Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket strung with a cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. If a player is unable to return the ball successfully, the opponent scores a point.
Playable at all levels of society and at all ages, tennis can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The original forms of tennis developed in France during the late Middle Ages. The modern form of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis. It had close connections to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport today called real tennis.
The rules of modern tennis have changed little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that until 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point-challenge system, which allows a player to contest the line call of a point, a system known as Hawk-Eye. (Full article...)
The tournament sees players competing for their country in four singles and one doubles matches, known as rubbers, over the course of three days, with the team that wins three rubbers progressing. The countries are divided into groups based upon their location or performance in previous years. The Davis Cup World Group is the top level of the competition and features matches between players from the top 16 countries at the start of the year. Countries that lose their first round match face a relegation play-off against winning countries from the continental zones. World Group winning countries progress to the quarter-finals. Nations have to win a further three ties in order to claim the position of Davis Cup champions.The United States are the most successful nation in the history of the competition, with 32 victories. Australia are second with 28 (individually or in a combined Australasia team) and Great Britain and France are tied for third with 10. Teams from Europe have won the competition the most with 48 victories, followed by North America with 33 and Oceania with 28. (Full article...)
A 178-episode anime television series adaptation animated by Trans Arts, co-produced by Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo, was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 2001 to March 2005. A sequel of three original video animation (OVA) series, totaling 26 episodes, were released from March 2006 to January 2009. In North America, the anime series was first licensed by Viz Media and later by Crunchyroll LLC. (Full article...)
The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was changed to the Fed Cup in 1995, and changed again in September 2020 in honor of former World No. 1Billie Jean King. The Billie Jean King Cup is the world's largest annual women's international team sports competition in terms of the number of nations that compete. The current chair is Katrina Adams.
The Czech Republic dominated the BJK Cup in the 2010s, winning six of ten competitions in the decade. The men's equivalent of the Billie Jean King Cup is the Davis Cup, and the Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Russia, Italy and the United States are the only countries to have held both Cups at the same time. (Full article...)
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The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant tennis event in the men's annual calendar after the four majors, as it features the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams based on their results throughout the season. The eighth spot is reserved, if needed, for a player or team who won a major in the current year and is ranked from ninth to twentieth.
The tournament uses a unique format not seen in other ATP Tour events, where the singles players and doubles teams are separated into two groups of four, within which they each play three round-robin matches. After the round-robin stage, the top two performers from each group play in knock-out semifinals and a final to determine the champion(s). (Full article...)
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"Tennis the Menace" is the twelfth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 2001. In the episode, the Simpsons build a tennis court in their backyard and are ridiculed by the entire town because of Homer's inferior tennis ability. Homer therefore tries to please Marge by entering the two into a tournament, but they quickly turn into rivals when Marge replaces Homer with Bart as her partner.
The episode features guest appearances from tennis professionals Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and the Williams sisters as themselves. "Tennis the Menace" was directed by Jen Kamerman and written by Ian Maxtone-Graham, who also directed the Williams sisters' performance. The episodes title is a parody of Dennis the Menace. The animators of The Simpsons experimented with digital ink and paint on "Tennis the Menace", making it the first episode of the series to be animated using the process since season 7's "Radioactive Man". (Full article...)
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The 1877 Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club (AEC & LTC) in Wimbledon, London. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament or "Major". The AEC & LTC had been founded in July 1868, as the All England Croquet Club. Lawn tennis was introduced in February 1875 to compensate for the waning interest in croquet. In June 1877 the club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, needed to maintain the lawns. A set of rules was drawn up for the tournament, derived from the first standardised rules of tennis issued by the Marylebone Cricket Club in May 1875.
The Gentlemen's Singles competition, the only event of the championship, was contested on grass courts by 22 players who each paid one guinea to participate. The tournament started on 9 July 1877, and the final – delayed for three days by rain – was played on 19 July in front of a crowd of about 200 people who each paid an entry fee of one shilling. The winner received 12 guineas in prize money and a silver challenge cup, valued at 25 guineas, donated by the sports magazine The Field. Spencer Gore, a 27-year-old rackets player from Wandsworth, became the first Wimbledon champion by defeating William Marshall, a 28-year-old real tennis player, in three straight sets in a final that lasted 48 minutes. The tournament made a profit of £10. An analysis made after the tournament led to some modifications of the rules regarding the court dimensions. (Full article...)
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The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, 13 grass tennis courts, an indoor tennis facility with three courts, three outdoor hard courts, one green clay court, a court tennis facility, and a theatre. The International Tennis Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization with the goal of preserving, celebrating, and inspiring the sport of tennis around the world. (Full article...)
