History of Tennis:

There is a tremendous amount of factual tennis history information available.  Additionally there are and have been many, many historians who have used research and experience to turn various historical elements into annals and fact-based anthologies of flowing tennis history, with minimum bias.  For all that is firmly known about tennis history it is remarkable how much of the origins and evolution of tennis are not known.

The precise origin of the term 'tennis' itself is not clear, nor is the origin of 'racquet'.  The origins of tennis scoring (15, 30...), including 'love', are definitely not traceable through a documented "paper trail".   There are innumerable pieces written on the possible origins of 'love' in tennis scoring.  The name 'tennis' may have evolved from an Egyptian city name, or may derive from a French exclamation, or may have some other separate lineage.

Here are some key things that are firmly known:  - games involving striking balls back and forth, with and without gloves, bats, paddles, and/or racquets, have been around for millenniums; - jeu de paume is an antecedent for modern tennis, and some other racquet sports as well;  - Major Walter Clopton Wingfield  patented and marketed a tennis game and related equipment; - the pressures between amateur and professional tennis were almost palpable before the open era began; and, - tennis today is a big money, international, major sport as well as a game that all classes of people can play nearly all their lives.

How it began:

The story starts in Egypt, but the lineage to the world-wide game of today has its roots more in France before it was launched in Great Britain.

 Before Lawn Tennis and Before Court Tennis:

According to some references, the earliest existing depiction (found thus far) of a ball game is from the Egyptian tomb of Beni Hassan prior to 2000 BC, which shows women on the backs of other women throwing a ball back & forth.  A variety of ball games played in Egypt as far back as several millennium ago have been documented, but not necessarily tennis or 'jeu de paume' (defined below).

Name associations:  

The Greeks (750 BC – 146 BC) generally used the term “Sphairistike” to refer to their ball games.   This name was briefly revived and associated with lawn tennis in the late 19th century, as you will see further on.

In this article, the French terminology 'jeu de paume' (palm game) is the term of reference for the old game now called, in English, Real Tennis, Court Tennis, or Royal Tennis.  Here 'lawn tennis' and 'tennis' will be the terms used for the game and international sport we know today, and which was formed late in the 19th century.  

Lawn tennis was and is different from the court set up of jeu de paume’s relatively complex structures, but modern tennis scoring likely has its heritage in medieval jeu de paume.  

A leading theory associated with the unusual tennis scoring of 15 (fifteen), 30 (thirty) etc is of an association with time.  15, 30, 45, and 60 may have been time associations with play of the game based on breaking a medieval common element of measure ('60' akin to '100' today) into 4 equal parts.  "Forty-five" then was presumably shortened to "forty" for convenience.   Other tennis terms, such as 'love' and 'deuce' are believed by some to originate from the French, 'le oeuf' (the egg, for 0)  and 'a deux' (two, for tied).

One theory is that the term “tennis” derives from the French “tenez”, meaning to hold or to take heed, i.e. from server to receiver.   “Tenez” may have been a common call for jeu de paume players to initiate play in France and somehow retained association to the English versions of the game.  Additionally, in times preceding jeu de paume where early ball games have been documented there was an Egyptian city named 'Tinnis'.  No one has  definitive evidence of the origin of the term “tennis”, but it has been used in English for hundreds of years at least.  

Tennis is 'king of games' to many and its affiliation with jeu de paume is only one of the ways it also gets referred to as the 'game of kings'. 

The game started in the streets with the “common people” and likely progressed by the monks, and was ultimately embraced by aristocracy and royalty.  

Jeu de paume would become an indoor court game played in an intricate setting with sloped roofs and walls, likely modeled after the earlier environment of the earlier street games.

