century nobility in France Spain Italy and the Austro Hungarian Empire but suffered under English Puritanism By the Age of Napoleon the royal families of Europe were besieged and real tennis was largely abandoned 26 Real tennis played a minor role in the history of the French Revolution through the Tennis Court Oath a pledge signed by French deputies on a real tennis court which formed a decisive early step in starting the revolution An epitaph in St Michael s Church Coventry written circa 1705 read in part 27 Here lyes an old toss d Tennis Ball Was racketted from spring to fall With so much heat and so much hast Time s arm for shame grew tyred at last In England during the 18th and early 19th centuries as real tennis declined three other racquet sports emerged racquets squash racquets and lawn tennis the modern game Birth of lawn tennis Edit Augurio Perera s house in Edgbaston Birmingham where he and Harry Gem first played the modern game of lawn tennis Amateur tennis match in Sweden 1892 The lawyer and memoirist William Hickey recalled that in 1767 in the summer we had another club which met at the Red House in Battersea fields nearly opposite Ranelagh The game we played was an invention of our own and called field tennis which afforded noble exercise The field which was of sixteen acres in extent was kept in as high an order and smooth as a bowling green 28 The modern sport is tied to two separate inventions Between 1859 and 1865 in Birmingham England Major Harry Gem a solicitor and his friend Augurio Perera a Spanish merchant combined elements of the game of racquets and Basque pelota and played it on a croquet lawn in Edgbaston 29 30 In 1872 both men moved to Leamington Spa and in 1874 with two doctors from the Warneford Hospital founded the world s first tennis club the Leamington Tennis Club 31 In December 1873 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed an hourglass shaped tennis court in order to obtain a patent on his court as the rectangular court was already in use and was unpatentable A temporary patent on this hourglass shaped court was granted to him in February 1874 which he never renewed when it expired in 1877 It is commonly believed mistakenly that Wingfield obtained a patent on the game he devised to be played on that type of court but in fact Wingfield never applied for nor received a patent on his game although he did obtain a copyright but not a patent on his rules for playing it And after a running series of articles and letters in the British sporting magazine The Field and a meeting at London s Marylebone Cricket Club the official rules of lawn tennis were promulgated by that Club in 1875 which preserved none of the aspects of the variations that Wingfield had dreamed up and named Sphaeristike Greek sfairistikh that is sphere istic an ancient Greek adjective meaning of or pertaining to use of a ball globe or sphere which was soon corrupted to sticky Wingfield claimed that he had invented his version of the game for the amusement of his guests at a weekend garden party on his estate of Nantclwyd in Llanelidan Wales in 1874 but research has demonstrated that even his game was not likely played during that country weekend in Wales 32 33 He had likely based his game on both the evolving sport of outdoor tennis and on real tennis Much of modern tennis terminology also derives from this period for Wingfield and others borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of real tennis and applied them to their variations of real tennis 34 In the scholarly work Tennis A Cultural History Heiner Gillmeister reveals that on December 8 1874 Wingfield had written to Harry Gem commenting that he had been experimenting with his version of lawn tennis for a year and a half 35 Gem himself had largely credited Perera with the invention of the game Wingfield did patent his hourglass court 36 in 1874 but not his eight page rule book titled Sphairistike or Lawn Tennis 37 but he failed in enforcing his patent 38 In his version the game was played on an hourglass shaped court and the net was higher 4 feet 8 inches than it is in official lawn tennis The service had to be made from a diamond shaped box in the middle of one side of the court only and the service had to bounce beyond the service line instead of in front of it He adopted the rackets based system of scoring where games consisted of 15 points called aces 39 None of these quirks survived the Marylebone Cricket Club s 1875 Rules of Lawn Tennis that have been official with periodic slight modifications ever since then Those rules were adopted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the first Lawn Tennis Championship at Wimbledon in 1877 the men who devised those rules were members of both clubs Wingfield does deserve great credit for popularizing the game of lawn tennis as he