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Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. The association governs the WTA Tour, which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women, and was founded to create a better future for women's tennis. The WTA's corporate headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Florida, with its European headquarters in London and its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing. The Women's Tennis Association was founded in June 1973 by Billie Jean King, and traces its origins to the inaugural Virginia Slims tournament, arranged by Gladys Heldman, sponsored by Joe Cullman, CEO of Philip Morris, and held on 23 September 1970 at the Houston Racquet Club in Houston, Texas. Rosie Casals won this first event. When the Women's Tennis Association was founded, Billie Jean King was one of nine players that comprised the WTA, also referred to as the Original 9, that included Julie Heldman, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Judy Dalton, Kristy Pigeon, Peaches Ba ...
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Tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket strung with a cord to strike a hollow rubber tennis ball, ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's tennis court, court. The object is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. If a player is unable to return the ball successfully, the opponent scores a Point (tennis), point. Playable at all levels of society and at all ages, tennis can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including Wheelchair tennis, 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 to various field (lawn) games such as croqu ...
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Kerry Melville Reid
Kerry Melville Reid (née Melville; born 7 August 1947) is an Australian former professional tennis player. During her 17-year career, Reid won a major singles title and 26 other singles titles, and was the runner-up in 40 singles tournaments. Reid was included in the year-end world top-ten rankings for 12 consecutive years (1968–1979). She won at least one tournament annually from 1966 through 1979, except for 1975. Her career-high ranking was world No. 5 in 1971, behind Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong, and Rosie Casals. Career Melville won 27 singles tournaments and was runner-up in 37 more between 1963 and 1979. Against Hall of Fame players, Melville beat Margaret Court three times, Billie Jean King eight times, Evonne Goolagong six times, Chris Evert twice, Martina Navratilova once, Rosie Casals 20 times, Francoise Durr 14 times, Nancy Richey eight times, Virginia Wade four times, Tracy Austin three times, and Hana Mandlikova twice. Overall, Reid play ...
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USTA
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national Sport governing body, governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass-roots to the professional levels. The association was created to standardize rules and regulations and to promote and develop the growth of tennis in the United States. The USTA runs the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center which hosts the US Open (tennis), US Open every year. The USTA has leagues in most places for adults skill levels between beginner and pro. The USTA also hosts tournaments across the country every weekend for club players or professionals. History The USTA was previously known as the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) and was established in 1881 by a small group of tennis club members in New York City and northeastern clubs, where most lawn tennis wa ...
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Wightman Cup
The Wightman Cup was an annual team tennis competition for women contested from 1923 through 1989 (except during World War II) between teams from the United States and Great Britain. History U.S. player Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman wanted to generate international interest in women's tennis the way Davis Cup did for men's. In 1920, she donated a sterling silver vase to the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) as a prize for an international team competition. Initial efforts to involve teams from all over the world, and in particular France with Suzanne Lenglen, proved unsuccessful due to financial constraints. The USLTA decided to invite Great Britain to challenge for the prize. Each match consisted of seven 'rubbers': five singles rubbers and two doubles. The top two players from each team would face each other in singles, with the matches then reversed. A third singles player from each team would play each other once. Two doubles teams would compete, but no player could ...
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International Tennis Federation
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. there are 211 national and six regional associations that make up the ITF's membership. The ITF's governance responsibilities include maintaining and enforcing the rules of tennis, regulating international team competitions, promoting the game, and preserving the sport's integrity via anti-doping and anti-corruption programs. The ITF partners with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) to govern professional tennis. The ITF organizes annual team competitions for men (Davis Cup), women ( Billie Jean King Cup), and mixed teams ( Hopman Cup), as well as tennis and wheelchair tennis events at the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games on behalf of the International Olympic Committee. The ITF sanctions circuits th ...
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Françoise Dürr
Françoise Dürr (born 25 December 1942; sometimes referred to by English writers as Frankie Durr) is a retired French tennis player. She won 50 singles titles and over 60 doubles titles. Durr played with an unorthodox backhand, which she played with an Eastern forehand grip and her index finger extended up the handle. She is also noted for having an unorthodox serve that "might not have registered on a radar gun" according to her official Tennis Hall of Fame biography. According to Lance Tingay, Bud Collins, and the Women's Tennis Association, Dürr was ranked in the world top ten from 1965 through 1967, from 1970 through 1972, and from 1974 through 1976, reaching a career high of world No. 3 in those rankings in 1967. She finished second to Billie Jean King in prize money earnings in 1971. Dürr reached a total of 27 Grand Slam finals – one in singles, 18 in women's doubles, and eight in mixed doubles. She won twelve of them. Personal life Françoise Dürr married Bo ...
