Desk guide

History of Tennis

Sports in 60

How Tennis began

History of Tennis · Watch on Sports in 60

A short timeline from the ITF, Wimbledon, Davis Cup, and the tours. Tennis Rules is how a match is scored. The four majors have their own pages.

Earlier
The indoor game
The ITF’s history says the older indoor game was played in France as jeu de paume, the game of the hand, and that England’s real-tennis court at Hampton Court is still in use. Lawn tennis grew out of that game in Britain.
1873
A boxed set of lawn tennis
The same ITF history says Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed and sold a set in 1873. He called it Sphairistike, with lawn tennis as the plainer name. The All England Club’s account says the new game was introduced to the public in 1874.
1877
The first Championships
The All England Croquet Club had been founded in 1868. In 1877 it added lawn tennis to its name and held the first Championships, a gentlemen’s singles event. Spencer Gore won it. The club’s laws, taken on from the Marylebone Cricket Club, used the deuce and advantage scoring that is still the standard game.
1881
A national championship in the United States
The ITF says the United States National Lawn Tennis Association was founded four years after that first Wimbledon, and launched its national championships for American residents. That event is the US Open.
1891
The French championships
The ITF dates the French national championships to 1891, in Paris. The tournament is now Roland Garros, played at Stade Roland-Garros.
1900
Davis Cup
Davis Cup began as a match between the United States and Great Britain, played at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston. Dwight Davis, one of the Harvard players who proposed it, bought the trophy himself. The event was first called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge.
1905
The Australasian championships
The ITF says the Australasian National Championships began in 1905. That tournament became the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year.
1913
An international federation
Twelve national associations met in Paris on 1 March 1913 and founded the International Lawn Tennis Federation. The ITF, now also called World Tennis, still publishes the Rules of Tennis.
1968
The Open Era
The ATP’s history says the Grand Slams and the other national championships were open only to amateurs before 1968. From that year, professionals and amateurs could play the same events.
1972
The ATP
During the first week of the 1972 US Open at Forest Hills, the leading professionals formed the Association of Tennis Professionals. Jack Kramer was the executive director and Cliff Drysdale the president. The ATP Rankings began on 23 August 1973.
1973
The WTA
The WTA is the women’s professional tour. It was founded in 1973, with Billie Jean King among the players who built it. The women’s national-team event is the Billie Jean King Cup.