marketed in one boxed set all the equipment needed to play his or other versions of it equipment that had been available previously only at several different outlets Because of this convenience versions of the game spread like wildfire in Britain and by 1875 lawn tennis had virtually supplanted croquet and badminton as outdoor games for both men and women Mary Ewing Outerbridge played the game in Bermuda at Clermont a house with a spacious lawn in Paget parish 40 Innumerable histories claim that in 1874 Mary returned from Bermuda onboard the ship S S Canima and introduced lawn tennis to the United States 41 setting up supposedly the first tennis court in the United States on the grounds of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club which was near where the Staten Island Ferry Terminal is today 42 The club was founded on or about March 22 1872 She is also mistakenly said to have played the first tennis game in the U S against her sister Laura in Staten Island New York on an hourglass shaped court 42 However all this would have been impossible as the tennis equipment she is said to have brought back from Bermuda was not available in Bermuda until 1875 and her next trip to Bermuda when it was available there was in 1877 In fact lawn tennis was first introduced in the United States on a grass court on Col William Appleton s Estate in Nahant Massachusetts by Dr James Dwight the Father of American Lawn Tennis Henry Slocum Richard Dudley Sears and Sears half brother Fred Sears in 1874 Terminology EditWingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of real tennis Tennis comes from the French tenez the formal imperative form of the verb tenir to hold meaning hold receive or take an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent to indicate that he is about to serve 43 Racket or racquet derives from the Arabic rakhat meaning the palm of the hand 44 Deuce comes from a deux du jeu two points away from game that is two consecutive points must be scored to win the game 45 The origin of the use of love for zero is disputed It is ascribed to derive from l œuf French for the egg traditionally representing the shape of a zero 46 47 Another possibility is that it derives from the Dutch expression iets voor lof doen which means to do something for praise implying no monetary stakes 48 The reason for the numbering of scores being 15 30 and 40 is unknown Historical sources suggest the system was originally 15 30 45 with the 45 simplified to 40 over time Common theories are that it originated from the quarters of a clock or from gambling stakes or just a trick from royal families to confuse the servants and maids so they wouldn t understand the system of scoring that s why they use 40 in their system and not 45 Tournaments and tours of the Amateur Era EditAmateur tournaments Edit The Four Majors Edit The four majors or Grand Slam tournaments the four biggest competitions on the tennis circuit are Wimbledon the US Open the French Open and the Australian Open Since the mid 1920s they became and have remained the more prestigious events in tennis 4 49 Winning these four tournaments in the same year is called the Calendar Grand Slam a term borrowed from bridge 50 1877 Wimbledon Edit Main article Wimbledon The Beginning The Championships Wimbledon were founded by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in 1877 to raise money for the club 51 The first Championships were contested by 22 men and the winner received a Silver Gilt Cup proclaiming the winner to be The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World 52 The first Championships culminated a significant debate on how to standardize the rules The following year it was recognized as the official British Championships although it was open to international competitors In 1884 the Ladies Singles and Gentlemen s Doubles Championships were inaugurated followed by the Ladies and Mixed Doubles in 1913 53 Name 1877 The Championships Surface 1877 Grass Venue change 1877 Worple Road Wimbledon 1922 Church Road Wimbledon 1881 U S Open Edit Main article History of U S Open Tennis was first played in the U S on a grass court set up on the Estate of Col William Appleton in Nahant Massachusetts by James Dwight Richard Dudley Sears and Fred Sears in 1874 54 In 1881 the desire to play tennis competitively led to the establishment of tennis clubs 4 The first American National tournament was played in 1880 at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club in New York An Englishman named Otway Woodhouse won the singles match There was also a doubles match which was won by a local pair There were different rules at each club The ball in Boston was larger than the one normally used in NY On May 21 1881 the United States National Lawn Tennis Association now the United States Tennis Association