Continued...Missed Part One?
Read Tuesday 17th November blog.
1877: Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, were founded by the All
England Club in 1877 to raise money for the club. 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". 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.
1881: U.S. Open
Tennis was first played in the U.S. at the home of Mary
Ewing Outerbridge at the Staten Island Cricket Club in New Brighton Staten
Island, New York in 1874. In 1881, the desire to play tennis competitively led
to the establishment of tennis clubs.
The US National Men's Singles Championship, now the US Open,
was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. The U.S. National Women's
Singles Championships were first held in 1887 in Philadelphia.
The tournament was made officially one of the tennis
'Majors' from 1924 by the ILTF
1891/1925: French Open
Tennis was predominantly a sport of the English-speaking
world, dominated by Great Britain and the United States. 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.
1891-1908: shared by Tennis Club de Paris)/Ile de Puteaux,
Paris/Racing Club de France
1905: Australian Open
The Australian Open was first played in 1905 as The
Australasian 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 . 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 Grand Slams.
1906 -: Christchurch and alternated in Melbourne, Sydney,
Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. In 1912 at Hastings
The 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. The first match, between the United States and Great Britain
was held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900. 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
Australia, a combined team from Australia and New Zealand that competed jointly
until 1913.
The tournament was initially 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
1913 also saw twelve national tennis associations agree at a
Paris conference to form the International Lawn Tennis Federation, which was
renamed in 1977 as the current International Tennis Federation . The rules the
association promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing
ninety years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-break system
designed by James Van Alen.
That 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, and 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
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.
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.
Pro tournaments.
The main events of the professional circuit comprised
head-to-head competition and by-invitation Pro Championships, which were the
precedents for the Grand Slam tournaments before the Open Era began in 1968.
The leading professional players were under contract with a
professional promoter before the Open Era. For example, popular players like
Suzanne Lenglen and Vincent Richards toured North America under contract to
Charles C. Pyle. Contract players were controlled by their promoters and could
not always play the tournaments they wanted while amateur players followed
national federations. For example, In
1939, Norman Brookes, president of the Australian Federation, decided not to
send Australian players to Wimbledon because he wanted them to prepare for the
Davis Cup. Therefore, great Aussie players as John Bromwich or Adrian Quist went
to the USA instead of Wimbledon. During the first hundred years of tennis the
players had absolutely no control over their destinies.
Pro tours
Most professionals played in separate professional events,
mostly on tours in head-to-head competition referred as pro tours.
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. The most notable early professionals
were American Vinnie Richards and Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen.
Before 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in the
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." while the first open Grand Slam tournament was the 1968
French Open in May. Both tournaments were won by Ken Rosewall.
The open era has allowed all tennis players the potential
opportunity of making a living by playing tennis.
National Tennis League
and World Championship Tennis
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 and managed Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Andrés
Gimeno, Pancho Gonzales, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson. Dave Dixon ran World Championship Tennis 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, the
original Handsome Eight WCT players were not allowed to participate in the
French Open. In 1970, NTL players did not play 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.
In the first two years of the open era, the NTL and WCT
promoters began to take control the game. To outmaneuver them, Jack Kramer, the
best player of the late 40s / early 50s, 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.
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
The first WCT tournaments were held in February 1968 and the
first NTL tournaments in March 1969. In spring 1970, the WCT absorbed the NTL.
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.
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 . Bill Riordan
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.
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 .
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
World Team Tennis was banned by the French Tennis Federation from playing in
the French Open in the same calendar year.
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 wasn't 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 ',
later renamed to Men's Tennis Council
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, courts are a common feature of public recreational
facilities. Accordingly, in the 1970s the U.S. Open moved from the posh West
Side Tennis Club to a public park that
is accessible to anyone who buys a ticket. About the same time, the ruling
body's name changed from the United States Lawn Tennis Association to the
United States Tennis Association.
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 packaging the nine most prestigious
events as "Super Nine". Twelve of the more prestigious Grand Prix
events later were called the International Series Gold while the remaining became known as the International Series. The
format continued from the 1998 season to the present, although slightly reorganized
in 2009. The Super Nine became the Masters Series, occupying the rank below the
Grand Slams. In 2000, the Grand Slam tournaments and the Masters Series
tournaments became the only mandatory professional events. Players were
automatically entered and Masters and Slam events became the baseline for
player rankings.
In 2009, the Masters events were renamed the ATP World Tour
Masters 1000. The Monte Carlo Masters, although retaining its Masters status,
uniquely dropped the mandatory commitment. International Series Gold became the
ATP World Tour 500, and the remaining events became the ATP World Tour 250. The
numbers indicate the winners' ranking points. The Davis Cup also began to award
ATP ranking points.
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 US Champion Mary K. Browne. The series ended in 1927, and
the women didn't again 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 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. 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 her 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 ten 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.
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 1984–98, 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 Sponsors
have included Virginia Slims, Avon, Virginia Slims again, J.P. Morgan Chase,
Sanex Home Depot, and Sony Ericsson.
Hall of Fame
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 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.
We hope of you have enjoyed our look at the history of tennis.
Neil @ Tipster Street.
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