-
The beginning of a game
In 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed and patented a game called sticky which was based on the evolving outdoor sport. Much of modern tennis terminology comes from this time period. -
Wimbledon
In 1877 Wimbledon was founded by the All England Club to help raise money for the club. The first Championship was contested by 22 men and the winner received a Silver Gilt Cup proclaiming the winner to be "The All England Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World". -
U.S. Open
In 1881 the desire to play tennis competitively led to the establishment of tennis clubs. The US men's singles national championship was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. -
French Open
Tennis was predominantly a sport of the English-speaking world, dominated by Great Britain and the United States. It was also very popular in France so in 1891 the Championat de France International opened. The tournament was not recognized as a major until it was opened to all nationalities in 1925 -
The Davis Cup
Dwight F. Davis of the Harvard University tennis team designed a tournament format with the idea of of challenging the British to a tennis showdown. The first match was held between the United States and Great Britain was held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900 where the Americans surprised the British by winning the first three matches. -
Australian open
The Australian Open was first played in 1905 as the Australasian (Australia and New Zealand) Championships. The event did not bring in the top tennis players because of its geographic remoteness. It became one of the major tennis tournaments in 1924 (designated by the ILTF). -
International Tennis Federation
In 1913 twelve national tennis associations agreed at a conference in Paris to form the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). -
First pro tour
in 1926, promoter C.C. Pyle established the first professional tour with a group of American and French players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences. -
Women's professional tennis
Women's professional tennis began in 1926, when world number one player Suzanne Lenglen accepted $50 000 for a series of matches against three-time US Champion Mary K. Browne -
First women to win all 4 grand slam tournaments
Maureen Connolly becomes the first woman to win all 4 grand slam tournaments in the same year. Unfortunately Connolly suffered a career ending injury just after she won her fourth title. Conolly fell off a horse breaking her leg forcing her into retirement. -
Hall of Fame
In 1954, James Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island. -
first metal tennis racquet
The first metal racquet was created by Wilson. The racquet was marketed as the wilson T2000 which was used by Jimmy Connors for many years. -
Open Era
The "open era" began in 1968 when the Grand slam tournaments agreed to allow professional players to compete with amateurs. Before 1968 only amateurs were allowed to compete in the Glam tournaments. -
Integration between circuits
In 1978 the ILTF Grand Prix and WCT circuits merged. However, In 1982, the WCT circuit seperated again and created a more complex WCT ranking, simillar to the ATP ranking -
Invention of clay court
In Sweden a clay court was created. Clay slows down the ball and produces a high bounce. This takes away the advantage of big servers and makes it harder for serve based players to dominate. -
ATP Tour
In 1990, the Association of Tennis Professionals, led by Hamilton Jordan, replaced the MTC as the governing body of men's professional tennis They established the ATP Tour, and packaging the nine most prestigous as "Super Nine" -
Roger Federer dominates the major championships
Roger Federer went on to win 3 of 4 majors in 3 of 4 years (2004,2006,2007).