was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions 55 The U S National Men s Singles Championship now the US Open was first held in 1881 at Newport Rhode Island 56 The U S National Women s Singles Championships were first held in 1887 in Philadelphia 57 The tournament was made officially one of the tennis Majors from 1924 by the International Lawn Tennis Federation ILTF Name change 1881 U S National Championship 1968 U S Open Surface change 1881 Grass 1975 Clay Har Tru 1978 Hard DecoTurf Venue change men s championship 1881 Newport 1915 Forest Hills 1921 Germantown 1924 Forest Hills 1978 Flushing Meadows 1891 1925 French Open Edit Main article History of French Open Tennis was predominantly a sport of the English speaking world dominated by Great Britain and the United States 58 It was also popular in France where the French Open dates to 1891 as the Championat de France International de Tennis This tournament was not recognised as a Major or Grand Slam tournament until it was opened to all nationalities in 1925 Name change 1891 Championnat de France 1925 Championnats Internationaux de France 1928 Tournoi de Roland Garros Surface change 1891 Clay and Sand 1909 Clay Venue change 1891 1908 shared by Tennis Club de Paris Ile de Puteaux Paris Racing Club de France 1909 Societe Athletique de la Villa Primrose Bordeaux 1910 Racing Club de France Paris 1925 Stade Francais Paris 1926 Racing Club de France Paris 1927 Stade Francais Paris 1928 Stade Roland Garros Paris 1905 Australian Open Edit Main article History of Australian Open The Australian Open was first played in 1905 as The Australasian Australia and New Zealand Championships Because of its geographic remoteness historically the event did not gain attendance from the top tennis players It became one of the major tennis tournaments starting in 1924 designated by the ILTF In 1927 because of New Zealand tennis authorities releasing their commitments to the tournament it became known as the Australian Championships For most of the 1970s and the early 1980s the event lacked participation from top ranked tennis professionals Since its move to Melbourne Park in 1988 the Australian Open has gained the popularity of the other three majors Name change 1905 Australasian Championships 1927 Australian Championships 1969 Australian Open Surface change 1905 Grass 1988 Hard Rebound Ace 2008 Hard Plexicushion 2020 Hard GreenSet Venue change 1905 Melbourne 1906 Christchurch and alternated in Melbourne Sydney Adelaide Brisbane and Perth In 1912 at Hastings 1972 Kooyong 1988 Melbourne Park The Davis Cup Edit Main article Davis Cup In 1898 Dwight F Davis of the Harvard University tennis team designed a tournament format with the idea of challenging the British to a tennis showdown 59 The first match between the United States and Great Britain was held in Boston Massachusetts in 1900 60 The American team of which Dwight Davis was a part surprised the British by winning the first three matches By 1905 the tournament had expanded to include Belgium Austria France and Australasia a combined team from Australia and New Zealand that competed jointly until 1913 The tournament initially was known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge It was renamed the Davis Cup following the death of Dwight Davis in 1945 The tournament has vastly expanded and on its 100th anniversary in 1999 130 nations competed International Tennis Federation Edit 1896 Summer Olympics men s singles final1913 also saw 12 national tennis associations agree at a Paris conference to form the International Lawn Tennis Federation ILTF renamed in 1977 as the current International Tennis Federation ITF 61 The rules the association promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing century the one major change being the addition of the tie break system designed by James Van Alen 62 The same year tennis withdrew from the Olympics after the 1924 Games but returned 60 years later as a 21 and under demonstration event in 1984 This reinstatement was credited by the efforts by the then ITF President Philippe Chatrier ITF General Secretary David Gray and ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens as well as support from IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch The success of the event was overwhelming and the IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full medal sport at Seoul in 1988 The Fed Cup Edit Main article Fed Cup The idea of a Davis Cup style tournament for national women s teams is surprisingly old it was first proposed in 1919 by Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman After she was turned down she donated a trophy in 1923 that would be known as the Wightman Cup awarded in an annual match between the two strongest women s tennis nations of the time the United States and Great Britain 63 