Jeu de Paume and its antecedents likely began bare-handed, evolved to gloves, then bats, and ultimately jeu de paume evolved to racquets. It is proposed that in the 11th and 12th centuries organized ball games were routinely being played, and by around the 13th century in France, traditional Easter ball games had formalized into the game of jeu de paume, similar to that which was popular with aristocracy in the 16th and 17rth centuries.  It appears that French monks were a dominant influence on the game in its origins.  The name jeu de paume was obviously not changed after racquets were employed centuries later.   In English the term 'tennis' has been the equivalent name for jeu de paume for centuries.

During the reign (1327-1377) of King Edward III (1312-1377) of England a Jeu de Paume (tennis in English) court was constructed at Windsor Castle.  Courts in France have been reported as early as 1368 and by 1600 as many as 2000 courts in France.

By the late 13th century it is said there were more than a dozen Jeu de Paume ball manufacturers in Paris.   Likely as early the 14th century, clearly by the 16th century, racquets were employed.   Chaucer refers to 'racquets' (in olde English) in "Troilus and Criseyde" circa 1380.

Referring to an event circa 1414, in William Shakespeare's play 'Henry V' (circa 1600): 

"King Henry: What treasure, uncle?" and the reply: "Exeter: Tennis-balls, my liege." 
In King Henry's reply: "...When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, We will in France (by God's grace) play a set...".

Shakespeare's reference was to an event when Prince Dauphin of France sent balls for the game to England's King Henry V (reign 1413 to 1422).  

King Louis XI of France (reign 1461-1483) is said to have standardized the ball, which were sewn cloth with hardness and bounce possibly somewhere between a modern baseball and tennis ball.

King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547) of England was known to be an avid jeu de paume player.  Legend has it he was playing the game when he was apprised of the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn.  In May of 1536 Anne Boleyn was arrested while watching a jeu de paume match, she was taken to the Tower of London was subsequently executed.

As early as the 17th century the game of jeu de paume was competitive and structured enough that gambling became sufficiently problematic that the game was publicly banned.  Thus the evolution of the game at least temporarily fell almost exclusively into the hands of upper levels of aristocracy who could afford to maintain their own courts.

While no link appears to be documented, it seems plausible that there could be an association between wagering on a tennis match and the increments of play that may have given us 15, 30, etc scoring.

Jeu de paume peaked in popularity in the 16th and 17th century.  The popularity of jeu de paume was declining in the 18th century (but is not extinguished yet today).    

In association with the French Revolution in 1789  King Louis XVI lost control of his Army and basically became a prisoner of the people.  "The Tennis Court Oath" ("serment du Jeu de Paume") was a key event in the Revolution that took place in 1789 on a Jeu de Paume court near the Versailles palace.   Without summarizing the entire Revolution, lets just say that choosing the Royal Jeu de Paume court of Versailles Palace to establish a treatise for maintaining a quorum until a constitution for the kingdom could be established was not purely coincidental.  Along with the elimination of aristocratic privileges, Jeu de Paume was significantly curtailed.

Late 1700s to Late 1800s:

Late in the 18th century in England versions of a game called field tennis, or long tennis, was apparently being played and enjoyed some popularity.  It was played on a field “smooth as a bowling green” such that in Britain in 1793 the Sporting Magazine reported that it was a threat to cricket.  It is unclear how much field tennis maintained popularity in the 19th century.

In the 1840s vulcanized rubber was invented and it would be revolutionary in many applications, including tennis balls and tennis shoes.  Prior to this all-weather resilient rubber application tennis balls were stuffed and sewn and lacked the bounce to be used on the lawn.  This was a major innovation for racquet sports.

In 1858 a jeu de paume derived outdoor  game has been documented as being played on the lawn.

Dominating world history in the 1860s was the American Civil War, from 1861-1865.  World-wide industrialization was on the increase in the mid-to-late 19th century, particularly in England, and in the US after the war.  Leisure time in the latter half of the Victorian era was likewise on the rise for much of the world's population.

In France, Jeu de Paume having come back from the French Revolutions, Napoleon III had two Jeu de Paume courts built in 1861 that stand today as an art museum, the 'Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume'.

