History of tennis

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This article will present a history of tennis and will form part of the History of Sport series.


Contents

[edit] History

Tennis can be traced as far back as the ancient great Greek game of sphairistike (Greek: Σφαιριστική). Major Walter Wingfield borrowed the name of this Greek game, in order to name the recreation he patented in 1874. It was soon converted into a three-syllable word rhyming with “pike” and afterwards abbreviated either to sticky or the mock-French stické. At the suggestion of future British prime minister Arthur Balfour, Wingfield eventually decided on "lawn tennis," a name that he had also patented for the game.

Its establishment as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. In 1856, Alex Ryden, a solicitor, and his friend Joao Batista Pereira, a Portuguese merchant, who both lived in Birmingham, England played a game they named "pelota", after a Spanish ball game. The game was played on a lawn in Edgbaston. In 1872 both men moved to Leamington Spa, and with two doctors from the Warneford Hospital, played pelota on the lawn behind the Manor House Hotel (now residential apartments). Pereira joined with Dr. Frederick Haynes and Dr. A. Wellesley Tomkins to found the first lawn tennis club in the world, and played the game on nearby lawns. In 1874 they formed the Leamington Tennis Club, setting out the original rules of the game. The Courier of 23 July 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall (demolished 1948).

In December 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield devised a similar game for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate at Nantclwyd, Wales. He based the game on the older sport of indoor tennis or real tennis ("royal tennis"), which had been invented in 12th century France and was played by French aristocrats down to the time of the French Revolution.

According to most tennis historians, modern tennis terminology also derives from this period, as Wingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of royal tennis and applied them to his new game:

Tennis comes from the French tenez, the imperative form of the verb tenir, to hold: This was a cry used by the player serving in royal tennis, meaning "I am about to serve!" (rather like the cry "Fore!" in golf). Racquet comes from raquette, which derives from the Arabic rakhat, meaning the palm of the hand. Deuce comes from à deux le jeu, meaning "to both is the game" (that is, the two players have equal scores). Love may come from l'œuf, the egg, a reference to the egg-shaped zero symbol; however, since "un œuf" is more commonly used, the etymology remains in question. The convention of numbering scores "15", "30" and "40" comes from quinze, trente and quarante, which to French ears makes a euphonious sequence, or from the quarters of a clock (15, 30, 45) with 45 simplified to 40. Seeing the commercial potential of the game, Wingfield patented it in 1874, but never succeeded in enforcing his patent. Tennis spread rapidly among the leisured classes in Britain and the United States. It was first played in the U.S. at the home of Mary Ewing Outerbridge on Staten Island, New York in 1874.

In 1881 the desire to play tennis competitively led to the establishment of tennis clubs. The first championships at Wimbledon, in London were played in 1877. In 1881 the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association) was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions. The comprehensive I.L.T.F. rules promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-breaker system designed by James Van Alen. The U.S. National Men's Singles Championship, now the U.S. Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. The U.S. National Women's Singles Championships were first held in 1887. The Davis Cup, an annual competition between national teams, dates to 1900.

Tennis was for many years predominantly a sport of the English-speaking world, dominated by the United States, Britain and Australia. It was also popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891. Thus Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis. Together these four events are called the Grand Slam (a term borrowed from bridge). Winning the Grand Slam, by capturing these four titles in one calendar year, is the highest ambition of most tennis players.

In 1926 promoter C.C. ("Cash and Carry") Pyle established the first professional tennis tour with a group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences. The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. For 42 years professional and amateur tennis remained strictly separate. Once a player turned pro he or she could not compete in the major (amateur) tournaments. In 1968, commercial pressures 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 has spread all over the world and has lost its upper-class English-speaking image. Since the 1970s great champions have emerged from Germany (Boris Becker and Steffi Graf), Australia (Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter), the former Czechoslovakia (Ivan Lendl, Martina Navrátilová, and Hana Mandlíková), Sweden (Björn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander), Brazil (Gustavo Kuerten), Argentina (Gabriela Sabatini, Guillermo Vilas and Gastón Gaudio), Russia (Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Myskina, and Svetlana Kuznetsova), Belgium (Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin), France (Amélie Mauresmo, Yannick Noah and Mary Pierce), Spain (Juan Carlos Ferrero, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Carlos Moya, Conchita Martinez, and Rafael Nadal), Switzerland (Martina Hingis and Roger Federer) and from many other countries.