Wightman s original idea for a worldwide women s team tournament would bear fruit more than 40 years later in 1962 when Nell Hopman persuaded the ITF to begin sponsoring such an event The first Federation Cup was played in 1963 as part of the ITF s 50th anniversary celebrations it involved 16 countries and was played over one week By the 1990s over 70 nations competed each year and regional qualifiers were introduced in 1992 In 1995 the ITF introduced a new Davis Cup style format for the competition and rechristened it the Fed Cup The professional circuit Edit In 1926 promoter C C Pyle established the first professional tour with a group of American and French players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences 4 64 The most notable early professionals were American Vinnie Richards and Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen 4 6 Players turning pro could not compete in the major amateur tournaments 4 Before the Open Era the leading professional players were under contract with a professional promoter who controlled their appearances For example in 1926 Lenglen and Richards toured North America along with Paul Feret and Mary K Browne under contract to Charles C Pyle The main events of the professional circuit comprised head to head competition and by invitation Pro Championships which were the equivalent of the Grand Slam tournaments on the professional circuit Suzanne Lenglen was the leading player in the first year of the professional circuit and after she retired in February 1927 few female players played on the professional circuit before the Open Era Pro tours Edit Main article Tennis Pro Tours In the years before the Open Era professionals often played more frequently on head to head tours than in tournaments because tours paid much better than tournaments and the number of professional tournaments was small For example Fred Perry earned U S 91 000 1 852 440 today in a 1937 North American tour against Ellsworth Vines but won only U S 450 9 355 for his 1938 victory at the U S Pro Tennis Championships Vines probably never entered a tournament in 1937 and 1938 In 1937 Vines played 70 matches on two tours and no tournament matches Even in the 1950s some professionals continued to play tour matches During his first five months as a professional January through May 1957 Ken Rosewall played 76 matches on a tour against Pancho Gonzales but only 9 tournament matches Joe McCauley determined that for 1952 only 7 professional tournaments were played by the top international players and 2 other professional tournaments the British Pro and the German Pro were reserved for domestic players Only during the 1960s did professional tournaments become more significant than tours Pro Championships Pro Slams Edit Main article Major professional tennis tournaments before the Open Era In addition to head to head events several annual professional tournaments were called championship tournaments The most prestigious was usually the Wembley Championship held at the Wembley Arena in England played between 1934 and 1990 The oldest was the U S Pro Tennis Championships played between 1927 and 1999 Between 1954 and 1962 it was played indoors in Cleveland and was called the World Professional Championships The third major tournament was the French Pro Championship played between 1930 and 1968 The British and American championships continued into the Open Era but devolved to the status of minor tournaments after the late 1960s The Tournament of Champions was held between 1957 and 1959 the 1957 Australian editions taking place in Sydney White City and Melbourne Kooyong while the U S editions in 1957 1958 and 1959 took place at Forest Hills Queens There was also the Wimbledon Pro tournament held in August 1967 the first tournament where professional tennis players were allowed to play at Wimbledon Open Era Edit Open era redirects here For other uses see Open era disambiguation See also Open era tennis records men s singles and Open Era tennis records women s singles The French Championships at Roland Garros was the first Grand Slam tournament to become open to professionalsThe Open Era began in 1968 when Grand Slam tournaments agreed to allow professional players to compete with amateurs 65 Before 1968 only amateurs were allowed to compete in Grand Slam tournaments and other events organized or sanctioned by the ILTF including the Davis Cup The move is made because the English are tired of the hypocrisy in the sport the shamateurism that plagues high class tennis It is well known that amateurs bargain for and receive exorbitant expenses to compete at many tournaments We must take action on our own account to make the game honest said Derek Penmam of the British association For too long now we have been governed by a set of amateur rules that are quite unenforceable 65 