Portal:Tennis

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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.

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...)

More about Tennis history, glossary, equipment, courts, scores, types of matches, officials, shots, tournaments, and statistics

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Image 1

The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for men's tennis, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. It is currently advertised as the "cinch Championships" after its title sponsor.

Queen's is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, and serves as a warm-up for Wimbledon. Andy Murray has won a record five titles between 2009 and 2016. (Full article...)
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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...)
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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...)
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The Williams sisters rivalry was a tennis rivalry between sisters Venus Williams and Serena Williams (born June 17, 1980, and September 26, 1981, respectively), regarded as two of the best woman tennis players for over two decades. They met 31 times in professional tournaments between 1998 and 2020, with Serena leading their head-to-head 19–12.

Both sisters have been ranked world No. 1 in singles: Venus for a total of 11 weeks, beginning in February 2002; Serena for a total of 316 weeks, beginning in July 2002. Venus has won 49 singles titles over the course of her career, and Serena won 73. (Full article...)
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"Tennis the Menace" is the twelfth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 2001. In the episode, the Simpsons build a tennis court in their backyard and are ridiculed by the entire town because of Homer's inferior tennis ability. Homer therefore tries to please Marge by entering the two into a tournament, but they quickly turn into rivals when Marge replaces Homer with Bart as her partner.

The episode features guest appearances from tennis professionals Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and the Williams sisters as themselves. "Tennis the Menace" was directed by Jen Kamerman and written by Ian Maxtone-Graham, who also directed the Williams sisters' performance. The episodes title is a parody of Dennis the Menace. The animators of The Simpsons experimented with digital ink and paint on "Tennis the Menace", making it the first episode of the series to be animated using the process since season 7's "Radioactive Man". (Full article...)
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The Cincinnati Open (also known as the Cincinnati Masters) is an annual professional tennis event held in Cincinnati, United States. It is played on outdoor hard courts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, and is held in August. The event started on September 18, 1899, and is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States still played in its original city. It also is the third largest tennis event in the United States, after the US Open and the Indian Wells Masters. It is one of the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments on the ATP Tour, and one of the WTA 1000 tournaments on the WTA Tour. (Full article...)
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The US Open men's singles championship is an annual tennis tournament that is part of the US Open and was established in 1881. It is played on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows – Corona Park, New York City, United States. The US Open is played during a two-week period in late August and early September, and has been chronologically the last of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the tennis season since 1987. Newport (1881–1914), Forest Hills (1915–1920, 1924–1977), and Philadelphia (1921–1923) held the event before it settled in 1978 at the USTA National Tennis Center, now the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in New York City. The inaugural tournament, in 1881, was reserved for United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) club members, before the championships opened to international competitors in 1882. The USTA is the national body that organizes this event. (Full article...)
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The Agassi–Sampras rivalry was a tennis rivalry between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, who were both ranked world No. 1 during the 1990s. Sampras held the world's top ranking for (a then-record) 286 weeks while Agassi held it for 101 weeks. With contrasting styles and temperaments, they played each other 34 times from 1989 through 2002, with the head-to-head finishing 20-14 favoring Sampras. It has been named as one of the greatest tennis rivalries of all time.

In Grand Slam tournaments, they played in five finals, with Sampras winning four. They met for the first time in a Grand Slam final at the 1990 US Open, with Agassi the favorite because of his superior ranking even though Sampras had defeated former world No. 1 players Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe en route to the final. Sampras defeated Agassi in straight sets. (Full article...)
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The Evert–Navratilova rivalry was a tennis rivalry in the 1970s and 1980s between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, widely regarded as two of the greatest female tennis players of all time. It is considered to be one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history and sports in general. The pair contested 80 matches between 1973 and 1988 (60 of which were finals), with Navratilova leading the overall head-to-head 43–37 and 36–24 in finals. It is the most prolific tennis rivalry of the Open Era.

