Portal:Tennis

The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis was invented in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, and is now commonly known simply as tennis. It is the direct descendant of what is now known as real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sport with more complex rules.

Most rules of (lawn) tennis derive from this precursor and it is reasonable to see both sports as variations of the same game. Most historians believe that tennis originated in northern France in the 12th century, but the ball was then struck with the palm of the hand, hence the name jeu de paume (lit. 'game of the palm'). It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use and the game began to be called 'tennis'. It was popular in the Kingdom of France as well as in England, where Henry VIII of England was a notable enthusiast of the game now referred to as real tennis. (Full article...)

The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA 500 tournament and an ATP 250 tournament.

The tournament is held annually in January at the Queensland Tennis Centre just before the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, the Australian Open (part of the Australian Open Series). It is owned by Tennis Australia. (Full article...)

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...)

The tennis rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is considered one of the greatest in the history of the sport. Federer and Nadal played each other 40 times, with Nadal leading 24–16 overall, including 14–10 in finals.

Of their 40 matches, 20 were on hardcourts, 16 on clay, and 4 on grass. Nadal leads on clay (14–2), while Federer leads on grass (3–1) and hard court (11–9). A total of 14 matches were at the majors, with Nadal leading 10–4. Nadal leads 6–0 at the French Open and 3–1 at the Australian Open, while Federer leads 3–1 at Wimbledon. On several occasions, they were a match away from meeting at the US Open, but were denied each time. They are tied in five-set encounters at 3–3. (Full article...)

Tennis for Two (also known as Computer Tennis) is a sports video game that simulates a game of tennis, and was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. American physicist William Higinbotham designed the game in 1958 for display at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual public exhibition after learning that the government research institution's Donner Model 30 analog computer could simulate trajectories with wind resistance. He designed the game within a few hours, after which he and technician Robert V. Dvorak built it over a period of three weeks. The game was displayed on an oscilloscope and played with two custom aluminum controllers. Its visuals show a representation of a tennis court viewed from the side, and players adjust the angle of their shots with a knob on their controller and try to hit the ball over the net by pressing a button.

The game was very popular during the three-day exhibition, with players lining up to see the game, especially high school students. It was shown again the following year with a larger oscilloscope screen and a more complicated design that could simulate different gravity levels. It was then dismantled and largely forgotten until the late 1970s when Higinbotham testified in court about the game during lawsuits between Magnavox and Ralph H. Baer over video game patents. Since then, it has been celebrated as one of the earliest video games, and Brookhaven has made recreations of the original device. Under some definitions Tennis for Two is considered the first video game, as while it did not include any technological innovations over prior games, it was the first computer game to be created purely as an entertainment product rather than for academic research or commercial technology promotion. (Full article...)

The Prince of Tennis (Japanese: テニスの王子様, Hepburn: Tenisu no Ōjisama) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takeshi Konomi. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 1999 to March 2008, with its chapters collected in 42 tankōbon volumes. Viz Media licensed the manga for English release in North America.

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 and its affiliates 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...)

This article covers the period 1884 to present. Before the beginning of the Open era in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tennis tournaments, including the four Grand Slams. Wimbledon, the oldest of the majors, was founded in 1877, followed by the US Open in 1881, the French Open in 1891, and the Australian Open in 1905. Beginning in 1905 and continuing to the present day, all four majors have been played yearly, with the exception of the two World Wars, 1986 for the Australian Open, and 2020 for Wimbledon. The Australian Open is the first major of the year (January), followed by the French Open (May–June), Wimbledon (June–July), and US Open (August–September).

There was no prize money and players were compensated for travel expenses only. A player who wins all four current major tournaments in the same calendar year, as an individual or as part of a doubles team, is said to have achieved the "Grand Slam". If the player wins all four consecutively, but not in the same calendar year, it is called a "Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam". Winning all four at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Grand Slam". Winning the four majors and a gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics has been called a "Golden Slam" since 1988. Winning all four plus gold at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Golden Slam". Winning the Year-end Championship also having won a Golden Slam is referred to as a "Super Slam". Winning the four majors in all three disciplines a player is eligible for–singles, doubles, and mixed doubles–is considered winning a "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles. (Full article...)

The US Open Series was the name given by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to a series of North American professional tennis tournaments leading up to and including the US Open. It was part of the "North American hard-court season". (Full article...)

