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List of FamousTennis Tournaments

 

Wimbledon Tennis Tournament.

The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply, Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely considered as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in the London suburb of Wimbledon since 1877. It is the oldest of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the only one still played on grass courts. The tournament runs annually for 14 days from late June to early July, with the climax being the men's singles final, scheduled fora Sunday.

As of the 2008 tournament, five major events are contested, as well as four junior events and four invitational events. Wimbledon is third in the annual Grand Slam season. The hard court Australian Open and clay court French Open precede Wimbledon. The hard court U.S. Open follows. The grass court Queen's Club Championships also in London is a popular warm up tournament for Wimbledon. Wimbledon traditions include the eating of strawberries and cream, royal patronage, strict dress code for competitors, and ball boys and girls.

A much unloved tradition, "rain stops play" calls leading to schedule over-runs, is set to be reduced with the fitting of a retractable roof to Centre Court from 2009. The 2008 men's final, already the longest at nearly 5 hours of play, was extended to over 7 hours due to rain, finishing in darkness. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is responsible for staging the world's leading tennis tournament, is a private club founded in 1868, originally as 'The All England Croquet Club'. Its first ground was situated off Worple Road, Wimbledon.

In 1875 lawn tennis, a game devised by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield a year or so earlier and originally called 'Sphairistike', was added to the activities of the Club. In the spring of 1877 the Club was re-titled 'The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club' and signaled its change of name by instituting the first Lawn Tennis Championship. A new code of laws (replacing the code until then administered by the Marylebone Cricket Club) was drawn up for the event. These laws have stood the test of time and today's rules are similar except for details such as the height of the net and posts and the distance of the service line from the net.

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 the final. The lawns at the Ground were arranged in such a way that the principal court was situated in the middle with the others arranged around it; hence the title 'Centre Court', which was retained when the Club moved in 1922 to the present site in Church Road, although not a true description of its location.

However, in 1980 four new courts were brought into commission on the north side of the ground, which meant the Centre Court was once more correctly defined. The opening of the new No. 1 Court in 1997 emphasised the description. By 1882 activity at the Club was almost exclusively confined to lawn tennis and that year the word 'croquet' was dropped from the title. However, for sentimental reasons, it was restored in 1889 and since then the title has remained The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. In 1884, the All England Club added Ladies' Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles.

Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles were added in 1913. Until 1922, the reigning champion had to play only in the final, against whoever had won through to challenge him. As with the other three Grand Slam events, Wimbledon was contested by top-ranked amateur players until the advent of the open era in tennis in 1968. Britons are very proud of the tournament, though it is a source of national anguish and humour – no British man has won the singles event at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936, and no British woman since Virginia Wade in 1977, although Annabel Croft and Laura Robson have won the Girls' championship in 1984 and 2008 respectively. The Championship was first televised in 1937.

Australian Open.

The Australian Open is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held each year. It is held each January at Melbourne Park. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was contested on grass through 1987. Since 1988, the tournament has been held on hard courts. Mats Wilander is the only male player to have won the tournament on both grass and hard courts. Like all other Grand Slam tournaments, there are men's and women's singles competitions; men's, women's, and mixed doubles; and junior's and master's competitions.

The two main courts used in the tournament are Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena and feature retractable roofs, which can be shut in case of rain or extreme heat. It is the only Grand Slam tournament that features indoor play. However, work has already commenced on a retractable roof for Wimbledon's Centre Court, which is expected to be completed by 2009. Held in the middle of the Australian summer, the Australian Open is famous for its notoriously hot days. An extreme-heat policy is put into play when temperatures (and humidity) reach dangerous levels.

The Australian Open typically has very high attendance, with the 2008 Australian Open achieving the highest ever day/night attendance record for any Grand Slam tournament of 62,885.[2] In 2008, the Rebound Ace surface, which had been in place for the past 20 years at Melbourne Park, was replaced by a cushioned acrylic surface known as Plexicushion. The main benefits of the new surface are better consistency and less retention of heat (because of a thinner top layer).

