Tennis
History
Before rackets were used, in ancient times tennis used to be played with hands. There is evidence that shows that games that used a ball and hands were played from Ancient Egypt to 5th century Europe. A version more similar to tennis came about in the 12th century in Italy and France, where monks played something similar in closed yards, which outlined the area where the game was to be played on.
Before reaching the model it uses today, tennis went through several changes. The game was adopted by European aristocrats, who began dividing their time between tennis and another sport at the time: croquet. So much so that the traditional All England Croquet Club began to be called the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. In fact, that is where that is where the famous Wimbledon tournament is held today.
It was only a matter of time before national and international federations were founded. After the game's rules had been established, the first tournament was held in 1877 in England. The first player to stand out in the circuit was W. Ravenshaw from Great Britain, who introduced the volley technique to the game. He was crowned champion for the first time in 1881 and went on to win trophies for the next seven years.
Tennis made its Olympic debut at the first edition of the Games in 1896 in Athens. Until 1924, Olympic titles were namely won by the British, French and Americans. The sport was taken out of the Olympic programme for the 1928 Games in Amsterdam and would only return in 1988, in Seoul.
From the 2000 Games in Sydney onwards, Olympic tennis went through a critical change. The tournament started to be worth points for the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). As a result, it began to attract the sport's main names, who before did not prioritise the Olympics in order to prepare for other tournaments. In the last two editions, big names of the sport, considered the best in the world won the Olympic gold medal: Rafael Nadal from Spain in Beijing (2008) and Andy Murray from Great Britain (2012).
Curiosities
Invitation and brotherhood
When tennis made its Olympic debut at the Athens Games in 1896, the competition finished with a rather unexpected winner. John Pius Boland had travelled to Greece with the intention of watching the Games and nothing more. Once he arrived, he ended up meeting Dionysios Kasdaglis from Greece, who convinced him to sign up for the tennis tournament. Boland accepted the invitation and surprisingly, made it to the final, playing against Kasdaglis himself. Leaving friendship aside, Boland beat his opponent 6-2 6-2 and won the first Olympic gold in the history of tennis.
The amazing Steffi Graf
German tennis player Steffi Graf was already the world’s number one at the age of nineteen, a record that has yet to be broken today. In 1988, Graf arrived at the Games in Seoul as the winner of the four most important grand slam titles of that year: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. Was there anything left for the German athlete to win in order to finish her perfect year? Yes, the Olympic title.
With an undefeated run of 35 matches, that lasted five months, Graf put her name in the history books. In the final, she beat Gabriela Sabatini two games to love (6-3, 6-3), winning her fifth title of the year. Four years earlier, when she was 15, the German athlete – then the tournament's youngest competitor - had already won the Olympic tennis event, when it featured as a demonstration sport.
See also
Confederação Brasileira de Tênis (CBT)
Site: www.cbtenis.com.br
E-mail: pro@cbtenis.com.br
Federação Internacional de Tênis (ITF): www.itftennis.com