The interlacing of the 'main' and 'cross' strings of racquets was begun in the 1860s.  The lopsided jeu de paume racquets have clear lineage with early lawn tennis racquets, and likely jeu de paume racquets served as early lawn tennis racquets which for a brief time also had the lopsided design.  Other racquet games, such as Pelota (sometimes called Basque Pelota) and Rackets, were also being played in the 19th century and courts were being built in the late 19th century.  Rackets, or Racquets, is more similar to squash than to tennis.   Today's tennis is one of a number of racquet sports that traces its lineage to Jeu de Paume.

The 'panic of 1873' marks the beginning of the 'long depression', or the first great economic depression from 1874 to about 1879.  The 1870s were also the beginnings of the French 'Belle  Époque' (Beautiful Era) a time of extended political stability for most of Europe.   During the 1870s much also happened in the creation of tennis, lawn tennis, the game that would evolve into the worldwide sport we have today.  Historians debate the details, but what follows next is the story of the creation of Lawn Tennis.

Lawn Tennis:

In 1873, with Jeu de Paume and a variety of racquet-and-ball games in the common knowledge base, and croquet and cricket lawns plentiful, the stage was set for Major Walter Clopton Wingfield to “invent” lawn tennis, under the names 'sphairistike' or 'lawn tennis'.  He would find that 'sphairistike' was not a patentable term however.  Major Wingfield reportedly introduced his idea of the game to a party in December 1873.  His 23 February 1874 patent of a "portable court for playing tennis" served to initiate a somewhat chaotic process to formalize and standardize a set of rules and equipment .  His patented court was hour-glass shaped and the scoring that went along with it was closer to Racquets than our modern tennis scoring.   The path to standardized and long lasting rules would not come easyr.  One might say that Major Walter Clopton Wingfield is the father of lawn tennis due to his patented equipment, and its promotion, and his role as a debater regarding what would become the format for Lawn Tennis.   Modern tennis is said to have originated in 1874, with Major Walter Clopton Wingfield.

For context, from Major Wingfield's patent it would be just over 2 years before Alexander Graham Bell would patent the telephone, and just over 5 years before Thomas Edison would invent the incandescent light bulb.

Major Wingfield's tennis sets and the game spread rapidly arund the world.  Several specific people played significant roles in bringing tennis to America and we may never know which one was first, if it really matters.

A lawn tennis game had been patented, but for several years thereafter the format (rules, court shape, etc) varied from club to club.  Over these years tennis was spreading around the lawns of the world, without a common adoption of rules.  One of the major significances of the early tournaments, nearly unimaginable today, is that they were a forcing function for rules standardization.  The All England Croquet Club (soon to become the All England Croquet Club and Lawn Tennis Club) at Wimbledon and the Marylebone Cricket Club played major roles in shaping the debate of how to standardize tennis rules.  Ultimately in 1877 a singularity of rules was established, with significant deviations from Wingfield's patented rules (e.g. court shape), when The Field announced and the first Wimbledon all-comers event was held.  The first English championship, at Wimbledon in 1877, won by Spencer Gore, was a major event in standardization of the game.

Early lawn tennis varied from the standards we have today in some fairly significant ways such as different court shape and dimensions, different net height and some rules differences.  Some iterations on the lawn tennis court included hour glass court shape, larger service boxes and different net heights (around 5’ on the sides).  Early on there was no ‘double fault’, because there was only one ‘serve’, and there was no ‘let’. 

So it took from 1874 and the  patent of a "portable court for playing tennis" to 1877 to obtain a standard of a tennis game that is generally comparable to what we have today.  However, regular changes would continue for about the next 5 years before the court and rules really closely resembled what we have today.

Lawn tennis quickly spread throughout the English-speaking upper class, and was a game for both ladies and gentlemen.  Some thought it was a ladies game, but when the first Wimbledon championship was held they crowned only a men’s winner.  The ladies didn’t have their first Wimbledon championship until 1884.