In America, the game has seen a seismic shift from a sport that the "country-club set" played to one that is an activity for anyone. Successes by players from across the spectrum, from the working-class Jimmy Connors to great African-American stars such as Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters Venus and Serena, have firmly established tennis as a game for all in the United States. This is perhaps best embodied in the fact that in the 1970s, when popularity of the game was at a peak, the USTA decided to move the U.S. Open from the posh West Side Tennis Club to a public park (the USTA National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows Park) that is accessible to anyone with the "greens fees" (currently $17). About the same time, the ruling body's name was also changed from United States Lawn Tennis Association to United States Tennis Association.

In 1954 James Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island. The building contains a large collection of tennis memorabilia as well as a hall of fame honoring prominent members and tennis players from all over the world. Each year, a grass-court tournament is hosted on the grounds that are home to the Tennis Hall of Fame, as well as an induction ceremony honoring new Hall of Fame members.

[edit] Great players

Numerous great players played in the days before tennis's open era, many of whom are unknown by modern sports fans. For a comprehensive list of annual rankings of the great players, as well as additional information about them, from 1913 to the start of the open era, see World number one male tennis player rankings. Among them, chronologically, are:

  • "Big Bill" Tilden - winner of 21 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined), 7 consecutive Davis Cups, 3 major professional singles titles1, the professional doubles title at age 52, 3 major pro tours (1931, 1932, 1933)2; was for 7 years the World No. 1 player
  • Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet, René Lacoste - the three best of the "Four Musketeers", won 46 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined) amongst them, 6 consecutive Davis Cups, 1 major professional singles title; between them, Lacoste and Cochet were for 5 consecutive years the World No. 1 player
  • Ellsworth Vines - winner of 6 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined), 4 (or 5?) major professional singles titles and above all 5 major pro tours from 1934 to 1938; had a tremendous flat, hard forehand and service; was for 4 years the World No. 1 or co-No.1 player
  • Fred Perry - won 13 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined) including 3 consecutive Wimbledons singles; was the first to win 4 consecutive Grand Slam titles; won 2 major professional singles titles; was for 5 years the World No. 1 or co-No.1 player
  • Don Budge - winner of 14 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined); was the first to win 4 Grand Slam titles in a single year, 4 major professional singles titles and 3 major pro tours (1939, 1941, 1942); is widely viewed as having had the best backhand of all time before Rosewall; was for 5 years the World No. 1 or co-No.1 player
  • Bobby Riggs - winner of 6 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined), 3 major professional singles titles; was for 3 years the World No. 1 or co-No.1 player
  • Jack Kramer - won 10 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined), 2 professional Grand Slam titles and above all 4 major pro tours (1948, 1950, 1951 and 1953); was the first great player to play serve-volley on all serves; beat Gonzales badly in the 1949-1950 tour; was for 6 years the World No. 1 or co-No.1 player
  • Pancho Segura - winner of 3 major professional singles titles, including 2 victories over Gonzales, and 7 times a finalist; was for 2 years the World co-No. 1 player; Kramer called Segura's two-handed forehand "the single best shot ever produced in tennis."
  • Pancho Gonzales - winner of 4 amateur Grand Slam (singles and doubles combined) titles, 12 major professional singles titles and 6 times a finalist, and 7 major pro tours (1954 and 1956-1961); world #1 amateur in 1949; was still world #6 or # 7 player in 1969 and #9 American in 1972 at 44; was for 7 consecutive years the World No. 1 or co-No.1 player, an unequalled 8 times overall
  • Frank Sedgman - won 22 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined), 2 major professional singles titles and 4 times a finalist; winner of 3 consecutive Davis Cups
  • Ken Rosewall - won 18 Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined), first 11 as an amateur, then 7 in the open era, plus another 15 major professional singles titles and was 4 times a finalist; winner of 3 consecutive Davis Cups; was for 6 years the World No. 1 or co-No.1 player
  • Lew Hoad - won 11 amateur Grand Slam titles (singles and doubles combined) and was 7 times a finalist in the major professional singles tournaments; Gonzales said of him: "I think his game was the best game ever. Better than mine."

