1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910795629903321

Autore

Ruth Greg <1986->

Titolo

Tennis : a history from American amateurs to global professionals / / Greg Ruth

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Urbana : , : University of Illinois Press, , 2021

ISBN

0-252-05279-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 317 pages)

Collana

Sport and society ; ; 138

Illinois scholarship online

Disciplina

796.342

Soggetti

Tennis - History

Tennis players

Women tennis players

Tennis - Tournaments

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Also issued in print: 2021.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: Tennis amateurs and tennis professionals -- Amateur Associations along the American Atlantic Coast -- The West Coast game -- The cause célèbre of the pioneering professional -- Depression-Era developments in amateur and professional tennis -- Wartime Southern California professionals -- The cultural contexts of mid-century women's tennis -- The "Kramer Karavan" -- The world champion from "The Wrong Side of the Tracks" -- Tennis Opens -- The rise and demise of world championship tennis -- The impact of sports agents and agencies on professional tennis -- Women's professional tennis in the early Open era -- Conclusion: Professional tennis as global entertainment.

Sommario/riassunto

The arrival of the Open era in 1968 was a watershed in the history of tennis - the year that marked its advent as a professionalized sport. Merging wide-angle history with individual stories of players and off-the-court figures, Greg Ruth charts tennis's evolution into the game we watch today. His vivid account moves from the cloistered world of nineteenth-century lawn tennis through the longtime amateur-professional divide and the battles over commercialization that raged from the 1920s until 1968. From there, Ruth details the post-1968



expansion of the game as it was transformed by bankable superstars, a popular women's tour, rival governing bodies, and sponsorship money.