Tennis | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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Tennis Summary

Tennis

A ball, a racket, and a net. The simplicity of tennis is one reason that its origins are difficult to pinpoint. At any one point in time, variations of the game were probably played in almost every country in the world. Some historians believe the game was first invented in the Middle Ages—it is mentioned in twelfth-century manuscripts—but exactly when and where is probably lost to antiquity. The word tennis is derived from the French word "tenez," meaning "to hold." Certainly the French greatly enjoyed the game, and by the sixteenth century up to 2,000 Jeu-de-Paume (the name for the ball) courts had been built in France, and it is thought that every western European country had courts at the time.

Perhaps until the nineteenth century, tennis courts were walled, and the exact rules of the game may have differed from country to country, perhaps even court to court. In 1858, however, a lawn court was constructed in England, and by 1873 an Englishman, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, modernized and standardized the game. Calling his game Sphairistike (Greek for ball and stick), the net was set at four feet eight inches, while the court was shaped like an hourglass, narrow at the net and wider at the baseline. The game was played to 15 points. This standardization probably was the reason for an increased interest in the game. At about the same time, the game spread to the United States, and soon after, worldwide.

The early establishment of national championships in major tennis-playing countries demonstrates the fast-growing popularity of tennis during this period. In 1877, Wimbledon, the British championship, was first played. In 1881, the United States National Championship (now the U.S. Open) was held. Ten years later the French National championship (now the French Open) began, and by 1905 the national championship of Australia (now the Australian Open) was played. In addition, in 1900 the Davis Cup, a team competition between the United States and England, was first held, and the tournament has since become an annual international championship.

Over the years, various surfaces have been used to play the game, ranging from grass to clay to concrete to composition. Each is generally better suited to different aspects of the game, and rather than undermining the standardization of the game, it has added a diversity to both amateur and tournament play. For example, the French Open is played on clay while Wimbledon is on grass.

Unlike most sports, tennis had a remarkably difficult time meshing amateur and professional status into its organizational format. Although a professional tournament had been held in the United States as early as 1927, not until the 1960s did the "Open Era" of professional tennis begin.

Tennis in the twentieth century is highlighted by a litany of great players from different eras. In the 1920s, American Bill Tilden enjoyed great popularity. In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry, Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales, and Lew Hoad, were, at various times, either ranked number one or regarded as such. In the 1950s and early 1960s, a host of Australian players reached the top echelon, most notably Rod Laver. Others included Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Frank Sedgman, and Neal Fraser. By the late 1960s and 1970s, players like Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, and John Newcombe came to the forefront. By the 1980s, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, and John McEnroe were marquee names while Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, and Andre Agassi have been dominate players in the 1990s.

Women's tennis has also had an illustrious list of notable players such as Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen in the 1920s, Americans Helen Wills and Helen Hull Jacobs in the 1920s and 1930s, Americans Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly and Althea Gibson, the first to break the color line in tennis, in the 1950s, Australian Margaret Court, Brazilian Maria Bueno, and American Billie Jean King in the 1960s, Australian Evonne Goolagong, American Chris Evert, and Czech Martina Navratilova in the 1970s and 1980s, and German Steffi Graf, American Monica Seles, and Swiss Martina Hingis in the 1990s.

Pete Sampras

In part, professional tennis has been somewhat of a battle of the sexes. The battle was perhaps best exemplified by the much ballyhooed "match of the century" held in the Houston Astrodome in 1973. The match pitted women's star Billie Jean King against former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs. Months earlier Riggs, a self-appointed "king of the chauvinist pigs," challenged all women athletes in general, but specifically the top ranked woman's player in the world, to a tennis match. The number two ranked women's tennis player Margaret Court accepted, and Riggs promptly beat her 6-2, 6-1 in what was called the Mother's Day Massacre. This led to the King-Riggs Astrodome match in front of 30,000 fans and a worldwide television audience of 50 million. Although Riggs claimed to be a chauvinist, he probably did more for women's tennis than any male player in history. In front of the large audience, King beat Riggs in three straight sets and took home the $100,000 winner-take-all prize. The resultant publicity drew attention to the growing complaint from women professionals that their prize money should be equal to men's, particularly since many women players felt their blend of finesse and power made women's matches more enjoyable for spectators. The Women's Tennis Association, coincidentally founded the year of the King-Riggs match, has consistently worked toward greater equity in prize money and purses for women have become substantially larger, but generally remain smaller than those awarded to men.