1 Major professional singles tournaments evoked here are the Wembley Pro, the U.S. Pro and the French Pro until 1967 .

2 In the years before the open era, the great male professionals often played more frequently in tours than in tournaments because a head-to-head tour between two tennis great players was much more remunerative than a circuit of pro tournaments and the number of professional tournaments was small. Before the open era these major pro tours weighted much to determine the World Pro Champion (see Tennis, male players statistics).

Other fine players of the pre-open era include Richard Sears, William Renshaw, Ernest Renshaw, Reggie Doherty, Lawrence Doherty, William Larned, Norman Brookes, Tony Wilding, Maurice McLoughlin, Karel Koželuh, "Little Bill" Johnston, Vinnie Richards, Jack Crawford, Hans Nüsslein, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Vic Seixas, and Tony Trabert.

Among women, the top pre-open era players include, among others, Dorothea Douglass Chambers, Suzanne Lenglen, Helen Wills Moody, Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, Kitty McKane Godfree, Helen Hull Jacobs, Dorothy Round Little, Alice Marble, Pauline Betz Addie, Margaret Osborne duPont, Louise Brough Clapp, Doris Hart, Shirley Fry Irvin, Maureen Connolly Brinker, Althea Gibson, Maria Bueno, Ann Haydon Jones, and Darlene Hard. Connolly Brinker was the first female player to win all four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a calendar year (1953). Hart was the first player to win all 12 possible singles, doubles, and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles

Among the greatest male players of the open era, with the number of career Grand Slam singles titles in parentheses, are: Pete Sampras (14), Roy Emerson (12), Rod Laver (11), Björn Borg (11), Roger Federer (10), Ken Rosewall (8), Jimmy Connors (8), Ivan Lendl (8), Andre Agassi (8), John Newcombe (7), John McEnroe (7), Mats Wilander (7), Boris Becker (6), Stefan Edberg (6), Jim Courier (4), Guillermo Vilas (4), Arthur Ashe (3), Gustavo Kuerten (3), Stan Smith (2), Ilie Năstase (2), Lleyton Hewitt (2), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (2), Patrick Rafter (2), Marat Safin (2), and Rafael Nadal (2)

The greatest women players of the open era, again with the number of career Grand Slam singles titles in parentheses for each, are: Margaret Smith Court (24), Steffi Graf (22), Chris Evert (18), Martina Navrátilová (18), Billie Jean King (12), Monica Seles (9), Serena Williams (8), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (7), Venus Williams (5), Martina Hingis (5), Justine Henin-Hardenne (5), Hana Mandlíková (4), Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (4), Virginia Wade (3), Lindsay Davenport (3), Jennifer Capriati (3), Nancy Richey Gunter (2), Tracy Austin (2), Mary Pierce (2), Amélie Mauresmo (2), and Maria Sharapova (2)

[edit] Open Era

The open era in tennis began in 1968, when the Grand Slam tournaments, such as Wimbledon, abandoned the longstanding rules of amateurism and allowed professionals to compete.

[edit] Open era facts/records

[edit] Men

[edit] By Player

The records and achievements of various players who have competed during the open era are listed in this section below.