This change was accompanied by changes in the surfaces of all lead-up tournaments to the Australian Open. The change was controversial, primarily because of the new surface's similarity to DecoTurf, the surface already being used by the US Open.

French Open.

The French Open (French: Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros or Tournoi de Roland-Garros) is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between mid-May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros. It is the second of the Grand Slam tournaments on the annual tennis calendar and the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world. It is one of the most prestigious events in tennis, and it has the widest worldwide broadcasting and audience of all events in this sport.

Because of the slow playing surface and the five-set men's singles matches without a tiebreak in the final set, some say that the event is considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world. Officially named in French the Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros or Tournoi de Roland-Garros (the "French Internationals of Roland Garros" or "Roland Garros Tournament" in English), the tournament is often referred to as the "French Open" and sometimes simply as "Roland Garros."

The event began as a national tournament in 1891 as the Championat de France International de Tennis. The first women's tournament was held in 1897. In 1912, the French tournament was held with a different surface (at the time all tennis played was lawn tennis), a red clay ("terre battue"), made up from the crushed wastes of red brick. The tournament was open only to tennis players who were licensed in France through 1924. In 1925, the French Championships opened itself to international competitors with the event held on a grass surface alternately between the Racing Club de France and the Stade Francais.

After the Mousquetaires or Philadelphia Four (René Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet, and Jacques Brugnon) won the Davis Cup on American soil in 1927, the French decided to defend the cup in 1928 at a new tennis stadium at Porte d’Auteuil. The Stade de France had offered the tennis authorities three hectares of land with the condition that the new stadium must be named after the World War I pilot, Roland Garros. The new Stade de Roland Garros, and its Center Court, which was named Court Philippe Chatrier in 1988, hosted that Davis Cup challenge. Suzanne Lenglen Court at Roland Garros.

Suzanne Lenglen Court at Roland Garros. In 1968, the French Championships became the first Grand Slam tournament to go open, allowing both amateurs and professionals to compete. Since 1981, new prizes have been presented Prix Orange (the most fair-play and the most press friendly player), Prix Citron (the player with the strongest character, personality) and Prix Bourgeon (the tennis player revelation of the year). Another novelty, since 2006 the tournament has begun on a Sunday, featuring 12 singles matches played on the three main courts.

Additionally, on the eve of the tournament's opening, the traditional Benny Berthet exhibition day takes place, where the profits go to different charity associations. In March 2007, it was announced that the event will provide equal prize money for both men and women in all rounds for the first time ever.

US Open.

The US Open tennis tournament is one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, first contested in 1881. It was the final event of the Grand Slam Tournament. The tournament is chronologically the fourth and final event of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It is held annually in August and September over a two-week period (the weeks before and after Labor Day weekend).The main tournament consists of five championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players.

Since 1978, the tournament has been played on acrylic hard court at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York City.The US Open differs from the other three Grand Slam tournaments in that there are final-set tiebreaks. In the other three majors, the fifth set for the men and the third set for the women continue until someone wins by two games. The US Open has grown from an exclusive entertainment event for high society to, as of 2008.

A championship for more than 600 male and female professional players who compete for a total of over US$19 million in prize money, with $1.5 million for each winner of the singles tournaments. The US Open for men originally was a separate tournament from the US Open for women. The U.S. National Singles Championship (men only) was first held in August 1881 at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. Only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter.

From 1884 through 1911, the tournament used a challenge system whereby the defending champion automatically qualified for the next year's final. In 1915, the tournament moved to the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, New York. From 1921 through 1923, it was played at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia and returned to Forest Hills in 1924. Six years after the men's nationals were first held, the first official U.S.

Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in 1887, followed by the U.S. Women's National Doubles Championship in 1889. The first U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship was held alongside the women's singles and doubles. The first U.S. National Men's Doubles Championship was held in 1900. Tournaments were held in the east and the west of the country to determine the best two teams, which competed in a play-off to see who would play the defending champions in the challenge round.