Tennis New Zealand (commonly known by the acronym Tennis NZ or TNZ) (formally the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association) is the governing body of tennis in New Zealand. Founded in 1886, it is one of the world's oldest tennis associations. It is affiliated to both International Tennis Federation and Oceania Tennis Federation. Tennis NZ has six geographically divided regional centres. Tennis NZ operates all of the New Zealand's national representative tennis sides, including the New Zealand Davis Cup team, the New Zealand Billie Jean King Cup team and youth sides as well. Tennis NZ is also responsible for organising and hosting tennis tournaments within New Zealand and scheduling the home international fixtures. (Full article...)

The Indian Wells Open, sponsored by BNP Paribas and known as the BNP Paribas Open, is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Indian Wells, California, United States. It is played on outdoor hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, and is held in March. The tournament is part of the ATP Masters 1000 events on the ATP Tour and part of the WTA 1000 events on the WTA Tour.

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.

Notes: (Full article...)

Tennis elbow, also known as lateral epicondylitis, is an enthesopathy (attachment point disease) of the origin of the extensor carpi radialis brevis on the lateral epicondyle.  It causes pain and tenderness over the bony part of the lateral epicondyle. Symptoms range from mild tenderness to severe, persistent pain. The pain may also extend into the back of the forearm. It usually has a gradual onset, but it can seem sudden and be misinterpreted as an injury.


Tennis elbow is often idiopathic. Its cause and pathogenesis are unknown. It likely involves tendinosis, a degeneration of the local tendon. (Full article...)

The Agassi–Sampras rivalry was a tennis rivalry between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, who were both ranked world No. 1 during the 1990s. Sampras held the world's top ranking for (a then-record) 286 weeks while Agassi held it for 101 weeks. With contrasting styles and temperaments, they played each other 34 times from 1989 through 2002, with Sampras leading the head-to-head 20–14 and leading 9–7 in finals. They are tied in their five-set matches at 1–1. It has been named as one of the greatest tennis rivalries of all time.

In Grand Slam tournaments, they played in five finals, with Sampras winning four. They met for the first time in a Grand Slam final at the 1990 US Open, with Agassi the favorite because of his superior ranking even though Sampras had defeated former world No. 1 players Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe en route to the final. Sampras defeated Agassi in straight sets. (Full article...)

In tennis, "Battle of the Sexes" describes various exhibition matches played between a man and a woman, or a doubles match between two men and two women in one case. The term is most famously used for an internationally televised match in 1973 held at the Houston Astrodome between 55-year-old Bobby Riggs and 29-year-old Billie Jean King, which King won in three sets. The match was viewed by an estimated fifty million people in the United States and ninety million worldwide. King's win is considered a milestone in public acceptance of women's tennis.

Two other matches commonly referred to as a "battle of the sexes" include one held four months earlier in 1973 between Riggs and Margaret Court over the best of three sets, and one in 1992 between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova over the best of three sets, with hybrid rules favoring the female player dubbed "The Battle of Champions". These matches were won by Riggs and Connors, respectively. (Full article...)

This article covers the period from 1877 to present. Before the beginning of the Open Era in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tennis tournaments, including the four Grand Slam tournaments (also known as the majors). Wimbledon, the oldest of the majors, was founded in 1877, followed by the US Open in 1881, the French Open in 1891 and the Australian Open in 1905. Beginning in 1905 and continuing to the present day, all four majors have been played yearly, with the exception of during the two World Wars, 1986 for the Australian Open, and 2020 for Wimbledon. The Australian Open is the first major of the year (January), followed by the French Open (May–June), Wimbledon (June–July) and the US Open (August–September). There was no prize money and players were compensated for travel expenses only. A player who wins all four majors, in singles or as part of a doubles team, in the same calendar year is said to have achieved a "Grand Slam". If the player wins all four consecutively, but not in the same calendar year, it is called a "Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam". Winning all four at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Grand Slam". Winning the four majors and a gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics in the same calendar year has been called a "Golden Slam" since 1988. Winning all four majors plus an Olympic gold at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Golden Slam". Winning the year-end championship while also having won a Golden Slam is referred to as a "Super Slam". Winning all four majors, an Olympic gold, and the year-end championships at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Super Slam". Winning the four majors in all three disciplines a player is eligible for–singles, doubles and mixed doubles–is considered winning a "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles.

Prior to 1924, the major tennis championships, governed by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF), were the World Hard Court Championships, World Grass Court Championships (Wimbledon), and World Covered Court Championships. (Full article...)