During the first years of the Open Era power struggles between the ILTF and the commercial promoters led to boycotts of Grand Slam events The first Open Era event was the 1968 British Hard Court Championships held in April at The West Hants Club in Bournemouth England 66 while the first open Grand Slam tournament was the 1968 French Open in May 67 Both tournaments were won by Ken Rosewall The Open Era allowed all tennis players the opportunity to make a living by playing tennis 68 National Tennis League NTL and World Championship Tennis WCT Edit In 1968 a few professionals were independent including Lew Hoad Mal Anderson Luis Ayala and Owen Davidson but most of the best players were under contract George McCall operated the National Tennis League NTL and managed Rod Laver Ken Rosewall Andres Gimeno Pancho Gonzales Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson Dave Dixon later succeeded by Lamar Hunt ran World Championship Tennis WCT and managed the Handsome Eight John Newcombe Tony Roche Nikola Pilic Roger Taylor Pierre Barthes Earl Butch Buchholz Cliff Drysdale and Dennis Ralston In 1968 none of the original Handsome Eight WCT players participated in the French Open In 1970 NTL players did not play in the Australian Open because their organization did not receive a guarantee In 1970 neither WCT nor NTL players played in the French Open Grand Prix circuit Edit Main article Grand Prix tennis circuitIn the first two years of the Open Era the National Tennis League and WCT promoters began to take control of the game To outmaneuver them Jack Kramer the best player of the late 1940s early 1950s and at that time a promoter conceived the Grand Prix tennis circuit in late 1969 He described it as a series of tournaments with a money bonus pool that would be split up on the basis of a cumulative point system This would encourage the best players to compete regularly in the series so that they could share in the bonus at the end and qualify for a special championship tournament that would climax the year 69 In 1970 none of the contract players participated in the French Open The International Lawn Tennis Federation alarmed by the control of the promoters approved Kramer s Grand Prix Twenty seven tournaments including the three Grand Slams French Open Wimbledon and US Open were played that year with Stockholm tournament ending on 1 November The independent professional players along with a few contract players entered the Grand Prix circuit Contract players could play Grand Prix events provided their contracts allowed it and that they had adequate time apart from their own circuit Tour rivalries and the creation of the Association of Tennis Professionals ATP Edit The first WCT tournaments were held in February 1968 and the first NTL tournaments in March 1969 In July 1970 the WCT absorbed the NTL 70 At the end of 1970 a panel of journalists ranked the players leading the WCT to send invitations to the 32 top men to play the 1971 WCT circuit among the 32 Ilie Năstase Stan Smith Jan Kodes Zeljko Franulovic and Clark Graebner stayed independent In 1971 the WCT ran 20 tournaments and concluded the year with the WCT Finals In 1971 the majority of the best players still mainly played the WCT circuit Thus the 1971 Australian Open was a WCT competition whereas the French Open Wimbledon and U S Open were ILTF Grand Prix events citation needed By then the rivalry between the two groups became so intense that Rosewall Gimeno Laver Emerson and some other WCT players boycotted the 1971 US Open although Newcombe played and lost in the first round to Kodes Bill Riordan the future manager of Jimmy Connors complicated matters further with a third professional tour the U S Indoor Circuit In 1972 the conflict between the ILTF and the WCT culminated in the ILTF banning the contract professional players from all ILTF Grand Prix events between January and July which included the 1972 French Open and 1972 Wimbledon citation needed At the 1972 US Open in September all the players attended and agreed to form a player syndicate to protect themselves from the promoters and associations resulting in the creation of the Association of Tennis Professionals ATP In 1973 there were four rival professional circuits the WCT circuit the Grand Prix circuit the U S Indoor Circuit with Connors and Ilie Năstase and the European Spring Circuit with Năstase as their star During the year the ILTF banned Nikola Pilic from 1973 Wimbledon due to Pilic s alleged refusal to play in Yugoslavia s Davis Cup tie against New Zealand In retaliation 81 out of 84 of Pilic s fellow players who were ATP members boycotted 1973 Wimbledon in response stating that professional players should have the right of deciding whether to play Davis Cup matches or not The only ATP players who refused to boycott 1973 Wimbledon were Ilie