The open era began in 1968 when all five events were merged into the US Open, held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York. The 1968 combined tournament was open to professionals for the first time. That year, 96 men and 63 women entered the event, and prize money totaled $100,000. In 1970, the US Open became the first of the Grand Slam tournaments to use a tiebreak at the end of a set.

The US Open was originally played on grass until Forest Hills switched to Har-Tru clay courts in 1975. In 1978, the event moved from Forest Hills to its current home at Flushing Meadows, and the surface changed again, to the current DecoTurf. (Jimmy Connors is the only man to have won the US Open on more than one surface. He won it on all three surfaces. Female player Chris Evert won it on two surfaces.)

Davis Cup.

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. The largest annual international team competition in sports[1], the Davis Cup is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between the United States and Great Britain. In 2005, 134 nations entered teams into the competition.

The most successful countries over the history of the tournament are the United States (winning 32 tournaments and finishing as runners-up 29 times) and Australia (winning 28 times and finishing second 19 times and also winning on four occasions with New Zealand under the name 'Australasia').

The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Fed Cup.

History of Davis Cup.

The tournament was conceived in 1899 by four members of the Harvard University tennis team who wished to challenge the British to a tennis competition. Once their respective lawn tennis associations agreed, one of the four Harvard players, Dwight F. Davis, designed a tournament format and ordered an appropriate sterling silver trophy from Shreve, Crump and Low, purchasing it from his own funds. They in turn commissioned a classically-styled design from William B. Durgin's of Concord, New Hampshire, crafted by the Englishman Rowland Rhodes[2].

Davis went on to become a prominent politician in the United States in the 1920s, serving as US Secretary of War from 1925-29 and as Governor-General of the Philippines from 1929-32. The first match, between the United States and Great Britain was held at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900. The American team, of which Dwight Davis was a part, surprised the British by winning the first three matches. The following year the two countries did not compete but the US won the next match in 1902.

By 1905 the tournament expanded to include Belgium, Austria, France, and Australasia, a combined team from Australia and New Zealand that competed together until 1914. The tournament was initially titled the International Lawn Tennis Challenge although it soon became known as the Davis Cup, after Dwight Davis' trophy. From 1950 to 1967, Australia dominated the competition, winning the Cup 15 times in 18 years. The United States has won the event the most times (32), followed by Australia (24 [28 including Australasia]), France and Great Britain (9 each)[includes 5 for the British Isles], Sweden (7), and Australasia (4).

Up until 1973, the Davis Cup had only ever been won by the United States, Great Britain, France and Australia/Australasia.This dominance is what led to each of the 4 nations to host a Grand Slam. Their domination was eventually broken in 1974, when South Africa and India qualified for the final. India refused to play in the final that year in protest against the South African government's apartheid policies, thus handing South Africa a walk-over victory. (As of 2008, South Africa has never actually played a single Davis Cup finals match.)

The following year saw the first final actually being played, again between two "outsider" nations, with Sweden beating Czechoslovakia 3-2, and since then, several other countries have gone on to capture the trophy. On the 100th anniversary of the tournament's founding, 129 nations competed for the Davis Cup. The world's 16 best national teams are assigned to the World Group and compete annually for the Davis Cup. Nations which are not in the World Group compete in one of the other four groups and in one of three regional zones (Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/Africa).

The competition is spread over four weekends during the year. Each elimination round between competing nations is held in one of the countries. The ITF determines the host countries for all possible matchups before each year's tournament. The World Group is the top group and includes the world's best 16 national teams. Teams in the World Group play a four-round elimination tournament. Teams are seeded based on a ranking system released by the ITF, taking into account previous years' results.