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Laurence Doherty (World No 1 6 Major singles 2 Olympic gold medals, singles & doubles
This was a tennis rivalry played between British player Laurence Doherty and the Irish player Harold Mahony, which in their respective careers met 18 times from 1896 until 1904.
Doherty and Mahony were both Grand Slam winners with Doherty winning six slam titles and two Olympic golds and Mahony winning one slam title, two Olympic silver medals and one bronze medal. Throughout their respective careers Doherty won 66 titles and Mahony 59 titles. (Full article...)
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The Becker–Edberg rivalry was a tennis rivalry between Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, who met 35 times between 1984 and 1996. Although Becker led their overall head-to-head 25–10 and won all three of their Davis Cup matches, Edberg won three of their four meetings in Grand Slams. Edberg and Becker also reached the championship match of the 1989 World Tour Finals, which Edberg won in four sets. Edberg led their five-set matches at 2–1.
The most defining aspect of their rivalry was the three successive Wimbledon finals that they played. In the 1988 meeting, Becker was the huge favorite, and stormed to the first set 6–4. The second set was to be the most memorable, when in a fit of courage and tennis acumen Edberg won a tight set in a tiebreaker 7–2. Edberg went on to win the next two sets 6–4, 6–2 to win his first Wimbledon title and deny Becker a third title in four years. In the 1989 meeting, Becker, having lost to Edberg a month earlier in the French Open semifinals, raced to win the first set 6–0. The second set was closer, but won in a tiebreak by Becker 7–1 after saving 3 set points (Edberg led 6-5 40-0 and service). Becker went on to win the third set 6–4. This was Becker's third Wimbledon title, which would be his last Wimbledon crown. In the 1990 meeting, Edberg won the first two sets 6–2, 6–2. However, Becker rallied to win the next two sets 6–3, 6–3. Becker broke Edberg early in the fifth set, setting up the possibility of being the first Wimbledon champion since Henri Cochet in 1927 to win the final after losing the first two sets. Yet, this was not to be as Edberg regained the break and then broke Becker in the ninth game of the set with a topspin lob winner, eventually serving it out for a second Wimbledon championship. (Full article...)
The tournament is the best-attended tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slam tournaments (493,440 in total attendance during the 2024 event); it is often called the "fifth Grand Slam" in reference to this. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden has the second-largest permanent tennis stadium in the world, behind the US Open's Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. The Indian Wells Open is the premier tennis tournament in the Western United States and the second largest tennis tournament throughout the United States and the Americas (behind the US Open in the Eastern United States). (Full article...)
World number 1 ranked female tennis players is a year-by-year listing of the female tennis players who were ranked as world No. 1 by various contemporary and modern sources.
Queen's is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, and serves as a warm-up for Wimbledon. Andy Murray has won a record five titles between 2009 and 2016. (Full article...)
Image 7A Royal Marines Commando as a services steward in 2005 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 8Jan Zieliński was part of the 2024 winning mixed doubles team. It was his first major title. (from Australian Open)
Image 9Kateřina Siniaková was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2024. It was her eighth major title and her third at the French Open. (from French Open)
Image 18Wimbledon operates a ticket resale system where returned Show Court tickets can be purchased. All proceeds go to charity. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 20Carlos Alcaraz, the 2024 men's singles champion. At 21, he became the youngest male player to win a major title on three different surfaces. (from French Open)
Image 21Hsieh Su-wei was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles and mixed doubles team. It was her seventh major title in women's doubles and first major title in mixed doubles. (from Australian Open)
Image 29Matthew Ebden was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. It was his second major title and first at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Image 30New Rod Laver Arena entrance added in 2018 as part of the Melbourne Park redevelopment. (from Australian Open)
Image 69Elise Mertens was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. It was her fourth major title and second at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
He is best known for winning three singles titles at the Wimbledon Championship and was runner-up a record 5 times (shared with Herbert Lawford). He also won gold medals at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, England, winning the Men's Indoor Singles and the Men's Indoor Doubles (with Herbert Barrett). He also competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Gore's Wimbledon win in 1909, at age 41, makes him the oldest player to date to hold the Wimbledon Gentlemen's Singles title. (Full article...)
... that in high school, tennis player Sara Daavettila went an entire season without losing a game?
... that American Colossus is a biography of a man who was "the most famous sportsman in the world" and "the most forgotten great athlete in American history"?