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Ann Haydon-Jones
Ann Shirley Jones, (born Adrianne Haydon; 17 October 1938), also known as Ann Haydon-Jones, is a British former table tennis and lawn tennis champion. She won eight Grand Slam tennis championships in her career: three in singles, three in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. As of 2023, she serves as a vice president of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Career Table tennis Jones was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham, England. Her parents were prominent table tennis players, her father, Adrian Haydon, having been English number 1 and a competitor at world championships between 1928 and 1953. Ann, as a young girl, also took up the game, participating in five world championships in the 1950s, the best result being losing finalist in singles, doubles and mixed doubles all in Stockholm 1957. Soon after this she wrote the book ''Tackle Table Tennis This Way''. Jones also won two English Open titles in women's doubles as Haydon. Tennis Jones was also a powerful l ...
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National Tennis League
National Tennis League (NTL) was a tour for professional male tennis players established in 1967 by George MacCall. In 1970 it was sold to the World Championship Tennis (WCT), a competing professional tennis league run by Lamar Hunt. History The National Tennis League (NTL) was formed by former U.S. Davis Cup captain George MacCall in 1967, as a governing body to an American professional tennis tour. MacCall signed several players to contracts, including Arthur Ashe, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and Stan Smith. The NTL followed in the wake of MacCall's departure from the existing International Professional Tennis Association (IPTA), which had been created by promoter Wallace Dill in 1966, and preceded the creation of World Championship Tennis (WCT), formed by Lamar Hunt and David Dixon The NTL differed from the IPTA and from WCT in being the first to sign women to professional contracts in addition to men. In 1968 Billie Jean King became the first woman of the Open Era to sign a ...
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World Championship Tennis
World Championship Tennis (WCT) was one of the principal organizing bodies of men's professional tennis headquartered at the WCT Lakeway World of Tennis facility, Austin, Texas, United States from 1968 to 1989. It administered the WCT Circuit a world wide tour of associated tennis tournaments that was a rival tour to the ITF Grand Prix Circuit both of which were replaced by the Association of Tennis Professionals ATP Tour in 1990. In 1968 (the first players signed a contract at the end of 1967). Players were ranked in a special WCT ranking according to their results in those tournaments. The WCT had an important impact on the commercial development of tennis. It instituted a Tennis score#Scoring a tiebreak game, tie-breaker system, experimented the "no-ad" scoring system on 40-40 (called at times "sudden death") and outfitted players with colored clothing, a radical idea at that time. WCT also strongly encouraged the audience to cheer for players, rather than politely applaud, as ...
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Merion Cricket Club
Merion Cricket Club is a private club which is located in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1865. The current clubhouse is its sixth, the last four having been designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness and his partner, Allen Evans, who was also a founder of the club. The club was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 for its leading role in the promotion, development and continued support of cricket, golf, squash, and tennis in the United States. History The club was founded in October 1865 by William Woodrow Montgomery and Marshall Ewing. Its first meeting was held at Glenays, the home of William Woodrow Montgomery, on December 16, 1865. While there was some thought of converting into a baseball club due to a lack of a permanent facility, its first cricket match was held in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1866. From 1873 to 1892, the club occupied grounds in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, before moving to its present grounds in Haverford. The first tennis ...
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Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former professional tennis player. Laver was ranked as the World number 1 ranked male tennis players, world number 1 professional player indisputably for five years from 1965 to 1969, and by some sources also in 1964 and 1970. He was also ranked as the number 1 amateur in 1961 and 1962. Laver won 200 singles titles across his amateur and professional careers, the most won by any tennis player. Laver won 11 Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, Grand Slam tournament singles titles and 8 Major professional tennis tournaments before the Open Era, Pro major titles. He completed the Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam (winning all four majors in a calendar year) in singles twice, in 1962 and 1969; the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era. He also completed the Grand Slam (tennis)#Pro Slam, Pro Slam (winning all three pro majors in one year) in 1967. Laver won titles on all court surfaces of his time (Grass c ...
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Bournemouth
Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest town in Dorset. Previously an uninhabited heathland, visited only by occasional fishermen and smugglers, a health resort was founded in the area by Lewis Tregonwell in 1810. After the Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway opened in 1870, it grew into an important resort town which attracts over five million visitors annually to the town's beaches and nightlife. Financial services provide significant employment. Part of Hampshire since before the Domesday Book, Bournemouth was assigned to Dorset under the Local Government Act 1972 in 1974. Bournemouth Borough Council became a unitary authority in 1997 and was replaced by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council in 2019; the current unitary authority also covers Poole, Chr ...
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