Năstase Roger Taylor and Ray Keldie They were later fined by the ATP for their participation in the tournament Between 1974 and 1978 any tennis player who participated in the nascent World Team Tennis which conflicted with the European leg of the Grand Prix circuit was banned by the French Tennis Federation from playing in the French Open in the same calendar year 71 why Integration Edit In 1978 the ILTF Grand Prix and WCT circuits merged However In 1982 the WCT circuit separated again and created a more complex WCT ranking similar to the ATP ranking The WCT was not as successful in the 1980s and the Grand Prix circuit became the primary circuit The Grand Prix s governance was led by the Men s International Professional Tennis Council also called the Men s Tennis Council 72 The WCT Finals in Dallas continued being held until the end of the 1980s and then disbanded with the creation of the ATP Tour for 1990 The Open Era the global professional circuit and television helped tennis spread globally and shed its elitist anglocentric image In America since the 1970s courts have been a common feature of public recreational facilities Accordingly in the 1970s the U S Open moved from the private West Side Tennis Club to a public park the USTA National Tennis Center Flushing Meadows Park that is accessible to anyone who buys a ticket 73 About the same time the ruling body s name changed from the United States Lawn Tennis Association to the United States Tennis Association 74 ATP Tour Edit In 1990 the Association of Tennis Professionals led by Hamilton Jordan replaced the MTC as the governing body of men s professional tennis They established the ATP Tour and packaged the nine most prestigious events as the Championship Series Single Tournament Week and beginning in 1996 as the Super Nine Twelve of the Grand Prix which were slightly less prestigious than the first nine events were renamed as the Championship Series Double Week meaning in most cases 2 of those tournaments occurred the same week Winning a Super Nine tournament was worth roughly half the points 370 of winning a Grand Slam tournament 750 while Championship Series tournaments were worth as much as 360 points depending on the total prize money The format continued until 2000 at which time the Super Nine were renamed the Masters Series the winner being awarded 500 points occupying the rank below the Grand Slams 1000 points for the winner and the Championship Series was renamed to simply the International Series Gold worth 250 to 300 points for the winner In 2000 the Grand Slam tournaments and the Masters Series tournaments became mandatory professional events if a player s ranking qualifies them for the tournament Players were automatically entered and Masters and Slam events became the baseline for player rankings with up to an additional 5 tournaments also counted 18 in all plus the ATP Finals if they qualify Before 2000 a players best 14 tournaments were counted towards the ATP Point Rankings In 2009 the Masters events were renamed the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 with the Monte Carlo Masters becoming a non mandatory event meaning a player could use his results from a lower level tournament in place of it International Series Gold became the ATP World Tour 500 and the remaining events became the ATP World Tour 250 The numbers in the tournament type name indicate the winners ranking points By way of comparison a winner of one of the four Grand Slam tournaments is awarded 2000 points In 2009 a greater emphasis began to be placed on winning a tournament as the points awarded to the runner up dropped from 70 of the champion s points to 60 i e from 700 points to 600 points in a Masters 1000 event Points also began to be awarded for Davis Cup singles play Women s professional tennis EditWomen s professional tennis began in 1926 when world number one female player Suzanne Lenglen accepted 50 000 for a series of matches against three time U S Champion Mary K Browne The series ended in 1927 and the women did not compete as professionals again until 1941 when Alice Marble headlined a tour against Mary Hardwick World War II hindered most professional competitions and many players were involved with entertaining the troops In 1947 women professionals were again in action with a short lived series of exhibition matches between Pauline Betz and Sarah Palfrey Cooke both U S National Champions In 1950 and 1951 Bobby Riggs signed Betz and Gussie Moran to play a pro tour with Jack Kramer and Pancho Segura wherein Betz dominated Moran Althea Gibson turned professional in 1958 and joined with Karol Fageros the Golden Goddess as the opening act for the Harlem Globetrotters for one season There was virtually no further women s professional tennis until 1967 when promoter George McCall signed Billie Jean King Ann