Tennis Book 2010_Layout 1 - TIA UK

over the last half century, have embraced more overt
commercialism. That doesn’t mean that Wimbledon hasn’t, they
have just managed to retain more of the atmosphere of years
gone by!
Looking back at the four championships, Wimbledon was the
first to establish itself in 1877, the US followed in 1881, the
French a decade later in 1891 and the Australian at the turn of
the century in 1905. However as far as the calendar is
concerned, the order is very different with Australia played in
mid-January, followed by France late May-early June and then
Wimbledon late June-early July with the US bringing up the
rear in late August-early September.
Initially all four were very much national events and it wasn’t
really until the twenties that the sport could be said to have
become more international and start establishing themselves as
the ones to win.
Briefly, this is how they came to be and develop into the major
championships they are now, namely the backbone of tennis.
The oldest main show court of the four Grand Slams, the
Centre Court at Wimbledon with its own sliding ‘umbrella’
style roof unfurled in 2009. Picture Fotosports International.
The Championships, Wimbledon
Wimbledon is the only one of the four to have retained its roots
in the suburb where it was ‘conceived’ though it did have to
move in 1922 from Worple Road to a new site virtually over the
hill in Church Road. There it has retained the grass surface
which the game was originally played on, and is now the only
grand slam to have retained its surface throughout its history
while developing a modern venue which is held in high esteem
by players, officials and spectators. Initially The Championships
was only open to men with the women being incorporated in
1844 as the game grew in popularity. The only event held in
1877 was the Gentlemen’s Singles, which was won by Spencer
Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player, from a field of 22. About
200 spectators paid one shilling each to watch that final.
Interestingly the Centre Court label derives from those early
days as the main court was located in the middle of all the
other courts. The label for the main show court was retained
when the club moved even though in Church Road, it no longer
was at the centre of the activities. This was eventually corrected
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in 1980 when four new courts were introduced on the north
side and further emphasised when the new No1 Court was
commissioned into use in 1997.
In 1913 the tournament was designated ‘The World
Championships on Grass Courts’, a term which was dropped in
1922.
Of the four majors, Wimbledon is the only one run by a private
members’ club though the actual organisation of The
Championships, is shared between the All England Lawn
Tennis & Croquet Club and The Lawn Tennis Association who
benefit from a 1934 financial arrangement whereby they receive
any financial ‘surplus’ from Championships. This agreement
was extended in 1993 with a new ‘Heads of terms’ to come into
operation in 2013.
The US Open
The US Open, which we associate with Flushing Meadows,
New York, was first held at The Casino in Newport in August
1881 and was staged there every year until 1915 when it moved
to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, for a
three year stint. The event, then known as the US
Championships, was restricted to members of clubs affiliated to
the United States National Lawn Tennis Association and this
rule applied until 1970 when it became the US Open.
In 1921 it moved yet again for another three year period, to the
Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia in a short lived
attempt to rotate the event around the country. At that time
Philadelphia was the home of the women’s championships
which had been inaugurated in 1887. This was then switched to
Forest Hills to fill the void left by the men! On completion of a
new 14,000 seater stadium at Forest Hills, the men moved back
and the two events were amalgamated in 1923.
Like Wimbledon, the event was played on grass until 1974
when the governing body decided to experiment with ‘Har-Tru’,
a green clay surface. That experiment lasted just a few years
and in 1978 was moved to the converted Louis Armstrong
Stadium at the 1964 World Fair site at Flushing Meadows in
the Queen’s district of New York where it has now firmly
established itself with Decoturf hard courts replacing clay.
Interestingly Jimmy Connors set a record by becoming the only
player to win the US title on three different surfaces and Chris
Evert is the only player to have won the US title on clay! The
complex, which was named The Billie Jean King National
Tennis Center at Corona Park - Flushing Meadows is a public
facility when not hosting the US Open. It is also the USTA’s
Eastern region training centre and can boast the largest tennis
show court in the world seating 23,000, which has been named
after Arthur Ashe.
The French Open
Like its American counterpart, the French when first played in
1891 was restricted to their national players only opening its
doors to foreign players in 1925, no doubt as a result of the