  • Rod Laver of Australia:
    • Only male player during the open era to have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a calendar year (the Calendar Year Grand Slam) (1969). (He also won the Calendar Year Grand Slam in 1962, before the open era began.)
  • Björn Borg of Sweden:
    • Won the most French Open men's singles titles, with 6.
    • Career winning percentage of 82.3% (576-124) is the best in the open era.
    • Career Grand Slam match winning percentage of 89.9% (142-16) is the best in the open era.
  • Andre Agassi of the United States:
    • Won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments during his career (the Career Grand Slam).
    • Only male player to have won Grand Slam singles tournaments on four different surfaces (hardcourt, clay, grass, and Rebound Ace).
    • Only male player during the open era to have won a Career Grand Slam plus an Olympic gold medal in singles (the Career Golden Slam).
    • Won seven of the nine ATP Masters Series singles tournaments at least once during his career.
    • Most overall ATP Masters Series titles, with 17.
    • Oldest world #1 male tennis player (33 years and 13 days).
    • Played the most U.S. Open singles tournaments, with 21.
    • Shares with Connors the record of finishing the most years in the top ten, with 16.
  • Roger Federer of Switzerland:
    • Most consecutive weeks as the top ranked male player, with 161 weeks (as of February 26, 2007).
    • Longest winning streak on hard courts: 56 (2005-06).
    • Longest winning streak on grass courts: 48 (2003-present).
    • Longest winning streak against top ten players: 26 (2003-2005).
    • Most consecutive singles finals won, with 24 (2003-2005).
    • Highest number of ranking points at the end of the year: 8,370 (2006).
    • Highest number of ranking points at any time of the year: 8,370 (November 20, 2006).
    • Highest number of race points (since 2000): 1,674 (November 20, 2006).
    • Earliest to clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking: September (2004).
    • Winner of his first seven Grand Slam singles finals.
    • Played the most consecutive Grand Slam singles finals: 7 (Wimbledon 2005-present).
    • Played the most consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals: 11 (Wimbledon 2004-present).
    • Was the first player to win four ATP Masters Series (since 1990) tournaments in one season (2005). Repeated that achievement in 2006.
    • Best 3-year match winning percentage (94.3%) and tournament winning percentage (69.4%) (2004-2006).
    • Has had 5 winning streaks of at least 20 consecutive matches:
      • 23 (Jun 2004-Aug 2004: W Halle, Wimbledon, Gstaad, Toronto, 1st round Cincinnati).
      • 26 (Aug 2004-Jan 2005: W U.S. Open, Bangkok, Tennis Masters Cup, Doha, SF Australian Open).
      • 25 (Feb 2005-Apr 2005: W Rotterdam, Dubai, Indian Wells AMS, Miami AMS, QF Monte Carlo).
      • 35 (Jun 2005-Nov 2005: W Halle, Wimbledon, Cincinnati AMS, U.S. Open, Davis Cup match, Bangkok, F Tennis Masters Cup).
      • 41 (Aug 2006-Mar 2007: W U.S. Open, 2 Davis Cup matches, Tokyo, Madrid AMS, Basel, Tennis Masters Cup, Australian Open, Dubai) -- ATP Tour (since 1990) record
    • First man to win at least 10 titles in a season without losing in a final (2004).
    • First player to record a "double bagel" at a year-end championship (Federer defeated Gastón Gaudio in a SF of the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup).
    • Only player to have won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year for three consecutive years (2004-2006).
    • Only player in the open era to ever have won at least three Grand Slam singles tournaments in a year twice (2004 and 2006).
    • First player to win the ATP Masters Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back in consecutive years (2005-2006).
    • First male player to win at least 10 singles titles in each of three consecutive years (2004-2006).
    • Best percentage of finals reached in a year, 94.1% in 2006 (16 out of 17).
    • Most prize money in one season, with U.S. $8,343,885 (2006).
  • Ivan Lendl of the United States:
    • Longest winning streak indoors: 66 matches (between October 1981 and January 1983).
    • Only player to have won three tournaments in consecutive weeks on three different surfaces.
    • Most consecutive singles finals, with 18 in 1981 and 1982.
    • Only male player to have won at least 90 matches in consecutive years (1980-1982).
    • Only male player to have won at least 90 percent of his matches in four different years (1982: 106-9; 1985: 84-7; 1986: 74-6; 1987: 74-7).
    • Shares with Sampras the record for most Masters men's singles titles, with 5.
    • Most Grand Slam singles finals, with 19.
  • John McEnroe of the United States:
    • Most career titles, with 147 (77 in singles and 70 in doubles).
    • Best single season win-loss record, 82-3 (96.5%) in 1984.
  • Jimmy Connors of the United States:
    • Most singles titles won during the open era, with 105.
    • Shares with Agassi the record of finishing the most years in the top ten, with 16.
    • Shares with Sampras the record for having won the most U.S. Open men's singles titles during the open era, with 5.
    • Won the most singles matches during the open era, with 1,222.
  • Guillermo Vilas of Argentina:
    • Most singles titles in one year, with 16 in 1977.
    • Holds the longest overall winning streak during the open era, with 46 consecutive victories in 1977.
  • Lleyton Hewitt of Australia:
    • Youngest male player to be the World No. 1, at the age of 20 years and 8 months (2001).
  • Rafael Nadal of Spain:
    • Longest winning streak on clay, with 62 matches (2005-present).