Lawn tennis came to America in 1874, via either Massachusetts, New York and/or Arizona.   Some believe that Dr. James Dwight first introduced lawn tennis in America in Massachusetts, whereas others believe it is Mary Outerbridge who brought it to Staten Island via Bermuda that was first.  It has apparently been documented that Ms. Ella Wilkins Bailey played lawn tennis at or near Camp Apache, Arizona, in 1874.  Whoever and however it was introduced, America was to play a significant roles in early tennis and the North Eastern part of the country is where it took hold the strongest.

Who and how the 'Wingfield-inspired' lawn tennis was introduced to France at this time seems to be a missing element of tennis history.

In the U.S. in June of 1880, the New York Times ran an article citing the growing popularity of the game as documented by the number of tennis sets sold and citing the quality of American manufacturers to be on par with foreign makers.  The article also provided colorful commentary on this new game, including some instruction for play.

In 1881 the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) was formed and sponsored the US championships.  The singles title was won by Richard D. Sears, and doubles was won by Messrs Clark and Taylor.   That year in England William Renshaw won the first of his 6 consecutive Wimbledon titles.

By 1882 the rules of lawn tennis had become very stable and close to what we have today.  Rather than variations on scoring, net height or court dimensions the rules variations would now be focused on details like the foot-fault.

In 1883 the London Standard published an article, re-printed in the New York Times, titled “Tennis and Lawn Tennis” (meaning Jeu de Paume and Lawn Tennis) bemoaning the recent British loss to an American in Jeu de Paume as well as the adoption of Lawn Tennis in Britain.  A quote: 'The very words "lawn tennis" have always been a cause of offense and a stumbling block to the players of the real original game' (meaning 'Jeu de Paume', or by that time in England 'real tennis').  Tennis had apparently eclipsed Jeu de Paume by this time.

In 1884 the first British championships (Wimbledon) for women were held, and Ms. Maud Watson took the title the first two years.  The US Championship women's tournament was first held in 1887. 

In 1888 the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) was formed in England.

In the 1880s the big names of tennis champions were Sears, Renshaw and Henry Slocum on the men’s side.  On the women's side in the 1880s Maud Watson, Charlotte Dod and Blanche Bingly Hillyard each won 2 Wimbledon titles, and Bertha Townsend won the US Championship twice.

In 1891 the French championships began, and in 1905 the Australian championships began.   The Wimbledon, U.S., French, and Australian Opens are known today as the Grand Slam tournaments.   In 1988 Steffi Graf won all 4 Grand Slam tournaments as well as the Olympic gold, this was called the “Golden Slam” and has not been equaled.

In 1896 tennis became an Olympic sport.

Dwight Davis, an accomplished player and a lawyer,  began the Davis Cup in 1900 as a competition between the US and England.  The competition grew quite quickly and before the open era had effectively become the world championships for the men (amateurs only).  Today the Davis Cup remains as the international men's event for national team competition. 

In 1903 the Wright brothers flew their first plane, and it would still be about 40 more years before trans-Atlantic commercial air travel became viable.  So don't think of the logistics of British and American national championships and Davis Cup competitions, soon to include the Australians, to be equivalent to the jet-age travel conveniences we are now used to.

In 1904 Australia's Norman Brookes and Alf Dunlop wanted to play in the newly formed Davis Cup compeition, but needed a national organization to sponsor them.  The Lawn Tennis Association Australia was formed in 1904 to sponsor Australian Davis Cup teams and run the Australian National Championships which would begin in 1905.

Prior to World War I multiple Grand Slam tournament winners included the Doherty brothers and Bill Larned; and Dorothea Douglas Chambers and Hazel Hotchkiss on the women’s side.  From 1915 through 1918 the US Championships were the only one of the 4 major championships held each year.  The Australian Championships were the only other one played, and only in 1915.