In the 12 years from the introduction of the WTA rankings in November 1975 until August 1987, one of the two held the top spot in all but 23 weeks. More specifically, in the first 615 weeks of the WTA rankings they collectively held the No. 1 ranking for 592 weeks, Navratilova at 332 weeks and Evert at 260 weeks. Such was their dominance over other players, that for the period 1977–1987 when the two rivals were first ranked world No. 1 and No. 2 (and generally the top two players for the entire ten-year period), only three times did any other player beat them both back-to-back in the same tournament: Evonne Goolagong Cawley at the 1978 Virginia Slims of Boston, Tracy Austin at the 1979 US Open, and Hana Mandlíková at the 1985 US Open. From the 1981 Australian Open to the 1985 Wimbledon Championships, the duo won a record 15 consecutive major singles titles. From the 1981 Wimbledon Championships to the 1988 Australian Open, they won 22 of 27 major singles titles, and at least one of them appeared in each of those 27 finals. (The five defeats in those 27 finals were Navratilova losing to Austin at the 1981 US Open, to Mandlíková at the 1985 US Open and 1987 Australian Open, and to Steffi Graf at the 1987 French Open; Evert lost to Graf in the 1988 Australian Open final.) (Full article...)
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The Davis Cup is an annual international team event in men's tennis. Established in 1900 as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, it is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), who describe it as the "World Cup of tennis." The first event in 1900 was a match between Great Britain and the United States, while 135 nations entered the 2016 Davis Cup.

The tournament sees players competing for their country in four singles and one doubles matches, known as rubbers, over the course of three days, with the team that wins three rubbers progressing. The countries are divided into groups based upon their location or performance in previous years. The Davis Cup World Group is the top level of the competition and features matches between players from the top 16 countries at the start of the year. Countries that lose their first round match face a relegation play-off against winning countries from the continental zones. World Group winning countries progress to the quarter-finals. Nations have to win a further three ties in order to claim the position of Davis Cup champions.The United States are the most successful nation in the history of the competition, with 32 victories. Australia are second with 28 (individually or in a combined Australasia team) and Great Britain and France are tied for third with 10. Teams from Europe have won the competition the most with 48 victories, followed by North America with 33 and Oceania with 28. (Full article...)
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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...)
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Novak Djokovic has won a record 40 Masters titles in singles. He is also the only singles player to complete the career Golden Masters, and has accomplished the feat twice.

The ATP Masters events, known as ATP Masters 1000 tournaments since 2009, are an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour since its inception in 1990. The Masters tournaments, sitting below the Grand Slam tournaments and the year-end championships, make up the most coveted trophies on the annual ATP Tour calendar. In addition to the quadrennial Summer Olympics, they are collectively known as the 'Big Titles'.

Novak Djokovic holds the record for the most Masters singles titles with 40. By completing the career set of all nine Masters singles titles in 2018, Djokovic became the first and only player to achieve the career Golden Masters. In 2020, Djokovic completed a second career Golden Masters. (Full article...)
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Radio Wimbledon was the official radio station to the annual Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the AELTC in Wimbledon. Their contract finished in 2011. It has now been replaced by the similar Live@Wimbledon station. (Full article...)
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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 three types of hardcourt surfaces have been used: green-coloured Rebound Ace up to 2007 and blue Plexicushion from 2008 to 2019. Since 2020, it has been played on blue GreenSet.

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 1,100,000 people attending the 2024 tournament, including qualifying. 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...)
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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...)