The defending champion and runner-up are always the top two seeds in the tournament. The losers of the first-round matches are sent to the World Group playoff round, where they play along with winners from Group I of the regional zones. The playoff round winners play in the World Group for the next year's tournament, while the losers play in Group I of their respective regional zone. Each of the three regional zones is divided into four groups. Groups I and II play elimination rounds, with the losing teams facing relegation to the next-lower group.

The teams in Groups III and those in Group IV play a round-robin tournament with promotion and relegation. When competition began in 1900, the Davis Cup competition was played as a challenge cup. All teams competed against one another for the right to face the previous year's champion in the final round, and the previous year's champion (the "defending champion") advanced directly to the current year's final round. Beginning in 1923, the world's teams were split into two zones: the "America Zone" and the "Europe Zone".

The winners of the two zones met in the Inter-Zonal Zone ("INZ") to decide which national team would challenge the defending champion for the cup. In 1955, a third zone, the "Eastern Zone", was added. Because there were three zones, the winner of one of the three zones received a bye in the first round of the INZ challenger rounds. In 1966, the "Europe Zone" was split into two zones, "Europe Zone A" and "Europe Zone B", so the winners of the four zones competed in the INZ challenger rounds.

Beginning in 1972, the format was changed from a challenge cup, so that the defending champion was required to compete in all rounds, and the Davis Cup was awarded to the tournament champion. In 1981, the tiered system of competition was created, which remains in use today, and in which the 16 best national teams compete in the World Group and in which all other national teams compete in one of the four groups in one of the three regional zones. The Davis Cup competition uses two words with unique meanings: tie and rubber.

The word tie originated in other cup competitions to mean an elimination (or knockout) round. In the Davis Cup competition, a "tie" does not mean a draw or when competitors' scores are equal; instead, a "tie" means a round of competition. Similarly, in the Davis Cup, the word rubber means an individual match. Thus, "tie" means a round, and "rubber" means a match. In the annual World Group competition, 16 nations compete in 8 first-round ties ("rounds"); the 8 winners compete 4 quarter-final-round ties; the 4 winners compete in 2 seimifinal-round ties; and the 2 winners compete in the final round tie.

Each tie consists of 5 rubbers ("matches"), which are played in 3 days (usually on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). The winner of the tie is the nation which wins 3 or more of the 5 rubbers in the tie. On the first day, the first 2 rubbers are singles, which are generally played by each nation's 2 best available singles players. On the second day, the doubles rubber is played. On the third day, the final 2 rubbers are typically reverse singles, in which the first-day contestants usually play again, but they swap opponents from the first day's singles rubbers.

However, in certain circumstances, the team captain may replace one or two of the players who played the singles on Friday by other players who were nominated for the tie. For example, if the tie has already been decided in favour of one of the teams, it is common for younger or lower-ranked team members to play the remaining dead-rubbers in order for them to gain Davis Cup experience. Prior to each tie, the captain of each nation nominates a squad of four players and decides who will compete in the tie.

On the day before play starts, the order of play for the first day is drawn at random. In the past, teams could substitute final day singles players only in case of injury or illness, verified by a doctor, but current rules permit the captain to designate any player to play the last two singles rubbers, provided that no first day matchup is repeated. There is no restriction on which of the playing team members may play the doubles rubber:

The two singles players, two other players (usually doubles specialists) or a combination. Each rubber is normally played in a best-of-5 set. The first four sets use a tiebreak if necessary, but the fifth set usually has no tiebreaker, so play continues until one side wins by two games (e.g. 10-8). However, if a team has clinched the tie ("round") before all 5 rubbers ("matches") have been completed, the remaining rubbers may be shortened to the best-of-3-sets, with a tie breaker if necessary to decide all three sets.

In Group III and Group IV competition, each tie ("round") consists only of 3 rubbers ("matches"), which include 2 singles and one doubles rubber, which is played in a single day. The rubbers are in the best-of-3-set format, with a tie breaker if necessary to decide all three sets.

Fed Cup.

