History
of Tennis
Tennis can be traced as far back as the ancient great Greek
game of sphairistike (Greek: Sfa???st???). 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.
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."
The records and achievements of various players who have competed
during the open era are listed in this section below.
Pete
Sampras of the United States:
- Most
Grand Slam men's singles tournaments won, with 14.
- Most
weeks at number 1: 286
- Most
year end number 1 rankings: 6 (also consecutive 1993-98)
- Shares
with William Renshaw the record for most Wimbledon men's
singles titles, with seven.
- Shares
with Jimmy Connors the record for most U.S. Open men's
singles titles won during the
open era,
with five.
- Shares
with Ivan Lendl the record for most Masters men's singles
titles won, with five.
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.
Michael Chang of the United States:
Youngest man ever to win a Grand Slam singles title,
winning the French Open in 1989.
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).
Todd Woodbridge of Australia:
Most career men's doubles titles, with 83.
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.
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:
Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) in the 2003 Australian Open.
Anastasia Myskina (Russia) in the 2005 French Open.
Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) in the 2005 U.S. Open.
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.
Copyright
(c) Wikipedia.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License, Version 1.2. History of tennis. (2007, March 12). In Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:42, March 26, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_tennis&oldid=114443504
|