In 1920 the USNLTA dropped “National” and became the USLTA.  In 1975 “Lawn” was dropped and we have the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

In 1923 Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman began a women's competition between the US and British, similar to the origins of the Davis Cup.  The Wightman Cup continued until 1989 but did not become the world championship event for nations the Davis Cup had become.  Four decades later the ITF would initiate the Federation Cup as a world championship for women analogous to the Davis Cup events.

Lawn tennis was discontinued as a Summer Olympics event after the 1924 Olympics (since 1896).  The amateur status of tennis was in question by the Olympic committee.  Tennis would return to the Olympics in 1968 and 1984 as a demonstration sport, and was an official medal sport again beginning in 1988.

The 1920s, called the “Roaring Twenties” in some parts of the world, brought lawn tennis the French 3 musketeers (Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra and Rene Lacoste) from France, and American big Bill Tilden from the short list of all-time greats.  The 3 musketeers won the French championship from 1924 through 1932, and a total of 20 national championships between them.   Rene 'the crocodile' Lacoste is the originator of the Lacoste high end international apparel brand that you'll still find in tennis and golf pro shops today.

Bill Tilden won 8 Grand Slam tournament titles between 1920 and 1925, including 6 consecutive US championships.  Additionally Tilden won the US and French championships in 1929 and 1930, respectively, before turning pro.  It is impossible to briefly describe the significance of Tilden's influence on American tennis, or the tennis world for that matter.  'Tilden' and 'tennis' were synonymous for a couple decades anywhere in the world that 'tennis' was known.  Tilden was able to keep the Davis Cup in the US for most of the 1920s and in his unusually long and productive career he was world number 1 as an amateur and a pro, a tennis teacher, coach and writer.  Tilden was also innovative and created new strokes and mastery of spins.  Most of his instructional writing (e.g. "Match Play and the Spin of the Ball") is still apropos today.  Bill Tilden is considered to be the best player of his time, and in the short list of the debate for all-time greatest.

In 1920 in the US, women were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment.  In women's tennis in the 1920s we had Suzanne Lenglen, Molla Mallory, and Helen Wills dominating the major championships.  

Suzanne Lenglen was an international phenomenon from France, most thought fame some thought infamy.  Her emotions were routinely in the open and at a time of ankle covering dresses she routinely wore hers cut just below the knees.  Ms. Lenglen was a dynamic and athletic  player, a diva, and great champion as she won the French and Wimbledon championships 6 times each.   Ms. Lenglen is considered to be one of the top female players of all time.

Ms. Lenglen's greatest arch rival, Helen Wills, was successful kind of like Borg and Sampras combined as she won the French championships 4 times in 5 years, Wimbledon 6 times in 7 years, and the US championships 7 times in 9 years.   Their contrast in style was dramatic, as flamboyant as Ms. Lenglen routinely was Ms Wills was all business.  Composed and unflappable Ms. Wills was nicknamed "Little Miss Poker Face", half a decade before we would have the demeanor of Bjorn Borg or Chris Evert.

In 1925 Ms. Wills began her journey to France and a much anticipated match with Ms. Lenglen, their only singles meeting.   Quoting Larry Englemann "This was and international incident.  This was history.  And millions of people wanted to be part of it...".  Englemann is the author of the book "Goddess and the American Girl: The Story of Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills".    The 21 year old Wills would enter the match with 3 US national singles titles, but the 27 year old Lenglen already had 11 combined French and Wimbledon singles titles. The match took place on February 16, 1926 at the Carlton Club in Cannes, France, on clay.  The venue was not large enough for the audience as people paid local homeowners to allow them to watch from open windows and roof tops.  Ms. Lenglen prevailed 6-3, 8-6, and their anticipated French championship clash did not materialize that Summer as Ms. Wills had to withdraw due to illness.  Ms. Lenglen turned pro before Wimbledon that year and so would compete in no more of the national championships that would become the 'grand slam' events, and there would be no Lenglen-Will rematch on grass or any other surface.  Ms. Wills would still win 16 more of her 19 total 'grand slam' event singles championships between 1927 and 1935.  What a duel it could have been had Lenglen stayed amateur or Wills turned pro at the same time.

