Lawn Tennis

Sources

British Origins. Tennis was one of the sports enjoyed mainly by the social elite and to a lesser degree by the middle class in late-nineteenth-century America. Although the origins of tennis can be traced to fourteenth-century France, the game, as was played in the nineteenth-century United States, developed in England during the 1870s. Maj. Walter Clopton Wingfield, a retired British army officer, developed the game, which was played on an hourglass-shaped grass court, and copyrighted the rules in 1873. Members of the All-England Croquet Club began playing tennis in 1874 on the croquet lawns, calling the game “lawn tennis.” That year the club became known as the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club and one of its members, Julian Marshall, revised the rules of the game and had them published by the ? G. Heathcote publishing company. Marshall also promoted the new rules through The Field, the leading sports journal in Britain. John Moyer Heathcote developed a new ball for the game made of vulcanized rubber covered with white flannel. In 1877 the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club sponsored its first national tennis tournament.

American Beginnings. Although the first recorded tennis game in the United States occurred on 8 October 1874 at Camp Apache, near Tucson, Arizona, Mary Ewing Outerbridge, a New York socialite, is generally credited with introducing the game to the United States. In 1874, during her annual winter vacation in Bermuda, she observed British army officers hitting a rubber ball over a net stretched across a freshly mowed lawn with catgut-strung rackets. She purchased a box of tennis equipment and brought it back to the United States. Eugenius Outerbridge, brother of Mary and director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, set up a tennis court in the corner of a cricket field. For nearly a year the Outerbridge family played tennis before other club members became interested in the game. As more members of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club began playing tennis, the club devoted one day a week to the game.

Early Tournament Play. The first tennis tournament in the United States had fifteen players and was played at Nahant, Massachusetts, in 1876. William Appleton, James Dwight, and Fred R. Sears organized the event. Dwight and Sears met in the finals, with Dwight winning three sets to none. In 1880 the Outerbridge family held a tournament at Staten Island, which featured American and British players. The singles match was won by O. E. Woodson of Great Britain. The Americans and the English disagreed over the size of the ball used by the Staten Island Club. Dwight and Sears, who lost in second round of the doubles, disliked the ball as it differed from that used in New England. Disagreement over the ball led Dwight, a wealthy Bostonian, to organize a meeting of the leaders of tennis clubs from Philadelphia and New York to standardise tennis play in the United States. This meeting, held 21 May 1881 in New York, led to the formation of the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA). The USLTA, an amateur organization, adopted the rules developed by the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. The first president of the organization was Robert Oliver of the Albany Tennis Club. In late 1881 the USLTA held its first men’s singles and doubles national championship at Newport, Rhode Island. Richard D. Sears won the first of seven consecutive men’s singles titles that year.

Influence of Dwight. Dwight, who served as president of the USLTA from 1882 to 1884 and 1893 to 1911, is recognized as the “father of American tennis” for his efforts to standardize the game’s rules and equipment. Dwight also promoted competition between the United States and Great Britain. Younger players dominated tennis in the United States, while older players dominated the game in Britain. In the early years of Anglo-American competition, the aggressive play of the Americans was blunted by the skill and cunning of the older British players. In 1883 Dwight and Sears played the Clark brothers of Philadelphia for the right to play the Renshaw brothers, the top doubles team of Britain. After defeating Dwight and Sears, the Clarks were defeated by the Renshaws in England. In that same year Dwight, the second-best singles player in the United States, went overseas to play the best English singles players. Although he was beaten by Willie Renshaw, Dwight remained in England to hone his skills. Dwight’s promotion of international play, especially between the United States and Britain, set the stage for the Davis Cup tournaments that would start in 1900.

Popularization of the Game. Tennis became very popular in the United States during the 1880s, but declined during the 1890s. Beginning with thirty-four clubs in 1881, the USLTA increased to seventy-five in 1890. Clubs in specific geographical regions formed separate tennis associations, and the USLTA granted these entire associations membership rather than run the risk of the organization of a separate association that would challenge the USLTA for supremacy in the sport. In 1895, 106 clubs and 10 associations belonged to the USLTA. However, a drop in membership occurred in the late 1890s, and by 1902 the total number of clubs and associations affiliated with the USLTA totaled forty-four. One reason for the decline in tennis clubs was the rise of golf during the 1890s; however, once interest in golf settled down, the USLTA realized that the two sports were compatible, especially in the country club setting, where the upper and upper middle classes enjoyed both activities. Many new golf clubs added tennis courts to their facilities and then became members of the USLTA. The middle and lower classes enjoyed the game. Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, New York, had more than one hundred clubs using its facilities by the turn of the century.

