The exact origin of tennis is uncertain but a type of handball existed in ancient times in Egypt and elsewhere in the civilisations of the Middle East. A form of tennis was played in France in the 12th century. Rackets did not exist then and so the palm of the hand was used – hence it was known as jeu de paume, “the game with the palm”.

Tennis reached the British Isles 200 hundred years later and with royal patronage started to blossom as a sport. In the latter part of the 1800s, lawn tennis was developing as a worldwide sport with the Wimbledon tournament first being held in 1877.

The United States staged its first national titles in 1881, at about the time the sport was gaining popularity in Australia.

Tennis appeared on the Olympic program in Athens in 1896 and remained until Paris 1924. Due to difficulties in solving the amateur-professional divide, the sport disappeared until Seoul 1988. Its return to the Olympic fold was heralded when it appeared as a demonstration sport four years earlier in Los Angeles.

Australia’s Edwin Flack, the winner of the 800m and 1500m athletics titles in 1896, also played in doubles tennis at those Olympics. His partner was an Englishman, George Robertson. Anthony Wilding, a New Zealander competing for Australasia in Stockholm in 1912, finished third in the men’s singles on indoor courts. Wilding and Australia’s Norman Brookes won the Davis Cup for Australasia four times before World War I. Unfortunately Wilding became one of the casualties of the Great War.

The first female Olympic champion at the modern Olympics was Charlotte Cooper, who won the women’s singles at Paris 1900. Richard Williams, from the United States, who won a gold medal in the mixed doubles in 1924, had survived the sinking of the Titanic.  Steffi Graf of West Germany won the women’s singles title in 1988 to add to her successes in the Grand Slam titles of that year (Australian, French, Wimbledonand US).

Australia can lament the hiatus in tennis’s appearance in the Olympic program as it surely would have picked up many more medals when the Australian men were dominating the world’s tournaments in the 1950s and 1960s.

Since its return as an Olympic sport, tennis has provided Australia with one gold, one silver and three bronze medals. The gold and silver medals were won by The Woodies (Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge) in the men’s doubles at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 respectively. Elizabeth Smylie and Wendy Turnbull won the bronze medal in the women’s doubles at Seoul 1988 and Rachel McQuillan with Nicole Provis did likewise at Barcelona 1992. At Athens 2004, Alicia Molik won Australia’s first individual tennis medal, a bronze in the women’s singles.

At the Olympic Games all matches are played to tie-break sets except for the final set of the match. The men’s singles and doubles finals are played to the best of five sets with all other matches the best of three. In all four events, the semi-finals winners play to decide the gold and silver medals, and the semi-final losers play for the bronze.

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