In 1926 the first professional tennis tour was organized.  Up until this point the major tournaments (including what would become the 'grand slam' events) did not have players and events of 'professional' status to contend with.  Amateur competition was the name of the game, as it was with Olympic competition.  Charles C. "C.C." Pyle (3/25/1882 - 2/3/1939) was a sports agent who represented Red Grange of football fame, and also signed the marketable French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen.  C.C. Pyle, sometimes called "Cash and Carry", organized a tour in 1926-27 with Lenglen and Mary K. Browne, and Vinnie Richards and Howard Kinsey on the men's side.  The tennis tour was not a business success, but it preceded a string of amateurs turning professional.

In 1927 the popularity of French tennis with the success of Ms Lenglen and the French musketeers (4 including James Brugnon) would drive the tennis authorities and French government to build the new stadium, Roland Garros, near the Porte d'Auteuil.  Roland Garros remains the venue for the French Open of today.

With the personalities and accomplishments, the 1920s was a golden time of prosperity for tennis just as it was a time of prosperity for much of the world.  Of course "Black Tuesday" on October 29, 1929 marks the beginning of what was to be called the "Great Depression".  According to Wikipedia "The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s."

In 1930 Bill Tilden turned professional and was the first amateur Champion to do so.  Not long after, Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry, Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer, and "Pancho" Gonzalez would also turn pro as amateur champions.

Prior to World War II, in the 1930s, the grand slam tournament events were mostly won by famous players on the men’s side, such as Jack Crawford, Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry and Gottfried Von Cramm.   In 1938 Don Budge won all four major championships to be the first Grand Slam winner.  In 1939 Bobby Riggs lost in the final at the French championship, but won Wimbledon and the US championships.  (The ‘battle of the sexes’ with Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King would not be an event until 1973.)  

Called by some the greatest match of all time, at Wimbledon stadium center court in July 1937 Don Budge met Baron Gottfried von Cramm in a US vs. Germany Davis Cup deciding match.  The Nazi Germany climate was on the rise and the political stakes were about as high as the stakes for the Davis Cup.  Number 1 Budge was favored and had handily defeated world number 2 von Cramm in their recent British championships (Wimbledon).   The Queen was in attendance and the tennis play was inspired.  Don Budge won 6-8, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 8-6, after being down 4-1 in the 5th set.  The US moved on to defeat the Brits in the Challenge (Championship) round and win the Davis Cup.  

Not only was Gottfired von Cramm not a Nazi-sympathizer, he was one of the most noble competitors the game has ever seen, and an outstanding player.  Von Cramm was temporarily imprisoned by the Nazi regime and seemingly endured an unusual number of life challenges for someone who was so impeccable and respected as a player and person.

Helen Wills and Helen Jacobs were winning in the 1930s, when we also discover Alice Marble as a grand slam tournament champion.  Alice Marble needs a chapter of history all her own, and was judged by most to be the first women's  'power game'  player, more like the men's game than the women's.  The striking Californian played a power serve and volley style that was dominant in the late 1930's and early 1940s.  With 5 grand slam event titles she turned pro for the 1941 season tour with Mary Hardwick, and Bill Tilden and Don Budge.

The 1930s also brought about fashion change on the women’s side as cuts of skirts and shorts fell above the knees for the first time.  Long pants largely persisted for the men until the 1940s, although shorts did appear occasionally on the men in the late 1930s.

The national championships and major tournaments were for amateur players.  Once a player had been successful enough he could join a professional tour to make a living at the sport, but then could no longer play in the Grand Slam tournaments.  More and more as time went on, tennis was not alone as a sport where ‘amateurs’ were routinely being reimbursed to appear at events and the line between amateur and professional would get blurred, until it ultimately went away.

