Portal:Tennis

Welcome to the Tennis Portal

Panoramic view of Stadium Court in Tennis Center at Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, Florida, United States. Taken during the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open.

Shahar Pe'er (bottom) vs. Anna Chakvetadze at the 2007 US Open

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 that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball validly will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.

Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport 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 both 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...)

Selected articles -

Image 1

The US Open Tennis Championships, commonly called the US Open, is a hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Queens, New York. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year (except in 2020, when the French Open was delayed to occur after the US Open due to the COVID-19 lockdowns). The other three, in chronological order, are the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. The US Open starts on the last Monday of August and continues for two weeks, with the middle weekend coinciding with the US Labor Day holiday. The tournament is one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, originally known as the U.S. National Championship, for which men's singles and men's doubles were first played in August 1881. It is the only Grand Slam that was not affected by cancellation due to World War I and World War II, nor interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The tournament consists of five primary championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. The tournament also includes events for senior, junior, and wheelchair players. Since 1978, the tournament has been played on acrylic hardcourts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. The US Open is owned and organized by the United States Tennis Association (USTA), a non-profit organization, and the chairperson of the US Open is Patrick Galbraith. Revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships, and television contracts is used to develop tennis in the United States. (Full article...)
Image 2
US Open Series logo.

The US Open Series is 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 is part of the "North American hard court season". Emirates sponsored the series in the past, under a deal in place from 2012 to 2016. The series was initially organized in 2004 as a way to focus more attention on American tennis tournaments by getting more of them on domestic television. Until 2004, most summer North American tournaments were not on television, the exceptions being the prominent ATP Tour Masters 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati. Since the inception of the series, Rafael Nadal is the only tennis player to win Canada, Cincinnati, and the US Open in a calendar year (2013), a feat referred to as the "Summer Slam" or the "North American Hardcourt Slam".

Under the US Open's broadcast rights, ESPN held domestic rights to all US Open Series events from 2015 to 2019. The eight non-Masters tournaments receive about 50 hours of television combined – about two hours on each day of their final weekends, chiefly on ESPN2. The dual-gender Washington D.C. Citi Open (the only ATP 500-level tournament in North America), which had been a part of the series since its 2004 founding, withdrew from the series for its 2015 edition due to frustrations over this lack of coverage; that tournament sold its exclusive coverage to Tennis Channel. The tournament re-joined the US Open Series in 2019. Since 2017, Tennis Channel broadcasts the US Open Series. (Full article...)
Image 3

The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. The Australian Open starts in the middle of January and continues for two weeks coinciding with the Australia Day holiday. It features men's and women's singles; men's, women's, and mixed doubles; junior's championships; and wheelchair, legends, and exhibition events. Until 1987, it was played on grass courts, but since then two types of hardcourt surfaces have been used: green-coloured Rebound Ace up to 2007 and blue Plexicushion since 2008.

First held in 1905 as the Australasian championships, the Australian Open has grown to become one of the biggest sporting events in the Southern Hemisphere. Nicknamed "the happy slam", the Australian Open is the highest attended Grand Slam event, with more than 902,000 people attending the 2023 tournament. It was also the first Grand Slam tournament to feature indoor play during wet weather or extreme heat with its three primary courts, Rod Laver Arena, John Cain Arena and the refurbished Margaret Court Arena equipped with retractable roofs. (Full article...)
Image 4

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...)
Image 5
The Miami Open (also known as the Miami Masters and as the Miami Open presented by Itaú for sponsorship reasons) is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Miami Gardens, Florida, United States. It is played on outdoor hard courts at the Hard Rock Stadium, and is held in late March and early April. 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 was held at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Florida from 1987 through 2018, featuring the top 96 men and women tennis players in the world. It moved to Miami Gardens for 2019. Following the Indian Wells Open, it is the second event of the "Sunshine Double" — a series of two elite, consecutive hard court tournaments in the United States in early spring. (Full article...)
Image 6
The Australian Hard Court Championships was a former professional tennis tournament established in 1938 and held until 2008. The event was played on clay courts until 1977 when it switched to hard courts. The tournament was a combined event for men and women until the end of the 1980s. In 2009, Tennis Australia merged the separate men's and women's tournaments into a new combined tournament called the Brisbane International. (Full article...)
Image 7

Tennis for Two on a DuMont Lab Oscilloscope Type 304-A

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...)
Image 8

Margaret Court has 24 singles majors, an all-time record. In 1970, Court became the first woman during the Open Era to win the singles Grand Slam.

This article details the list of women's singles Grand Slam tournaments tennis champions. Some major changes have taken place in history and have affected the number of titles that have been won by various players. These have included the opening of the French national championships to international players in 1925, the elimination of the challenge round in 1922, and the admission of professional players in 1968 (the start of the Open Era). Since then, 60 women have won at least one grand slam.