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Jannik Sinner, 2024 men's singles champion. (from US Open (tennis))
Rod Laver Arena night session in 2007, the last year the tournament used the Rebound Ace surface. (from Australian Open)
Aryna Sabalenka, 2024 women's singles champion. It was her third major title. (from US Open (tennis))
Margaret Court, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from Australian Open)
Molla Mallory, the all-time record holder in women's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Lyudmyla Kichenok was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
A Royal Marines Commando as a services steward in 2005 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Jan Zieliński was part of the 2024 winning mixed doubles team. It was his first major title. (from Australian Open)
Kateřina Siniaková was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2024. It was her eighth major title and her third at the French Open. (from French Open)
Martina Navratilova, the all-time record holder in women's singles (from Wimbledon Championships)
Aryna Sabalenka, 2024 women's singles champion. It was her second major title and her second at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Commemorative plaque at Court 18 marking the longest tennis match in history (from Wimbledon Championships)
Composition of the courts. (from French Open)
Iga Świątek, the 2024 women's singles champion. It was her fifth major title and her fourth at the French Open. (from French Open)
Taylor Townsend was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
View from seats of Wimbledon Court No. 1 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Rod Laver Arena, the main court of the Australian Open, in 2023. (from Australian Open)
Wimbledon operates a ticket resale system where returned Show Court tickets can be purchased. All proceeds go to charity. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Hsieh Su-wei was part of the 2024 winning mixed doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Carlos Alcaraz, the 2024 men's singles champion. At 21, he became the youngest male player to win a major title on three different surfaces. (from French Open)
Hsieh Su-wei was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles and mixed doubles team. It was her seventh major title in women's doubles and first major title in mixed doubles. (from Australian Open)
Bill Tilden, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Jeļena Ostapenko was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Laura Siegemund was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2024. It was her second major title. (from French Open)
Sébastien Grosjean takes a shot on Court 18 during the 2004 Championships. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Court 10. On the outside courts there is no reserved seating. (from Wimbledon Championships)
People watching the Championships' broadcast in Canary Wharf (from Wimbledon Championships)
Barbora Krejčíková, the 2024 ladies' singles champion. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Matthew Ebden was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. It was his second major title and first at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
New Rod Laver Arena entrance added in 2018 as part of the Melbourne Park redevelopment. (from Australian Open)
Richard Sears, a joint all-time record-holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Todd Woodbridge holding the Gentlemen's doubles silver challenge cup in 2004 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Rohan Bopanna was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. It was his first major title. (from Australian Open)
Court Philippe Chatrier during the 2013 French Open. (from French Open)
Wimbledon ball girl at the net, 2007 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Chris Evert, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from French Open)
The Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup (from Australian Open)
Mate Pavić was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2024. It was his fourth major title. (from French Open)
Rafael Nadal holding the Coupe des Mousquetaires in 2006. (from French Open)
Aerial view of the grounds (from Wimbledon Championships)
Jordan Thompson was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Novak Djokovic, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from Australian Open)
Arthur Ashe stadium in 2010, before the retractable roof was added. (from US Open (tennis))
Coco Gauff was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2024. It was her second major title. (from French Open)
Harri Heliövaara was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open in 2005 prior to its redevelopment. Rod Laver Arena is in the background. (from Australian Open)
The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment precinct on the banks of the Yarra River in 2010. (from Australian Open)
Jannik Sinner, 2024 men's singles champion. It was his first major title. (from Australian Open)
Bill Larned, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Carlos Alcaraz, the 2024 gentlemen's singles champion. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Max Purcell was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Roger Federer, the all-time record holder in men's singles (from Wimbledon Championships)
Marcelo Arévalo was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2024. It was his second major title. (from French Open)
Andrea Vavassori was part of the 2024 winning mixed doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
The Royal Gallery at Centre Court, Wimbledon (from Wimbledon Championships)
New Show Court Arena that opened in 2022. (from Australian Open)
The Ladies' (top) and Gentlemen's singles trophies (from Wimbledon Championships)
Kateřina Siniaková was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Henry Patten was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Rafael Nadal, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from French Open)
Sara Errani was part of the 2024 winning mixed doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
The order of play for all courts is displayed on boards around the grounds. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Arthur Ashe Stadium with the roof closed in 2018. (from US Open (tennis))
Édouard Roger-Vasselin was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2024. It was his first major title. (from French Open)
Debenture of the All England Lawn Tennis Ground Ltd., issued 20th August 1930 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Centre Court at Wimbledon in May 2019 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Elise Mertens was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. It was her fourth major title and second at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)_(52883593853)_(cropped).jpg)
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American tennis players Vincent Richards and Helen Wills at the Racing Club de France in 1926.
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