Fed Cup is the premier team competition in women's tennis, launched in 1963 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The competition was known as the Federation Cup until 1995. The idea for the event can be traced back to 1919, when Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman came up with the concept for a women's team competition. When this was rejected, she instead presented a trophy in 1923 for an annual contest between the United States and Great Britain, who were at that time the strongest tennis-playing nations.

Nell Hopman, wife of the legendary Australian Davis Cup Captain Harry Hopman, later took up Mrs Wightman's original idea. In 1962, when a British resident of the United States, Mary Hardwick Hare, presented a dossier proving that support for such an event was overwhelming, the ITF was persuaded that a team championship played over one week in a different venue each year was a 'good idea'. It had taken 40 years for Wightman’s idea of a women’s Davis Cup to become a reality. Finally in 1963, the ITF launched the Federation Cup to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Open to all nations and not just USA and Great Britain, the much awaited competition became a resounding success. Played over one week in a different venue each year, the inaugural event attracted 16 countries. The competition was supported by the top players right from the start. Held at the Queen's Club, in London, the first contest between Australia and the United States set the tone with Grand Slam champions Darlene Hard, Billie Jean King, Margaret Smith and Lesley Turner all proudly representing their country on court.

The United States emerged the champion nation and has since put their mark on the competition, collecting a record 17 titles over the years.That first Federation Cup had attracted entries from 16 teams, a respectable number considering that there was no prize money and teams had to meet their own expenses. Sponsorship would later enable this number to expand dramatically, first by the Colgate Group in 1976, and, from 1981 to 1994 by the Japanese communications and computer giant NEC.

By 1994, 73 nations competed, and the host nation of a Federation Cup week was now required to build a special tennis complex, giving rise to what became known as the Federation Cup "legacy." In addition to the kudos of showcasing the premier international women's team competition, nations viewed their involvement as providing an unprecedented opportunity for their national game to develop. The rise in entries led to the creation of regional qualifying competitions in 1992 and, subsequently in 1995, the Federation Cup adopted a new format and shortened its name to the Fed Cup.

Having seen the great success that the home-and-away format had achieved in Davis Cup, the format for the Fed Cup was changed in 1995 so that women, as well as men, could play for their country in their country. While the format has been adjusted several times since 1995, the current format, introduced in 2005, incorporates an eight Nation World Group I and eight nation World Group II playing both home-and-away over three weekends throughout the year.

Hopman Cup.

The Hopman Cup is an annual international team tennis tournament founded by Paul McNamee and Charlie Fancutt, and held in Perth, Western Australia in early-January (sometimes commencing in late-December) each year.

Format.

Unlike other major international team tennis tournaments like the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup, which are strictly for men or women only, the Hopman Cup is a mixed competition where male and female players team up together on combined teams. Players are invited to attend, national coaches not being involved in selecting teams. Eight nations are selected annually to compete in the Hopman Cup. (The 'last' team may be decided by play-offs between several nations before competition begins. For Hopman Cup XIX however, this did not occur, due to the Asian Qualifying Tournament creating the eighth team. The official tournament website also has no qualifier listed in its schedule.) Each team consists of one male player and one female player. Each match-up between two teams at the championships consists of:

(i) one women's singles match

(ii) one men's singles match

(iii) one mixed doubles match

Each year the eight competing teams are separated into two groups of four (with two teams being seeded) and face-off against each of the other three teams in their group in a round-robin format. These seedings do not have much of an impact, as all teams meet each other regardless. The top team in each group then meet in a final to decide the champions. If a player is injured then a player of a lower ranking of that nation may be the substitute.

Venue.

The matches are played at an indoor hardcourt venue - the Burswood Dome at the Burswood Entertainment Complex. The tournament is a sanctioned event in the calendar of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), but individual player results are not included in the calculation of the tennis' world rankings. The competition receives extensive television coverage in Australia and is an important lead-up tournament to the Australian Open each January.

The winning team receives a silver cup perpetual trophy, and the winning team members are presented with distinctive individual trophies in the shape of a tennis ball encrusted with diamonds from the Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Tennis up Coming Tournaments Schedule.

