There’s no question that despite the global popularity of football, tennis remains one of the top 5 sports. Whether it’s watching Grand Slams on TV or the summer Olympics, the white sport draws huge attention. In the past few decades, its status has been elevated thanks to iconic players such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, as well as the fact that it’s one of the most watched sports during the Olympics.
Since they’re a rarer event than the Grand Slams which are held every year, tennis at the Olympics draws a lot of attention from bettors. You can bet on all kinds of markets that don’t just define the winner of the prestigious trophy, and that plays a big part in the sport’s popularity.
But, it wasn’t always like that. Tennis was banished from the Olympics for a long time during the 20th century and only got back on the schedule decades ago. We’ll explore why that happened and what the future of tennis as an Olympic sport is.
Brief History of Tennis
Tennis is an adaptation of an ancient sport. Have you ever heard that fact? The ancient sport was known as jeu de pamme, which was later codified as tennis in England around 1870. It didn’t take long for it to become popular. With each passing year, tennis grew bigger and bigger, and just over two decades later, it found itself on the Olympic tournament schedule.
Now played on different surfaces and with tens of millions of fans around the world, tennis’ beginnings were humble. A descendant of the jeu de pamme game which was invented in France in the XI century, tennis wasn’t always played with rackets. In fact, jeu de pamme was played with bare hands until the racket was invented in the XVI century. From that point on, it became a major part of the game. The tennis scoring system was introduced around the same time, and that led directly to the invention of tennis a few centuries later.
The word tennis comes from the French word tenez. In its most simple meaning, tenez means ”Here it comes!”, which is what players said to their opponents as they served. The first form of tennis appeared in the XVIII century in Britain, where lawn tennis emerged among the aristocracy. It was played at an amateur level at that point. Toward the end of the century, lawn tennis grew into a more professional and organized sport. It quickly overcame croquet as the most popular sport. After being codified in 1870, tennis’ popularity exploded, resulting in its first Olympic Games inclusion in 1896 in Athens.
Tennis at the Olympics
By the time tennis was introduced to the Olympics, players were already competing at Wimbledon every summer. The first Olympic tennis tournament was won by John Pius Boland of Britain. He won the singles and doubles tournaments that year. As for women’s tennis, they had to wait until 1900 in Paris to get their Olympic tournament.
The first female Olympic tennis winner was Charlotte Cooper. She was also one of the first players to throw up the ball in the air before serving, something which we’re accustomed to seeing today. Everyone else was serving underhand.
By 1913, the popularity of tennis grew around the world. International tennis associates decided to join forces and reinforce certain rules and structures. The same year, an international conference was held with 12 represented countries who formed the International Lawn Tennis Federation. Plans for new tournaments were discussed, the rackets changed too, and so did the equipment and some rules. Tennis was one of the biggest sports at the time and remained on the Olympic schedule until 1924. That year, the IOC and International Tennis Federation held unsuccessful talks which resulted in one of the most shocking decisions for tennis ever.
Expulsion from the Olympics
From this point of view, many sport historians would say that the expulsion of tennis from the summer Olympics schedule in 1924 was nonsense. It was officially removed from the programme in 1928, owning to the difference in opinion between the IOC and the ITF over how amateurs should be classified. The Tennis Federation stuck to its own claims, while the Olympic Committee wanted something different. It was the beginning of a dark Olympic era for the white sport, yet at the same time, it flourished in many other ways.
By 1930, there were several major developments for tennis. First and foremost, the idea of a Grand Slam was introduced. That meant winning the four majors. In 1968, tennis was no longer considered an amateur sport. This was the start of the Modern Era when the sport turned professional. In 1973, the ATP and WTA global rankings were introduced, and tennis made a case for the Olympics again.
Eventually, the ITF and IOC came to a conclusion. They shook hands and tennis was back at the Olympics in 1968 in Mexico City. At that point, it was only as a demonstration sport. It made another return in the same form in 1984 in Los Angeles where Steffi Graf shockingly won the tournament at only 15 years.
Tennis full return to the schedule was in 1988 at the Olympic Games in Seoul. Steffi Graf once again won the tournament, while also hitting the Golden Slam—all four Grand Slams in a single season—the same year. By far, she’s the only tennis player to achieve that feat – not even Novak Djokovic has been able to repeat it.
Over the years, tennis’ popularity at the Olympics grew further. It helps that all the major players always appear in the finals, aiming for glory in addition to the Slams. It’ll remain popular in the future too with the young guard of players slowly pushing out the iconic Big Three as they look to set records of their own.