All of these tournaments have been listed based on the modern definition of a tennis major, rather than when they were officially recognized by the ILTF. The Australian, French Championships, and U.S. tournaments were officially recognized by the ILTF in 1924, though the French Championships were not played in 1924 because of the Olympics. The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) had several grievances with the ILTF and refused to join when it was formed in 1913. (Full article...)
Image 9
The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year. In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam playing together or a player may achieve it with different partners. Winning all four major championships consecutively but not within the same calendar year is referred to as a "non-calendar-year Grand Slam", while winning the four majors at any point during the course of a career is known as a "Career Grand Slam".

The Grand Slam tournaments, also referred to as majors, are the world's four most important annual professional tennis tournaments. They offer the most ranking points, prize money, public and media attention, the greatest strength and size of field, and the longest matches for men (best of five sets, best of three for the women). The tournaments are overseen by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), rather than the separate men and women's tour organizing bodies, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women's Tennis Association (WTA), but both the ATP and WTA award ranking points based on players' performances in them. (Full article...)
Image 10
Russian Tennis Federation (Russian: Федерация тенниса России) is a national governing body of tennis in Russia, founded as the All-Russia Tennis Association in 1989 and reorganized under the current name in 2002. It is the successor of Tennis Federation of the RSFSR (1959–1989) and the Tennis Federation of the USSR (1959–93, known before as All-Union Tennis Section, 1929-1959).

In reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the International Tennis Federation suspended the Russian Tennis Federation. In addition, Tennis Europe suspended the federation's membership. Teams representing Russia were therefore ineligible to compete at all Tennis Europe events (including Winter & Summer Cups, European Beach Tennis, and Senior Club Championships). All Tennis Europe events in Russia were suspended, including the European Junior Tennis Championships (16 & Under) in Moscow, and delegates from Russia were not eligible to attend the 2022 Annual General Meeting of Tennis Europe. (Full article...)
Image 11
Court Philippe Chatrier at Stade Roland Garros in Paris during the 2006 French Open

A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament.

The only Grand Slam tournament that uses clay courts is the French Open. Clay courts are more common in Continental Europe and Latin America than in North America, Asia-Pacific or Britain. (Full article...)
Image 12
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 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 Funimation, which was renamed to Crunchyroll, LLC in 2022. (Full article...)
Image 13

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from over 140 competing countries. It is described by the organisers as the "World Cup of Tennis", and the winners are referred to as the World Champions. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Great Britain and the United States. By 2023, 155 nations entered teams into the competition.

The most successful countries over the history of the competition are the United States (winning 32 titles and finishing as runners-up 29 times) and Australia (winning 28 titles, including six with New Zealand as Australasia, and finishing as runners-up 21 times). The current champions are Italy, who beat Australia to win their second title in 2023. (Full article...)
Image 14
Mario Power Tennis is a sports game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. The game is the sequel to the Nintendo 64 title Mario Tennis, and is the fourth game in the Mario Tennis series. Power Tennis was released for the GameCube in Japan and North America in late 2004, and in PAL regions in early 2005. The game was ported for the Wii in 2009 as part of the New Play Control! series, and was also re-released as a Nintendo Selects title in 2012. A companion handheld game, Mario Tennis: Power Tour, was also released on Game Boy Advance around the same time as the original GameCube release, bearing the same title as Power Tennis in Europe.

Power Tennis incorporates multiple characters, themes, and locations from the Mario series. The game includes standard tennis matches, but contains variants that feature different scoring formats and objectives. Other variants include "Gimmick" courts, thematic areas with components and properties that directly affect gameplay. The game has 18 playable characters, each categorised by their style of play and each with a pair of unique moves known as "Power Shots". Power Tennis was developed simultaneously with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, and the pair shared similar technology and concepts with each other during production. Such similarities include an emphasis on the Mario theme in characters and settings as well as alternative game modes such as "Ring Shot". (Full article...)
Image 15
The practice of doping in tennis involves the use of prohibited, performance-enhancing substances listed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The practice is considered unsportsmanlike and unethical, with punishments for such offences ranging from official warnings to career bans, depending on the severity of the offence.