November 2008

Start	Finish	Tournament	T. Director	Entries Close
1 Nov	2 Nov	Namoi Valley Championships	John Richard Jenry	21 Oct
2 Nov		Hawkesbury DTA Odd Age Round Robin	Win Sinden	30 Oct
7 Nov	9 Nov	South Pacific Open	Leon Carriage	19 Oct
8 Nov	9 Nov	Ballina Junior Classic	Nathan Whitty	3 Nov
8 Nov	9 Nov	Griffith Junior Open	Mark Dossetor	3 Nov
8 Nov	9 Nov	HTR Seniors Doubles Tournament II	Adolfo Garcia	24 Oct
8 Nov	9 Nov	West Tamworth Nutrain Junior Open	Malcolm Nash	25 Oct
14 Nov	16 Nov	Gosford Twilight Series #4	Rod Rosenfield	31 Oct
14 Nov	16 Nov	Wyong RSL Seniors Classic	Matt Roberts	3 Nov
14 Nov	18 Nov	Medibank Cup (12s & 14s)	Tennis NSW	24 Oct
15 Nov	16 Nov	28th Annual Northern NSW Open Junior Tennis	Allan Pade	6 Nov
15 Nov	16 Nov	Raymond Terrace Auto Pro Junior Tournament	Ellen Gordon	12 Nov
21 Nov	25 Nov	Medibank Cup (16's & 18's)	Tennis NSW	24 Oct
26 Nov	3 Dec	Strathfield Schoolboys & Schoolgirls	John Anderson	7 Nov
27 Nov	30 Nov	City of Sydney Seniors Classic	Robyn Deppi	1 Nov
28 Nov	30 Nov	Gosford Twilight Series #5	Rod Rosenfield	14 Nov
28 Nov	30 Nov	Gosford Summer Super Series	Rod Rosenfield	21 Nov
29 Nov	30 Nov	Bathurst Seniors	Andrew Mitton	15 Nov
30 Nov		Eastern Suburbs Junior Round Robin Series	Manuel Da Silva	24 Nov
30 Nov		Nepean Junior Round Robin Series (14/U)	NDTA	24 Nov
30 Nov		Sydney Olympic Park Round Robin Series (10/U)	Tennis NSW	24 Nov

December 2008

Start	Finish	Tournament	T. Director	Entries Close
5 Dec	7 Dec	Gosford Twilight Series #6	Rod Rosenfield	21 Nov
6 Dec	7 Dec	Orange Junior Open	Karl Klingenstein	21 Nov
7 Dec		Complete Tennis Tournament Series #5	Stuart Barkley	30 Nov
7 Dec		Eastern Suburbs Junior Round Robin Series	Manuel Da Silva	1 Dec
7 Dec		Nepean Junior Round Robin Series (10/U)	NDTA	1 Dec
7 Dec		Sydney Olympic Park Round Robin Series (12/U)	Tennis NSW	1 Dec
12 Dec	14 Dec	Gosford Twilight Series #7	Rod Rosenfield	29 Nov
12 Dec	16 Dec	Lismore Age	John Stoddart	21 Nov
13 Dec	15 Dec	Maitland Junior Open	Ryan Andrews	22 Nov
14 Dec		Eastern Suburbs Tennis Association	Manuel Da Silva	8 Dec
14 Dec		Nepean Junior Round Robin Series (12/U)	NDTA	8 Dec
14 Dec		Sydney Olympic Park Round Robin Series (14/U)	Tennis NSW	8 Dec
20 Dec	22 Dec	Matchpoint Christmas Carnival	Matt Roberts	4 Dec
20 Dec	22 Dec	Wakehurst Couvert Open Junior	Cassie Ibarrola	12 Dec
26 Dec	31 Dec	Manly Seaside Tennis Championships	S.Blackburn / M.Deagan	6 Dec

 

 

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