Jones Francoise Durr and Rosie Casals to join his tour of eight men for two years 75 The professional women then played as independents as the Open Era began In 1970 promoter for the Pacific Southwest Championships in Los Angeles Jack Kramer offered the women only 7 500 in prize money versus the men s total of 50 000 When Kramer refused to match the men s prize money King and Casals urged the other women to boycott Gladys Heldman American publisher of World Tennis magazine responded with a separate women s tour under the sponsorship of Virginia Slims cigarettes In 1971 and 1972 the WT Women s Pro Tour offered nearly 10 times the prize money of other pro women s tennis events The USLTA initially would not sanction the tour however the two groups determined to give Virginia Slims the individual events and the USLTA the tour thus resolving the conflict In 1973 the U S Open made history by offering equal prize money to men and women Billie Jean King the most visible advocate for the women s cause earned over 100 000 in 1971 and 1972 76 In the famous Battle of the Sexes exhibition match against the vocally sexist Bobby Riggs in September 1973 King brought even more media attention to tennis and to women professionals in all walks of life by beating Riggs The Women s Tennis Association formed in 1973 is the principal organizing body of women s professional tennis organizing the worldwide professional WTA Tour From 1984 to 1998 the finals matches of the championship event were best of five uniquely among women s tournaments In 1999 the finals reverted to best of three The WTA Tour Championships are generally considered to be the women s fifth most prestigious event after the four Grand Slam tournaments Sponsors have included Virginia Slims 1971 78 Avon 1979 82 Virginia Slims again 1983 94 J P Morgan Chase 1996 2000 Sanex 2001 Home Depot 2002 and Sony Ericsson 2006 International Tennis Hall of Fame EditIn 1954 James Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame a non profit museum in Newport Rhode Island 77 The building contains a large collection of memorabilia as well as honoring prominent players and others Each year a grass court tournament takes place on its grounds as well as an induction ceremony honoring new members See also Edit Tennis portalDoping in tennis Match fixing in tennis Tennis technology Tennis at the Summer OlympicsNotes Edit The first known instance of the word tennis in the English language dates to 1396 when a William Terrey had to appear before the burghmote of Canterbury for allowing people to play le Closhe and le Tenesse on his ground 11 References Edit Gillmeister Heiner 1998 Tennis A Cultural History Washington Square N Y New York University Press p 117 ISBN 081473121X Crego Robert Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries page 115 2003 Davis Cup History ITF a b c d e f g h Suzanne Lenglen and the First Pro Tour Retrieved 2007 05 29 History of the Pro Tennis Wars Chapter 2 part 1 1927 1928 Retrieved 2007 05 29 a b Open Minded Archived 2007 10 31 at the Wayback Machine Bruce Goldman a b Jon Henderson 2008 12 10 Middle class heroes can lift our game London The Observer theguardian co uk Retrieved 2008 08 02 it was no longer true that tennis was a middle class sport Kate Magee 2008 07 10 Max Clifford to help shed tennis middle class image PR Week Retrieved 2008 08 02 The Sugarman There are 3 levels of social class in tennis Upper middle class middle class and lower middle class BookieBusters net Retrieved 2008 08 02 tennis Origin and history of tennis by Online Etymology Dictionary Etymonline com Retrieved 8 October 2017 Gillmeister Heiner 1998 Tennis A Cultural History Washington Square N Y New York University Press p 106 ISBN 081473121X Gillmeister Heiner 1998 Tennis A Cultural History Washington Square N Y New York University Press p 40 ISBN 081473121X Whitman Malcolm D 2004 1932 Tennis Origins and Mysteries Dover ed Mineola N Y Dover Publications pp 25 26 ISBN 0486433579 United States Tennis Association 1979 Bill Shannon ed Official Encyclopedia of Tennis Rev and updated 1st ed New York Harper amp Row p 2 ISBN 0060144785 John Gower In Praise of Peace University of Rochester Retrieved 11 October 2012 Gillmeister Heiner 1998 Tennis A Cultural History Washington Square N Y New York University Press pp 75 76 ISBN 081473121X Hahn Thomas 1995 Sir Gawain Eleven Romances and Tales Medieval Institute Publications Clerici Gianni 1976 Tennis London Octopus Books p 21 ISBN 9780706405231 OCLC 16360735 Schickel Richard 1975 The World of Tennis New York Random House p 32 ISBN 0 394 49940 9 Roger Morgan 1991 The silver ball of rattray a note on an early form of tennis The International Journal of the History of Sport 8 3 McGladdery The Kings amp Queens of Scotland James I p 143 Schickel Richard 1975 The World of Tennis New York Random