Women. Tennis was a popular game for women during the late nineteenth century, and the USLTA held the first women’s singles championship in 1887, with Ellen F. Hansell claiming the title. Bertha L. Townsend became the first two-time singles champion in 1888 and 1889. Juliette P. Atkinson ranked as the top woman of the 1890s, winning the singles title in 1895, 1897, and 1898. An outstanding doubles player as well, Atkinson combined for the doubles championship with Helen R. Helwig (1894-1895), Elisabeth H. Moore (1896), Kathleen Atkinson (1897-1898), Myrtle McAteer (1901), and Marion Jones (1902). The USLTA introduced mixed doubles competition, teams of men and women, in 1892. The first champions were Mabel E. Cahill and Clarence Hobart. From 1894 to 1896 Juliette P. Atkinson, the top female player of the 1890s, teamed with Edwin P. Fischer for the doubles title.

Sources

E. Digby Baltzeil, Sporting Gentlemen: Mens Tennis from the Age of Honor to the Cult of the Superstar (New York: Free Press, 1995);

Allison Danzig and Peter Schwed, eds., The Fireside Book of Tennis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972);

Will Grimsley, Tennis: Its History, People and Events (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971).

LAWN TENNIS

A Family Pastime

Although the first recorded game of lawn tennis in America was played 8 October 1874 at Camp Apache, near Tucson, Arizona, Mary Ewing Outerbridge, a New York socialite, is credited with introducing the game to the United States. In 1874, during her annual winter vacation in Bermuda, she observed British army officers hitting a rubber ball across a net stretched across a frashly mowed lawn with implements strung with catgut. Intrigued by the game, she purchased a box of tennis equipment and brought it back to the United States, whereupon customs agents confiscated the unrecognizable items. Emilius Outerbridge, an influential family member prominent in the shipping business, succeeded in getting the tennis accoutrements into the country. Soon thereafter, the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, which Mary's brother Eugenius directed, set up a tennis court in the corner of the cricket field. For nearly a year tennis was an Outerbridge family pastime. As other club members began learning and playing the game, the club devoted one day a week exclusively to it. Tennis, however, did not spread across the nation solely from the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. The game had similar beginnings in Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

Social Aspects of Tennis

Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tennis, or lawn tennis, as it was called until the late 1960s, was played and enjoyed almost exclusively by the wealthy. Despite its social stratification, the game did not place any boundaries on gender, as both men and women, separately and together, participated at all levels of ability. In contrast to football, baseball, and other "manly" sports, in which the gender lines were clearly drawn, tennis projected a delicate and effeminate image to some men. In 1878, for example, when several members of the Harvard crew abandoned the sport for tennis, a Harvard Crimson editorialist wrote: "Is it not a pity that serious athletes should be set aside by able-bodied men for a game that is at best intended for a seaside pastime? The game is well enough for lazy or weak men, but men who have rowed or taken part in a nobler sport should blush to be seen playing Lawn Tennis." Paul Gallico, one of the leading sports-writers of the 1920s, remembered that during his childhood in early-twentieth-century New York, boys carrying tennis rackets would be met with greetings such as "Deuce, darling," or "Forty-love, dear."

Birth of the USLTA

Despite the effeminate connotations attached to tennis, many men took up the sport, including Dr. James Dwight, who organized one of the nation's earliest tennis tournaments at Nahant, Massachusetts, in 1876 and the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) in 1881, serving as its president from 1882 to 1884 and from 1893 to 1911. Under the aegis of the USLTA, the men's singles and doubles championships started in 1881, the women's singles and doubles championships in 1887, and the mixed doubles in 1894. From 1881 to 1886 Dwight ranked as the nation's second-best singles player behind his half cousin, Richard D. Sears, who won a then-record seven consecutive men's singles titles from 1881 to 1887. Dwight teamed with Sears to win the doubles championship from 1882 to 1884 and from 1886 to 1887. The 1900s witnessed the rise of one of the twentieth century's most dominating players, William A. Larned, who won the singles title in 1901 and 1902 and from 1907 to 1911, becoming the second player to win seven national championships. Other men's singles champions of the 1900s included Malcolm D. Whitman from 1899 to 1900; Hugh L. Doherty of England, the first foreign USLTA singles champion in 1903; Holcombe Ward in 1904; Beals C. Wright in 1905; and William J. Clothier in 1906.

