Tennis can be traced as far back as the ancient Greek game of sphairistike (Greek: Σφαιριστική), and is mentioned in literature as far back as the Middle Ages in , Wingfield eventually decided on "lawn tennis," a name that he had also patented for the game.2
Its establishment as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. Between 1859 and 1865, Major , and in 1874, with two doctors from the Warneford Hospital, founded the world's first tennis club to play pelota on the lawn behind the Manor House Hotel (now residential apartments).3 The Courier of 23 July 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall (demolished 1948).4
In December 1873, Major .
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.5
- ''Deuce'' comes from ''à deux le jeu'', meaning "to both is the game" (that is, the two players have equal scores).6
- ''Love'' is used since 1742 , originating from "l'oeuf", the French word for "egg", representing the shape of a zero, just as in cricket a score of zero is called a "duck" (short for duck egg).
- 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 . With
the patent came an eight-page rule book, titled “Sphairistike or Lawn Ten-
nis,” with the subheading “The Major’s Game of Lawn Tennis, Dedicated
to the party assembled at Nantclwyd in December 1873.”7 But he failed to succeed in enforcing his patent. The Beginnings Of Lawn Tennis - University of South Carolina Libraries 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 .8
In , an annual competition between national teams, dates to 1900 .12
Tennis was for many years predominantly a sport of the English-speaking world, dominated by the United States and Britain.13 It was also popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891 .14 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. Grand Slam - Australian Open15
Together these four events are called the ''Grand Slam'' (a term borrowed from Bridge ).16
In 1926 , promoter C.C. Pyle established the first professional tennis tour with a group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences.17 The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen . Open Minded - Bruce Goldman Once a player ''turned pro'' he or she could not compete in the major (amateur) tournaments.
In 1954 , James Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall Of Fame , a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island .18 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 its grounds, as well as an induction ceremony honoring new Hall of Fame members.
In 1968 , commercial pressures led to the abandonment of the distinction between professionals and amateurs, inaugurating the Open Era , in which all players could compete in all tournaments, and top players were able to make their living from tennis. Tennis, Professional Tournaments Before The Open Era Thus, the in Tennis began in 1968 , when the Grand Slam tournaments, such as Wimbledon , abandoned the longstanding rules of Amateurism and allowed professionals to compete. The first Grand Slam tournament to go "open" was the French Open (Roland Garros) .
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.
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. 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."19 About the same time, the ruling body's name was also changed from the United States Lawn Tennis Association to the United States Tennis Association.20
The records and achievements of various players who have competed during the Open Era are listed in this section below.
- of Australia :
- ---Only male player during the open era to have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a calendar year (the ) ( 1969 ). (He also won the Calendar Year Grand Slam in 1962, before the open era began.)
- 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.
- of the United States:
- ---Won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments during his career (the ).
- ---Only male player to have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments on three different surfaces ( Hardcourt , Clay , Grass ).
- ---Only male player during the open era to have won a Career Grand Slam plus an Olympic gold medal in singles (the ).
- ---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.
- of Switzerland :
- ---Most consecutive weeks as the top ranked male player, with 187 weeks (as of August 27, 2007).
- ---Longest winning streak on hard courts: 56 (2005-06).
- ---Longest winning streak on grass courts: 54 (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: 9 (Wimbledon 2005-present).
- ---Played the most consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals: 13 (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).
- 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 Tennis Masters Cup men's singles titles, with 5.
- ---Most Grand Slam singles finals, with 19.
- 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.
- 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.
- of the United States :
- ---Youngest man ever to win a Grand Slam singles title, winning the French Open in 1989 at the age of 17 years and 3 months.
- 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.
- of Australia :
- ---Youngest male player to be the World No. 1, at the age of 20 years and 8 months (2001).
- of Spain :
- ---Longest winning streak on clay, with 81 matches (2005-21st May 2007).
- of Australia:
- ---Most career men's doubles titles, with 83.
- 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 10-2.
- --- After winning the Madrid Masters, Federer became the first player to win at least ten singles titles in three consecutive years.
- 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 Amélie 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.
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