House p 32 ISBN 0 394 49940 9 The Encyclopedia of Tennisp 17 The Encyclopedia of Tennis p 18 Shakespeare William Early 1600s The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth Act 1 Scene 2 The Encyclopedia of Tennis p 21 John Astley 1885 The Monumental Inscriptions in the Parish Church of S Michael Coventry together with drawings of all the arms found therein p 21 Wikidata Q98360469 Quennell Peter ed The Prodigal Rake the Memoirs of William Hickey 1962 p 58 Tyzack Anna The True Home of Tennis Country Life 22 June 2005 Lawn Tennis and Major T H Gem Archived February 9 2008 at the Wayback Machine Birmingham Civic Society Leamington Tennis Club Retrieved 2007 05 29 E M Halliday June 1971 Sphairistike Anyone American Heritage The History of Tennis Mary Bellis Robertson Max 1974 Encyclopedia of Tennis The Viking Press pp 22 24 Leamington Tennis Court Club 23 February 1874 in History Retrieved 2007 05 29 When the Girls Came Out to Play The Birth of American Sportswear Retrieved 2007 05 29 The Beginnings Of Lawn Tennis University of South Carolina Libraries Barrett John 2010 The Original Rules of Tennis Oxford Bodleian Library pp 13 19 ISBN 9781851243181 Bermuda s Place in Tennis History Blackburne Bermudas Place in Tennis History gt The IC of Bermuda Ictennis net Retrieved 8 October 2017 a b Our History Staten Island Tennis Association Retrieved 8 October 2017 Online Etymology Dictionary Etymonline com 1927 06 10 Retrieved 2013 05 15 Tennis from Beijing Olympics 2008 Archived from the original on 2007 11 01 Retrieved 2007 05 29 The Online Guide to Traditional Games Retrieved 2007 05 29 Palmatier Robert 1995 Speaking of animals a dictionary of animal metaphors p 245 ISBN 9780313294907 Horn Geoffrey Rafael Nadal page 13 2006 Bondt Cees de 1993 Heeft yemant lust met bal of met reket te spelen Hilversum Verloren p 10 ISBN 9789065503794 Grand Slam Australian Open Originality of the phrase Grand Slam Archived from the original on 2012 09 06 Retrieved 2007 05 29 History of Tennis International Tennis Federation Retrieved 2008 07 28 The Trophies wimbledon org Archived from the original on 2009 04 27 Retrieved 2010 11 12 Roll of Honour wimbledon org Archived from the original on 2010 12 09 Retrieved 2010 11 12 Women In Sport Archived from the original on 2007 06 14 Retrieved 2007 05 29 History of United States Tennis Association Archived from the original on 2007 10 30 Retrieved 2007 05 29 Fact amp History of Rhodes Island Retrieved 2007 05 29 Leading The Way BBC Sport Tennis Britain Misses Out on World Party That Once Roused Fury of the Fuhrer Archived from the original on 2006 02 25 Retrieved 2007 05 29 Davis Cup History daviscup com Retrieved 2010 12 05 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Archived from the original on 2007 07 27 Retrieved 2007 05 29 History of The Davis Cup Retrieved 2007 09 10 James Henry Van Alen in the Tennis Hall of Fame Archived from the original on September 30 2007 Retrieved 2007 05 29 Fed Cup History International Tennis Federation ITF History of the Pro Tennis Wars Chapter 2 part 1 1927 1928 Retrieved 2007 05 29 a b Open tennis accepted for Wimbledon espn go com ESPN 14 December 1967 Henderson Jon 15 June 2008 Now I d choose tennis The Observer Yes open tennis has come at last and Bournemouth has been entrusted with the task of a world shaking launching said the programme notes for the 1968 Hard Court Championships of Great Britain which brought an end to the sport s segregation of amateur and professional players Event Guide History Roland Garros a never ending story Roland Garros Official Website IBM Corporation and Federation Francaise de Tennis Archived from the original on 2008 07 04 Another significant turning point came in 1968 when the French Internationals became the first Grand Slam tournament to join the Open era Power struggle on the tennis courts The Canberra Times 19 June 1969 p 30 via National Library of Australia THE GAME My 40 Years in Tennis by Jack Kramer with Frank Deford pages 275 276 New grip on masters Press amp Sun Bulletin 29 July 1970 p 3C via Newspapers com French to lift ban on W T T players The New York Times 4 November 1974 ATP corporate history Retrieved 14 September 2016 History of the West Side Tennis Club Archived from the original on 2004 05 19 Retrieved 2007 05 29 History of USTA Archived from the original on November 12 2006 Retrieved 2007 05 29 Max Robertson The Encyclopedia of Tennis 1974 The Viking Press New York ISBN 978 0 670 29408 4 p 68 Max Robertson p 70 International Tennis Hall of Fame Information Archived from the original on May 18 2007 Retrieved 2007 05 29 Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of tennis Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title History of tennis amp oldid 1170878597 Open Era, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.