Its Stuffy Reputation.

To many Americans at the beginning of the decade, tennis was still a sport for rich people and sissies. Most tennis courts were reserved for the country-club set, and the sport's professionals and competitive amateurs were well-to-do and white — as were their tennis outfits, if they were dressed in keeping with tennis etiquette. Many tennis players and tournament officials had fought hard to change the sport's image, and the professional circuit experimented with various tournament formats and venues — including holding night matches under arc lights at the 1951 national professional championship at Forest Hills, New York— in an attempt to draw fans. But few were interested, and with professional tennis still in its infancy the amateurs continued to attract the larger upper-class crowds.

A New Image for Tennis.

By the end of the decade, however, the image of tennis had...