Widespread illegal substance abuse in tennis developed during the 1980s and 1990s as performance-enhancing substances became increasingly available in professional sport. The detection and punishment for the use of drugs in this period was aided by the takeover of policing drug cheating by the International Tennis Federation in 1993. (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various tennis-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Wesley Koolhof was part of the 2023 winning men's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 2The Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup (from Australian Open)
Image 3Richard Sears, a joint all-time record-holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 4Spencer Gore, the winner of the inaugural Wimbledon Championship (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 5Centre Court at Wimbledon in May 2019 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 6The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment precinct on the banks of the Yarra River in 2010. (from Australian Open)
Image 7View from seats of Wimbledon Court No. 1. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 8Court Philippe Chatrier during the 2013 French Open. (from French Open)
Image 9A Royal Marines Commando as a services steward in 2005. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 10Chris Evert, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from French Open)
Image 11Wimbledon operates a ticket resale system where returned Show Court tickets can be purchased. All proceeds go to charity. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 12Carlos Alcaraz, the 2023 gentlemen's singles champion. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 13Commemorative plaque at Court 18 marking the longest tennis match in history. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 14Debenture of the All England Lawn Tennis Ground Ltd., issued 20. August 1930. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 15New Rod Laver Arena entrance added in 2018 as part of the Melbourne Park redevelopment. (from Australian Open)
Image 16Bill Larned, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 17Composition of the courts. (from French Open)
Image 18Barbora Krejčíková was part of the 2023 winning women's doubles team. It was her seventh major title and second at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Image 19Lyudmyla Kichenok was part of the 2023 winning mixed doubles title. It was her first major title overall. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 20Arthur Ashe stadium in 2010, before the retractable roof was added. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 21Neal Skupski was part of the 2023 winning men's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 22People watching the Championships' broadcast in Canary Wharf. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 23Todd Woodbridge holding the Gentlemen's doubles silver challenge cup in 2004 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 24Markéta Vondroušová, the 2023 ladies' singles champion. It was her first major title. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 25Molla Mallory, the all-time record holder in women's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 26Hsieh Su-wei was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2023. (from French Open)
Image 27The Royal Gallery at Centre Court, Wimbledon. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 28The Ladies' (top) and Gentlemen's singles trophies (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 29Arthur Ashe Stadium with the roof closed in 2018. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 30Luisa Stefani was part of the 2023 winning mixed doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 31Aryna Sabalenka, 2023 women's singles champion. It was her first major title. (from Australian Open)
Image 32Mate Pavić was part of the 2023 winning mixed doubles team. It was his first mixed doubles title at Wimbledon, third mixed doubles major title, and sixth overall major title. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 33Martina Navratilova, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 34Miyu Kato was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2023. It was her first major title. (from French Open)
Image 35Wang Xinyu was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2023. (from French Open)
Image 36Tim Pütz was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2023. It was his first major title. (from French Open)
Image 37Iga Świątek, the 2023 women's singles champion. It was her fourth major title and her third at the French Open. (from French Open)
Image 38Su-Wei Hsieh was part of the 2023 winning women's doubles title. It was her sixth major title and her fourth Wimbledon title. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 39Aerial view of the grounds (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 40Jason Kubler was part of the 2023 winning men's doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 41New Show Court Arena that opened in 2022. (from Australian Open)
Image 42Rafael Nadal, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from French Open)
Image 43Novak Djokovic, the 2023 men's singles champion. It was his record-breaking twenty-third major title and his third at the French Open. (from French Open)
Image 44Novak Djokovic, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from Australian Open)
Image 45Ivan Dodig was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2023. It was his third major title and second at the French Open. (from French Open)
Image 46Rod Laver Arena, the main court of the Australian Open, in 2023. (from Australian Open)
Image 47Rinky Hijikata was part of the 2023 winning men's doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 48Bill Tilden, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 49Austin Krajicek was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2023. It was his first major title. (from French Open)
Image 50Wimbledon ball girl at the net, 2007. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 51Barbora Strýcová was part of the 2023 winning women's doubles title. It was her second major title and her second Wimbledon title. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 52Roger Federer, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 53Novak Djokovic, 2023 men's singles champion. It was his twenty-second major title and his tenth at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Image 54Court 10. On the outside courts there is no reserved seating. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 55Kateřina Siniaková was part of the 2023 winning women's doubles team. It was her seventh major title and second at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Image 56Rod Laver Arena night session in 2007, the last year the tournament used the Rebound Ace surface. (from Australian Open)
Image 57Rafael Nadal holding the Coupe des Mousquetaires in 2006. (from French Open)
Image 58Margaret Court, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from Australian Open)
Image 59Rafael Matos was part of the 2023 winning mixed doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 60Sébastien Grosjean takes a shot on Court 18 during the 2004 Championships. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 61The order of play for all courts is displayed on boards around the grounds. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 62Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open in 2005 prior to its redevelopment. Rod Laver Arena is in the background. (from Australian Open)

Related WikiProjects

WikiProject Tennis
Grandslam project • Davis Cup/Fed Cup project
WikiProject Sports • WikiProject Olympics

Selected biography -

Gonzales in a tournament in Los Angeles, c. 1950

Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" González (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), known sometimes as Richard Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He won 15 major singles titles, including two U.S. National Singles Championships in 1948 and 1949, and 13 Professional Grand Slam titles. He also won three Tournament of Champions professional events in 1957, 1958, and 1959. He was ranked world amateur No. 1 in 1948 by Ned Potter and in 1949 by Potter and John Olliff.

Gonzales was a prominent professional champion in the 1950s and 1960s, winning world professional championship tours between 1954 and 1961; he was the world number one ranked male tennis player professional between 1952 and 1961. Gonzales was a determined competitor with a fierce temper. He was often at odds with officials and promoters. However, he was a fan favorite who drew many spectators. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Ekkehard von Kuenssberg turned down an invitation to join the SS and migrated to Britain, carrying a hockey stick and a tennis racquet?
... that in high school, tennis player Sara Daavettila went an entire season without losing a game?

Selected quote -

“

I have no sense of humor about losing.

”

— Rafael Nadal, in Rafa

Selected picture -

Andre Agassi and Jim Courier on a clay court in Houston, Texas.

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