Tennis Information

About Tennis
Tennis is a racquet sport played between either two players ("singles") or two teams of two players ("doubles"). Player(s) use a stringed racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered in felt over a net into the opponent's court. In some places, tennis is still called lawn tennis, to distinguish it from real tennis (also known as royal tennis or court tennis), an older form of the game that is played indoors on a very different kind of a court. Originating in England in the late 19th Century, the game spread first throughout the English-speaking world, particularly among the upper classes.

Tennis is now an Olympic sport that is played at all levels of society and by all ages in many countries around the world. Its rules have remained remarkably unchanged since the 1920s. Along with its millions of players, millions of people follow tennis as a spectator sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments.


Tournaments
Tournaments are often organized by gender and number of players. Common tournament configurations include men's singles, women's singles, doubles (where two players of the same sex play on each side), and mixed doubles (with a member of each sex per side). Tournaments may be arranged for specific age groups, with upper age limits for youth and lower age limits for senior players. There are also tournaments for handicapped players. In the four grand slams, the draw (the maximum number of players allowed in a particular category of the tournament) is 128 people.

Players may also be matched by their skill level. According to how well a person does in sanctioned play, he or she is given a rating (examples from the U.S. system called the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP): 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, etc.) which is adjusted periodically to maintain competitive matches.

History of Tennis
Tennis has a long history (deriving from the 'jeu de paume'), but its establishment as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. 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. The Courier of 23 July 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall (demolished 1948).

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 was 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:

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.
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, since "un oeuf" is more commonly used, the etymology remains 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 standardize the rules and organize competitions. The comprehensive I.L.T.F. rules promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-breaker system designed by James van Alen. 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.

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 1926 promoter C.C. ("Cash and Carry") Pyle established the first professional tennis tour with a group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences. The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. For 42 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, 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 were able to make their living from tennis.

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, Martina Navratilova, and Hana Mandlikova), Sweden (Björn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander), Brazil (Gustavo Kuerten), Russia (Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin), Belgium (Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne), Switzerland (Martina Hingis and Roger Federer) and from many other countries.

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 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 the grounds that are home to the Tennis Hall of Fame, as well as an induction ceremony honoring new Hall of Fame members.

Great Tennis Players
Many great players played in the days before tennis's Open era, many of whom are unknown by modern sports fans. Among them are "Big Bill" Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry, Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Pancho Gonzales, Ken Rosewall, and Lew Hoad. Any one of these eleven would probably 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. Among women the top two pre-Open era players are considered to be Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills Moody. Maureen Connolly was the first female player to win a Grand Slam in 1953. Doris Hart was the first player to win all 12 possible singles, doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles

Among the greatest male players of the Open era are Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, John Newcombe, Stan Smith, Guillermo Vilas, Arthur Ashe, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg,Goran Ivanišević, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Patrick Rafter, Andre Agassi, Gustavo Kuerten, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, and Roger Federer. Among the women are Margaret Smith Court, Maria Bueno, Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong, Chris Evert, Hana Mandlíková, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Until the mid-1950s, Bill Tilden was generally considered the greatest player ever, his only rivals being Vines, Budge, and Kramer. In the later 1950s many thought Pancho Gonzales had claimed that title. Since then, Laver and more recently Borg and Sampras have widely been regarded as the greatest ever. Roger Federer is considered by many commentators to have the most "complete" game in modern tennis, with the potential to challenge the achievements of these past greats. Even among experts, no consensus exists as to who has been the greatest of all.1 Among the women, Lenglen and Wills-Moody vie for the same distinction of greatest of all time, with several modern players: Court, Navratilova, Evert, and Graf.