HISTORY AND LORE OF TENNIS Ancient origins of the game --------------------------- The game that we presently call "Tennis" is more properly called Lawn Tennis though it is now not often played on "lawns". Thus, tennis games played on other surfaces (asphalt, concrete, indoor, clay) are all still "Lawn tennis" because of the original naming of the game. The immediate forerunner of Lawn Tennis was the game of Real Tennis, a game of very old origin at least as early as the 1100's. Real tennis has been thought to derive from a game played by monks in monastery cloisters. Its court is a very strange one, with walls on four sides, and a sloping roof, supported by pillars, inside the court and on three of the sides. By the end of the 1200's, the game had become popular at the court of the kings of France. There were 13 makers of tennis balls in Paris alone according to records of 1292 (Aberdare, 1959, p. 22), and we would therefore guess that the game was fairly popular by this time. Although the kings seemed to love to play tennis, they were apparently concerned that their subjects were wasting too much time playing the game because from 1365 onwards they regularly issued ordinances banning their subjects from playing. (Of course, they preferred their subjects to be improving their skills in the useful military arts (archery, fighting, and the like) rather than developing ferocious forehands!) From France the game spread to royal courts throughout Europe. England and Spain seem to have adopted the game most thoroughly, though it is interesting to note that the first book about tennis (Real Tennis, of course) was written in Italy in 1555 by Antonio Scaino da Salo. [Amazingly, we have a copy of this book in the SDSU library.] Modern history -------------- Lawn tennis was reputedly invented in the year 1874 by the Englishman, Major Walter Wingfield. (1874 was actually the year that Wingfield took out a Patent on the game.) Wingfield had apparently played his invented game for some years before this, calling it by the Greek name Sphairistike after a ball game played by the Classical Greeks. Although the Major liked to take credit for inventing the game, there are good reasons to believe that quite a number of other people had a strong influence on the development of the game. The lore of the game, however, generally accords Wingfield the honor of being the inventor. The major's game spread quickly to other countries. By October of 1874, according to The Sporting Gazette, people in Paris were "raving about" the new game, and even as early as Spring 1874 British soldiers had taken the game to Bermuda. An American woman was visiting Bermuda from New York, bought one of Wingfield's tennis sets there, and took it back with her to Staten Island where the first American game was played. Wingfield's rules of 1874 (and his later revisions) were fairly different to our modern game. For example, the court was an hour glass shape, and the net was 4' 8" high at the center, to mention just two obvious differences. The All-England Croquet Club, which had been founded in 1868 and moved to a site at Wimbledon in 1869, adopted lawn tennis in 1875. They added "Lawn Tennis" to their title, and amended the rules somewhat (including a rectangular court) for their first Championship held in 1877. The March 1880 revision of the rules by the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club and the Maryleborne Cricket Club brought them to essentially their modern-day form. In 1880 also, the first national championship in America was held at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. Tennis has now therefore been played for over 100 years, and during that time the names of many great players have been written into the record books. "Big Bill" Tilden was the first American to win the Wimbledon Championships in 1920 and is commonly thought of as the greatest of all the American players, having won Wimbledon twice, and the American championship six consecutive times from 1920 to 1925. Slightly after the period of Tilden's dominance, the American woman Helen Wills-Moody became the premier woman player, winning Wimbledon 8 times and the American championship 7 times. In the late 1930's, Don Budge (an American) and Fred Perry (an Englishman) dominated the game. Budge became the first player to win the Grand Slam -- the championships of England (i.e. Wimbledon), America, France, and Australia all in the same year -- actually 1938). In the post-war years, more great champions have taken their place in the history of the game. Perhaps the most respected has been Rod Laver, the Australian, who managed to win the Grand Slam twice (1962, 1969). (The Grand Slam refers to the feat of winning all the four major world championships in the same year -- see the Compendium of Terminology.) Among women, only Maureen Connolly (the San Diegan, "Little Mo"), the Australian Margaret Smith-Court, and Steffi Graf have won