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General images

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

Image 1Rohan Bopanna was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. It was his first major title. (from Australian Open)
Image 2Carlos Alcaraz, the 2023 gentlemen's singles champion. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 3The order of play for all courts is displayed on boards around the grounds. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 4Richard Sears, a joint all-time record-holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 5Todd Woodbridge holding the Gentlemen's doubles silver challenge cup in 2004 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 6Rod Laver Arena night session in 2007, the last year the tournament used the Rebound Ace surface. (from Australian Open)
Image 7Bill Tilden, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 8Spencer Gore, the winner of the inaugural Wimbledon Championship (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 9Arthur Ashe stadium in 2010, before the retractable roof was added. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 10Sébastien Grosjean takes a shot on Court 18 during the 2004 Championships. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 11New Rod Laver Arena entrance added in 2018 as part of the Melbourne Park redevelopment. (from Australian Open)
Image 12Aerial view of the grounds (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 13Court Philippe Chatrier during the 2013 French Open. (from French Open)
Image 14Aryna Sabalenka, 2024 women's singles champion. It was her second major title and her second at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Image 15People watching the Championships' broadcast in Canary Wharf. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 16Commemorative plaque at Court 18 marking the longest tennis match in history. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 17Wang Xinyu was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2023. (from French Open)
Image 18Composition of the courts. (from French Open)
Image 19Jannik Sinner, 2024 men's singles champion. It was his first major title. (from Australian Open)
Image 20The Ladies' (top) and Gentlemen's singles trophies (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 21The Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup (from Australian Open)
Image 22Court 10. On the outside courts there is no reserved seating. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 23Centre Court at Wimbledon in May 2019 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 24Hsieh Su-wei was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles and mixed doubles team. It was her seventh major title in women's doubles and first major title in mixed doubles. (from Australian Open)
Image 25The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment precinct on the banks of the Yarra River in 2010. (from Australian Open)
Image 26Rafael Nadal holding the Coupe des Mousquetaires in 2006. (from French Open)
Image 27Elise Mertens was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. It was her fourth major title and second at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Image 28Martina Navratilova, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 29Lyudmyla Kichenok was part of the 2023 winning mixed doubles title. It was her first major title overall. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 30Bill Larned, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 31Molla Mallory, the all-time record holder in women's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 32Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open in 2005 prior to its redevelopment. Rod Laver Arena is in the background. (from Australian Open)
Image 33Jan Zieliński was part of the 2024 winning mixed doubles team. It was his first major title. (from Australian Open)
Image 34New Show Court Arena that opened in 2022. (from Australian Open)
Image 35Wimbledon operates a ticket resale system where returned Show Court tickets can be purchased. All proceeds go to charity. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 36Novak Djokovic, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from Australian 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 38Chris Evert, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from French Open)
Image 39Novak 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 40Wesley Koolhof was part of the 2023 winning men's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 41The Royal Gallery at Centre Court, Wimbledon. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 42Miyu Kato was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2023. It was her first major title. (from French Open)
Image 43Debenture of the All England Lawn Tennis Ground Ltd., issued 20. August 1930. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 44Su-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 45View from seats of Wimbledon Court No. 1. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 46Matthew Ebden was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. It was his second major title and first at the Australian Open. (from Australian Open)
Image 47Ivan 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 48Neal Skupski was part of the 2023 winning men's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 49Austin Krajicek was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2023. It was his first major title. (from French Open)
Image 50Tim Pütz was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2023. It was his first major title. (from French Open)
Image 51Roger Federer, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 52Hsieh Su-wei was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2023. (from French Open)
Image 53Rafael Nadal, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from French Open)
Image 54Barbora 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 55Markéta Vondroušová, the 2023 ladies' singles champion. It was her first major title. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 56A Royal Marines Commando as a services steward in 2005. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 57Margaret Court, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from Australian Open)
Image 58Mate 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 59Arthur Ashe Stadium with the roof closed in 2018. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 60Rod Laver Arena, the main court of the Australian Open, in 2023. (from Australian Open)
Image 61Wimbledon ball girl at the net, 2007. (from Wimbledon Championships)

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Murray lifting the 2010 Rogers Cup trophy

Sir Andrew Barron Murray OBE (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray has won three Grand Slam singles titles, two at Wimbledon (in 2013 and 2016) and one at the US Open (in 2012), and has reached eleven major finals. Murray was ranked in the top 10 for all but one month from July 2008 through to October 2017, and was no lower than world No. 4 in eight of the nine year-end rankings during that span. Murray has won 46 ATP Tour singles titles, including 14 Masters 1000 events and two gold medals at the Summer Olympics.

Originally coached by his mother Judy alongside his older brother Jamie, Murray moved to Barcelona at age 15 to train at the Sánchez-Casal Academy. He began his professional career around the time Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal established themselves as the two dominant players in men's tennis. Murray had immediate success on the ATP Tour, making his top 10 debut in 2007 at age 19. By 2010, Murray and Novak Djokovic had joined Federer and Nadal in the Big Four, the group of players who dominated men's tennis during the 2010s. Murray initially struggled against the rest of the Big Four, losing his first four major finals (three to Federer and one to Djokovic). He made his major breakthrough in 2012 by defeating Djokovic to win the US Open, becoming the first British major singles champion since Virginia Wade in 1977, and the first male champion since Fred Perry in 1936. A month earlier, he had won the men's singles gold medal against Federer at the 2012 London Olympics, and a silver medal in mixed doubles. (Full article...)

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