[edit] By Year

  • 2005
    • Rafael Nadal of Spain became the first male teenager to reach second place in the ATP Entry Rankings since Boris Becker.
    • Nadal won eight titles on clay in 2005, the most since Thomas Muster won seven in 1995.
    • Nadal's 24 match winning streak was the longest streak of any teenager in the open era.
    • For the first time since 1990, two men won at least ten singles titles each in one season: Roger Federer (11) and Rafael Nadal (11).
  • 2006
    • Roger Federer's victory at the Australian Open was his record seventh win in seven Grand Slam finals. Only Williams Renshaw and Richard Sears achieved the same feat, but they played in the 19th century. Interestingly, all of Renshaw's wins came at Wimbledon, and all of Sears' wins were at the U.S. Championships.
    • Federer became the first player to win the Indian Wells-Miami double for the second consecutive year.
    • By winning the French Open, Nadal set a clay court winning streak of 60 matches--besting the previous record of 53 wins by Guillermo Vilas. His victory over Federer in the finals prevented the latter from winning four consecutive Grand Slam singles titles. Federer's Grand Slam finals record now stands at 10-1.
    • After winning the Madrid Masters, Federer became the first player to win at least ten singles titles in three consecutive years.

[edit] Women

  • Margaret Smith Court of Australia holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles by any person, with 24 (11 in the open era).
  • Court and Steffi Graf are the only females to have won a calendar year Grand Slam in the open era. Graf also won the Olympic gold medal the year she won the Grand Slam (1988), making her the only player ever to have won the Golden Slam. Court actually won a record six consecutive Grand Slam singles tournaments in that she also won the last Grand Slam event of 1969 (U.S. Open), then all four titles in 1970, and then the first Grand Slam tournament of 1971 (Australian Open). Martina Navratilova shares this unique record as she won the last three Grand Slam tournaments of 1983 and the first three of 1984. Graf also won six consecutive Grand Slams that she played (French Open 1995 - U.S. Open 1996); however, she did not play the 1996 Australian Open.
  • When Graf won the 1995 U.S. Open singles title, she became the first and so far the only player, male or female, to win four titles at each of the Grand Slam tournaments.
  • Graf became the first woman in the open era to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament as a defending champion, at Wimbledon in 1994. Three more Grand Slam champions followed her:
  • 2005
    • Lindsay Davenport created history at Indian Wells. As the top seed (and world No. 1), she inflicted a double bagel on then world No. 3 Maria Sharapova in a semifinal. It was the second time in the open era that a player ranked in the top three had been double-bageled. Chris Evert, then ranked No. 1 in the world, beat No. 3 ranked Navratilova 6-0, 6-0 in the final of a clay court tournament in Amelia Island, Florida in 1981.
    • Davenport became the first female player to notch 50 wins at the Australian Open during the open era.
    • Justine Henin (Belgium) became the first reigning French Open champion to lose in the first round at Wimbledon during the open era.
    • Maria Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach the number one spot in the rankings, holding it for seven non-consecutive weeks.
  • 2006
    • The 2006 Australian Open final between Amelie Mauresmo and Henin marked the first time in the open era that a Grand Slam women's singles final (and just the second Grand Slam singles final) was won when a competitor retired.

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