How the game and its players have changed over its 900-year history

Onstage at Lantern Theater Company November 7 through December 15, 2019, The Last Match by Anna Ziegler features tennis stars of the modern variety: Tim Porter and Sergei Sergeyev hit big serves for big prizes at big stadiums around the world. But it was not always this way; tennis has evolved since its early days, especially over the last few decades.

The game originated in 12th century French monasteries as jeu de paume, or game of the palm. This was because the modern tennis racquet was not yet in use — the ball was hit with the hand. Four centuries later, in the 16th century, racquets entered the game and the popular name became real tennis, from the old French for “hold” or “receive,” which the server would call out to their opponent. The game was introduced to the English Royals at the turn of the 16th century by Henry V; Henry VIII was a particularly avid fan.

Real tennis was not exactly the game we know today. It was played indoors, the racquets were shaped differently, the balls were harder than modern tennis balls, and the rules were more complex. In the last quarter of the 19th century, a new game grew out of this sport of kings: lawn tennis, played outside, which became the modern game played in The Last Match.

The major tournaments we now know as the Grand Slams — the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open — all started in the early years of modern tennis. The earliest of these was Wimbledon, which began in 1877, and the latest was the Australian Open, inaugurated in 1905 as the Australasian Championships. But there was a significant difference from then to now: originally, these tournaments were strictly for amateurs.

In fact, tennis was a purely amateur sport until 1926, when the first professional tour took place. Players who turned pro played head-to-head exhibition matches, championships, and the occasional professional tournament for paying audiences. They were no longer permitted to play in the amateur tournaments, but were paid well for their professional efforts.

This changed in 1968 with the start of the Open Era. As the amateur rule was frequently subverted and nearly unenforceable, the major tournaments — today’s Grand Slams — were opened to professionals.

This change ushered in many changes to the game and who plays it — including the explosion in women’s tennis. Until the Open Era, women’s professional tennis was almost nonexistent. Suzanne Lenglen played on the first professional tour in 1926 and 1927, but then there were no professional women players until 1941. Tennis great Althea Gibson turned pro in 1958, but was the only major woman player until Billie Jean King and three others signed to a professional tour in 1967. However, in the Open Era, more prize money became available to women, which spurred interest in the sport. This lead to the founding of the Women’s Tennis Association’s in 1973 — the same year that the U.S. Open began offering equal prize money to men and women. In 2007, Wimbeldon became the final Grand Slam to commit to equal pay.

That pay has changed drastically over the last 52 years. Before the Open Era, players at Grand Slams made no money from the sport, and tournaments offered no prize money. Almost 25 years into the Open Era, tennis phenom Bjorn Borg, one of the game’s greatest and most famous players, retired with over $3.5 million in prize money. Since then, prizes for the top players have skyrocketed — Borg’s winnings during his ten-year career equal Andy Murray’s winnings in 2011 alone. For John McEnroe’s first U.S. Open win in 1979, he earned $30,000. When Novak Djokovic won his first U.S. Open in 2011, the prize money was up to $1.8 million. This year, it was $3.5 million.

Opening the major tournaments to professionals also increased the stakes and the level of play. Style of play and equipment technology began to evolve as players sought for advantages over their competitors. The most impactful of these technology changes is the racquet. In the first 80 years of modern tennis, racquets were made of wood and had relatively small heads. In the 1960s, though, as professional tennis was exploding and the tournaments opened to professionals, steel racquet frames became popular, followed by aluminum and today’s most popular choice, graphite. The changes in material meant racquets could be sturdier, more powerful and at the same time lighter than their wooden counterparts, which were obsolete by the 1980s.

Racquet size and material has also changed drastically. The overall weight of the racquet body has become lighter, and the strings and the size of the holes has also changed to promote faster shotmaking. But the most significant change is in the racquet size. The heads of wooden racquets averaged about 65 square inches, then began to grow when steel racquets were introduced in the late 1960s. They now often average 100 square inches in professional play. A bigger racquet head means a larger “sweet spot,” which is key for the evolution toward today’s faster and more powerful style of play.

Wooden racquets were not as sturdy or powerful, and their smaller heads demanded greater precision. Therefore, for much of tennis’s history the game demanded patience, precise hitting, and longer rallies at the net. McEnroe’s playing style in the 1980s still included extensive volleying at the net. But as racquet technology changed and allowed for more powerful serves, this style of play all but disappeared. Long rallies are rare now, as professional players aim to keep points short and most tennis is played at the baseline rather than at the net to keep an opponent from firing a shot past the player. Rather than the serve-and-volley technique that characterized the sport for decades, players today tend to go for the “one-two punch” of a powerful serve, sometimes up to 140mph, that sets up a forehand shot that wins the point quickly.

By extension, this more powerful game demands more powerful athletes. Until recent decades, agility and cardiovascular health were tennis players’ top priorities. Now, strength training and muscle recovery are major priorities for players. Players tend to be larger now as well — the average male player at Wimbledon in the 1960s, at the start of the Open Era using wooden racquets, was 5’10”. Today, the average male player is 6’2″.

In The Last Match, aging champion Tim Porter laments the new players “coming up with better bodies.” Young up-and-comer Sergei Sergeyev discusses the exhilaration of hitting a powerful serve and acing his opponent — and also the agony of having one “whoosh right past your ear.” Both players are contending with and benefiting from the turn in the game toward power, speed, and athleticism, elements that have changed drastically since the previous generation of champions took their shots.

https://medium.com/lantern-theater-company-searchlight/the-evolution-of-tennis