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 Tennis
has a long, long history, but its establishment as the sport we know today
can be dated. In 1859 Major Thomas Henry Gem, a solicitor, and his friend
Batista Pereira, a Spanish merchant, who both lived in Birmingham, England
played a game they named "pelota", after a Spanish ball game. The
game was played on a lawn in Edgbaston. In 1872 both men moved to Leamington
Spa, and with two doctors from the Warneford Hospital, played pelota on the
lawn behind the Manor House Hotel (now residential apartments). Pereira,
joined with Dr. Frederick Haynes and Dr. A. Wellesley Tomkins to found the
first lawn tennis club in the world and played the game on nearby lawns'.
In 1874 they formed the Leamington Tennis Club, setting out the original
rules of the game which form the basis of the modern ones. The Courier of
23 July 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds
of Shrubland Hall (demolished 1948).
Also in December 1873, Major Walter Clopton
Wingfield devised a similar game for the amusement of his guests at a garden
party on his estate at Nantclwyd, Wales. He based the game on the older sport
of indoor tennis or real tennis ("royal tennis"), which had been
invented in 12th century France and played by French aristocrats down to
the time of the French Revolution.
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:
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Tennis comes from the French tenez, the
imperative form of the verb tenir, to hold: it thus means "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 itself
derives from the Arabic rakhat, meaning the palm of the hand.
-
Deuce comes from à deux le jeu,
meaning "to both is the game" (that is, the two players have
equal scores).
-
Love may come from l'oeuf, the egg, a
reference to the egg-shaped zero symbol; however, the phrase "un
oeuf" is more commonly used and the etymology is in question.
* The convention of numbering scores "15,"
"30" and "40" comes from quinze, trente and quarante,
which to French ears makes a euphonious sequence.
Seeing the commercial potential of the game,
Wingfield patented it in 1874, but never succeeded in enforcing his patent.
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.
In 1881 the desire to play tennis competitively
led to the establishment of tennis clubs. The first championships at Wimbledon,
in London were played in 1877. In 1881 the United States National Lawn Tennis
Association (now the United States Tennis Association) was formed to standardise
the rules and organise competitions. The U.S. National Men's Singles Championship,
now the U.S. Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. the U.S.
National Women's Singles Championships were first held in 1887. The Davis
Cup, an annual competition between national teams, dates to 1900.
In 1926 a group of American tennis players
established a professional tennis circuit, playing exhibition matches to
paying audiences. For 40 years professional and amateur tennis remained strictly
separate. Once a player turned pro he or she could not compete in the major
(amateur) tournaments. In 1968 however, commercial pressures led to the abandonment
of this distinction, inaugurating the Open era, in which all players could
compete in all tournaments, and top players made their living from tennis.
Tennis was for many years predominantly a
sport of the English-speaking world, dominated by the United States, Britain
and Australia. It was also popular in France, where the French Open dates
to 1891. 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. Together these four events are called the Grand Slam (a term borrowed
from bridge). Winning the Grand Slam, by capturing these four titles in one
calendar year, is the highest ambition of most tennis players.
In 1954 James Van Alen founded the International
Tennis Hall of Fame, a not-for-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island. 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.
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. Since the 1970s great champions have
emerged from Germany (Boris
Becker, Steffi Graf),
the former Czechoslovakia (Ivan
Lendl and Martina
Navratilova), Sweden (Björn
Borg), Brazil (Gustavo
Kuerten), Russia (Yevgeni
Kafelnikov), and many other countries. Recently African American players
such as Venus and Serena
Williams have become a force in the game.
Among the greatest male players of the Open
era are Rod Laver, Jimmy
Connors, John Newcombe,
Stan Smith, Björn
Borg, John McEnroe,
Ivan Lendl, Stefan
Edberg, Jim Courier,
Mats Wilander, Andre
Agassi, Pete Sampras,
and Roger Federer. Among
the women are Chris Evert,
Martina Navratilova,
Steffi Graf, Monica
Seles, Serena
and Venus Williams,
Justine Henin-Hardenne,
Lindsay Davenport,and
Martina Hingis.
Many great players played in the days before
Open tennis. Most of them are unknown by modern sports fans. Among them are
Bill Tilden, Ellsworth
Vines, Fred Perry, Don
Budge, Bobby Riggs,
Jack Kramer, Pancho
Segura, Frank Sedgman,
Pancho Gonzales, Ken
Rosewall, and Lew Hoad.
For many years observers considered Tilden
to be the greatest player who ever lived. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was
general agreement that Gonzales
had replaced Tilden as the
best ever. Any one of these eleven would be competitive in today's game.
Other fine players of the pre-Open era include Maurice
McLoughlin, "Little
Bill" Johnston, the "Four Musketeers" (Jean
Borotra, Jacques Brugnon,
Henri Cochet, and René
Lacoste), Vinnie Richards,
Jack Crawford, Vic
Seixas, and Tony Trabert.
Who is the greatest male player of all time?
It is impossible to give a clear answer, as new techniques and improved equipment
have changed the game greatly in the last thirty years. Many authorities
feel that the 1920s Bill Tilden,
for instance, who was noted for his intelligence, adaptability, and athleticism,
would be able to change his game and strokes to rival the modern players.
Evidenced by the frequent upsets of top seeds by lower-ranked players in
today's major tournements, there is relatively little difference in the quality
of play among the top hundred players. If one believes that past stars would
rank in the top hundred today, they also might fare as well against today's
top players.
A listing of the six greatest players of all
time might include, in chronological order, Bill
Tilden, Don Budge, Pancho
Gonzales, Rod Laver, John
McEnroe, and Pete Sampras.
A study of their records against other players could support an argument
for any one of them as the best player of all time. A similar case could
perhaps be made for Jack Kramer
or Björn Borg. Kramer
himself, who became a top player in the early 1940s, believes that Ellsworth
Vines was the greatest of all time ... and so it goes -- an interesting
topic for speculation.
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