the singles Grand Slam (1953, 1970 and 1988 respectively). The Australian woman gathered a truly phenomenal record, 66 championships in Grand Slam events from 1960 to 1975 (26 singles, 21 women's doubles, 19 mixed doubles). The nearest man rival to this record, the Australian Roy Emerson, had 29 Grand Slam titles from 1959 to 1971, the nearest woman is Billie Jean King with 39 titles. The Modern Game --------------- Tournaments are held throughout the year. The tennis season is considered to start in January in Australia, summer in that country of course. The championship of Australia, the "Australian Open", is the first "leg" of the Grand Slam and starts in mid-January. Spring is the season of the major European circuit, and mainly played on clay -- a slow surface that makes for long rallies. The climax of this part of the year is the French Championship, played in early June, on the "red clay" of Roland Garros stadium in Paris. This is the second leg of the Grand Slam. Shortly afterwards, the circuit moves to the short grass court season. This culminates at Wimbledon in late June and early July -- the third leg of the Grand Slam. The international circuit then moves to the US for the hard court season. This culminates in the US Open at Flushing Meadow, New York, the last leg of the Grand Slam and held in early September. The established "great" men players of the past 20 years have been Bjorn Borg (Sweden), Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia), John McEnroe (U.S.), Jimmy Connors (US), Stefan Edberg (Sweden), Boris Becker (Germany), Mats Wilander (Sweden) and Pete Sampras (US). Sampras is the only one of these still playing. Among these "greats", McEnroe, Becker and Edberg were noted net players, the others primarily baseliners. Other players have at one time and another threatened to break into this elite group. The women's game has had even fewer dominant players. In the 1980's the "big three" were Martina Navratilova (Czechoslovakia, now US), Chris Evert (US), and Steffi Graf (West Germany). In the 1990's Monica Seles emerged as one of the greats, but a tragic injury stopped her playing for over two years. When she returned her game did not reach the same level. In the last couple of years Martina Hingis has become the dominant woman player. Navratilova (now retired) has been the supreme net player, Graf, Evert (now retired) and Seles the supreme baseliners. These four have dominated the Grand Slam tournaments of the past 10 years and more. Other "big name" players of the past few years have been Sanchez Vicario and Novotna. The best American-born woman player at the present is Lindsay Davenport. Winners of Grand Slam championships since 1974 are given in the Table that follows. Governance of the Game ---------------------- Amateur play in the U.S. is governed by the United States Tennis Association (USTA). This organization provides a wide variety of services that promote the game. The organization that governs the game on a world-wide basis is the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). Table 1. Recent Winners of Grand Slam Singles Tournaments Men Year Australian French Wimbledon US 1974 Connors Borg Connors Connors 1975 Newcombe Borg Ashe Orantes 1976 Edmondson Panatta Borg Connors 1977 Tanner/Gerul Vilas Borg Vilas 1978 Vilas Borg Borg Connors 1979 Vilas Borg Borg McEnroe 1980 Teacher Borg Borg McEnroe 1981 Kriek Borg McEnroe McEnroe 1982 Kriek Wilander Connors Connors 1983 Wilander Noah McEnroe Connors 1984 Wilander Lendl McEnroe McEnroe 1985 Edberg Wilander Becker Lendl 1986 Not held Lendl Becker Lendl 1987 Edberg Lendl Cash Lendl 1988 Wilander Wilander Edberg Wilander 1989 Lendl Chang Becker Becker 1990 Lendl Gomez Edberg Sampras 1991 Becker Courier Stich Edberg 1992 Courier Courier Agassi Edberg 1993 Courier Bruegera Sampras Sampras 1994 Sampras Bruegera Sampras Agassi 1995 Agassi Muster Sampras Sampras 1996 Sampras Kafelnikov Kracijek Sampras 1997 Sampras Kuerten Sampras Rafter 1998 Korda Moya Sampras Rafter Women Year Australian French Wimbledon US 1974 Goolagong Evert Evert King 1975 Goolagong Evert King Evert 1976 Goolagong Barker Evert Evert 1977 Reid/Goolagong Jausovec Wade Evert 1978 O'Neil Ruzici Navratilova Evert 1979 Jordan Evert Navratilova Austin 1980 Mandlikova Evert Goolagong Evert 1981 Navratilova Mandlikova Evert Austin 1982 Evert Navratilova Navratilova Evert 1983 Navratilova Evert Navratilova Navratilova 1984 Evert Navratilova Navratilova Navratilova 1985 Navratilova Evert Navratilova Mandlikova 1986 Not held Evert Navratilova Navratilova 1987 Mandlikova Graf Navratilova Navratiova 1988 Graf Graf Graf Graf 1989 Graf Sanchez-Vic Graf Graf 1990 Graf Seles Navratilova Sabatini 1991 Seles Seles Graf Seles 1992 Seles Seles Graf Seles 1993 Seles Graf Graf Graf 1994 Graf Sanchez-Vic Martinez Sanchez-Vic 1995 Pierce Graf Graf Graf 1996 Seles Graf Graf Graf 1997 Hingis Majoli Hingis Hingis 1998 Hingis Sanchez Vic Novotna Davenport