The war years of the 1940s were a challenged time for lawn tennis, and the world of course.  From 1941 through 1945, of the 4 Grand Slam events only the US Championships were played.  Wimbledon was not played between 1939 and 1946, and the facilities there suffered some bomb damage.  Promotion of professional tours pretty much stopped completely during the war.

The post-war 1940s brought Frank Sedgeman, Frank Parker, Ricardo "Pancho" Gonzalez and Jack Kramer as champions.   Kramer would also become a major promoter for professionals as well as advocate for ‘open tennis’, and play a key role in the development of the Association of Touring Professionals (ATP).  Jack Kramer was hugely successful as a promoter and one of the significant things he did was begin an evolution from head-to-head competitive tours toward a more traditional tournament style of event.

In the 1950s Jack Kramer's professional tours starting integrating the Australian Grand Slam tournament winners into the mix with the American players.  On the tours "Pancho" Gonzales defeated Tony Trabert, Ken Rosewall, and Lew Hoad in consecutive seasons 1956, 57, and 58.  "Pancho" won the US Championship twice, but did not accumulate great numbers of Grand Slam tournament trophies.  Nonetheless "Pancho" Gonzales is considered to be one of the greatest players ever and was the number 1 ranked player in the world for 8 consecutive years.

The 1950s and 1960s were prolific in terms of tennis talent and dominant winners.  On the men's side greats such as Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Rod Laver and Roy Emerson emerged.  On the women's side Mo Connolly, Althea Gibson, Marie Bueno, Margaret Smith Court and Billie Jean King all brought their games to the courts.  All of them set their marks in the record books.

In 1962 Rod Laver became the second man to win a Grand Slam - reigning as the champion of all for majors at the end of the year. 

In 1963 the International Tennis Federation (ITF) initiated the Federation Cup (today called Fed Cup) for national team competition for women at the urging of Nell Hopman (wife of Harry Hopman) and Mary Hardwick.

In 1967, shortly after John Newcombe won his first Wimbledon title, Jack Kramer promoted a highly successful, sold-out on consecutive days, tour at Wimbledon.   After the US Championships at Forest Hills that year another set of high profile players were signed to professional contracts.  The balance between amateur and professional tennis was rapidly approaching a turning point.

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Open Tennis:

1968 marks the beginning of the “open era” which may be the single biggest catalyst for creating the tennis enterprise (Industry, Pro Tour organizations, advertising, etc) we have today. 

In January 1968, "Lawn Tennis - The Official Journal of the Lawn Tennis Association" published the following on this pictured magazine: 'No Going Back - The Lawn Tennis Association decided by an overwhelming vote...to make the British game honest as from 22nd April 1968...all in Britain will become "players" '

Open tennis dissolved the boundary between professionals and amateurs, and resulted in professionals who had been restricted in their engagements and appearances being freed to play all events. 

In 1968 Arthur Ashe won both the US National Championships (Boston) and the inaugural US Open (Forest Hills, NY).  Also, now eligible to play in the major events again, as a professional, Rod Laver ran the table again and won his second Grand Slam in 1969, this time as a professional.

 The story of the amateurs and professionals, and how the transition into the open era came about is a history story of its own, to be told separately.    The results of that 1968 epoch are still unfolding today, and they began with an expansion in visibility and popularity heretofore unseen.

The 1970s is often referred to as the ‘golden age’ of tennis because of its growth, overall popularity (especially in the USA), and significance in style, trends, marketing and personal identification.  Who doesn’t know of Borg, McEnroe and Connors by singular name?  How about Arthur Ashe, Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe – Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, Martina Navritilova (the namesake of Martina Hingis)?

In 1970 the tie-break was first employed, at the US Open.  Also in 1970 Margaret Smith Court became the second woman to with the Grand Slam holding not only all 4 major titles, but being the second year champion in all except Wimbledon.  She won 8 out of 9 Grand Slam events between the Australian Opens of 1969 and 1971.

In 1973 the ATP and WTA are formed, and Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes".

More to come...