Rise of the Davis Cup

During the 1880s and 1890s tennis had an international flair, as British players competed regularly in the USLTA championships and Americans played in Wimbledon, the British national championship. In the 1900s international competition increased with the development of the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Cup tournament, better known simply as the Davis Cup tournament. The silver cup awarded to the tournament champion was donated by Dwight F. Davis, the son of a wealthy Saint Louis banker and merchant. Ranked as the second-best men's singles player in 1899 and 1900, Davis captured the 1899 national college men's singles championship as a Harvard junior. After a successful California tennis tour in 1899 with Whitman, Ward, and Wright, Davis decided that an officially sanctioned international tennis competition, especially one that would exploit the already established Anglo-American rivalry, would promote and enhance the reputation of the sport. His format for the three-day tournament, which has not changed since, included two singles matches the first day and a doubles competition the second day, followed by two singles contests on the final day of competition. A point was awarded for each victory, with a team needing three points to win a round. The United States, led by Davis, defeated the British in the first two Challenge Cup tournaments in 1900 and 1902. Britain won the tournament from 1903 to 1906. In 1907 Britain lost the Davis Cup to Australia, which defended its possession until 1912, when Britain reclaimed the title.

Women's Tennis

Tennis at the beginning of the century was one of the few sports that provided women with the opportunity for national and international competition. Ellen F. Hansell, the first USLTA women's singles champion in 1887, was followed by the first two-time champion, Bertha L. Townsend, from 1888 to 1889. Juliette P. Atkinson ranked as the top woman of the 1890s, winning the singles title in 1895 and from 1897 to 1898. An outstanding doubles player as well, Atkinson combined for the doubles championship with Helen R. Helwig from 1894 to 1895, Elisabeth H. Moore in 1896, Kathleen Atkinson from 1897 to 1898, Myrtle McAteer in 1901, and Marion Jones in 1902. Jones, who captured the singles championship in 1899 and 1902, also earned the bronze medal in the 1900 Olympic Games. Moore won the USLTA title three times—in 1901, 1903, and 1905. May G. Sutton, the daughter of a British naval officer, became the first American woman to capture the Wimbledon singles title, in 1905 and again in 1907. She won the USLTA singles title in 1904.

Sources:

E. Digby Baltzeil, Sporting Gentlemen: Men's Tennis from the Age of Honor to the Cult of the Superstar (New York: Free Press, 1995);

Allison Danzig and Peter Schwed, eds., The Fireside Book of Tennis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972);

Will Grimsley, Tennis: Its History, People and Events (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971).

lawn tennis evolved from real (royal) tennis in the 1870s. Among the pioneers was Major Walter Wingfield who introduced Christmas guests in 1873 to Sphairistike, which contained the ingredients of tennis, though with a narrow net. The MCC tried to draw up standard rules in 1875 and championships were first staged at Wimbledon in 1877, the crowd at the final numbering 200. The scoring system, which is of crucial importance, probably derived from clock quarters. The game's remarkable popularity was partly due to the fact that it could be played by women, and mixed doubles were soon established. The Lawn Tennis Association was formed in 1888 and the sport was included in the Olympics as early as 1896. It has since been played on a variety of surfaces, including clay, sand, and asphalt.

J. A. Cannon

lawn tennis evolved from real (royal) tennis in the 1870s. Among the pioneers was Major Walter Wingfield who introduced Christmas guests in 1873 to Sphairistike, which contained the ingredients of tennis. The MCC tried to draw up standard rules in 1875 and championships were first staged at Wimbledon in 1877, the crowd at the final numbering 200. The scoring system, of crucial importance, probably derived from clock quarters.

lawn tennis see tennis .