1877 men's tennis season
 | |
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Duration | 19 July – 9 October |
| Edition | 1st |
| Tournaments | 3 |
| Categories | Important (1) County/Regular (2) |
| Achievements (singles) | |
| Most tournament titles |  Spencer Gore (1)  Ireland Richard Manders (1) Ireland Vere St. Leger Goold (1) |
| Most tournament finals | Spencer Gore (1) Ireland Richard Manders(1) Ireland Vere St. Leger Goold (1) |
1878 → | |
Before the birth of Open Era (tennis), most tournaments were reserved for amateur athletes. In 1874 the British Major Walter Clopton Wingfield he patent the House of London Crafts the invention of a new game, which consists of a shaped field hourglass, divided in the middle by a net suspended. The game was packaged in a box containing some balls, four paddles, the network and the signs to mark the field. The game was based on the rules of the old real tennis and, at the suggestion of Arthur Balfour, was called lawn-tennis. The official date of birth of the court would be February 23, 1874. In 1877 all were amateur tournaments, among them was the first 1877 Wimbledon Championship, the inaugural event was held from the 9 to 19 July and saw as the inaugural winner Spencer Gore, the tournament would remain for a period of 35 years the sole major tennis tournament in the world until the International Lawn Tennis Federation introduces its three World championship series events in 1913 that continue until 1923, however the later U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (f. 1881) only agrees to join the ILTF in 1923 on the basis of two compromises: the title 'World Championships' would be abolished and wording would be 'for ever in the English language'. Wimbledon would still retain it's historical status and become one of the four Grand Slam tennis events from 1924
Whilst Wimbledon was the most prestigious event of this inaugural new sport season in Ireland two other tournaments were also staged one took place in Waterford and the other was University of Dublin Lawn Tennis Championships.
Calendar
Notes 1: Challenge Round: the final round of a tournament, in which the winner of a single-elimination phase faces the previous year's champion, who plays only that one match. The challenge round was used in the early history of tennis (from 1877 through 1921),[1] in some tournaments not all.
Notes 2:Tournaments in italics were events that were staged only once that season
Key
| Important tournaments [2][3][4][5] |
| National tournaments |
| State Regional tournaments |
| County tournaments |
| Local tournaments |
January to June
No events
July
| Date | Tournament | Winner | Finalist | Semifinalist | Quarter finalist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 July | 1877 Wimbledon Championship[6] London, Great BritainGrass Singles |
Spencer Gore 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 |
William Marshall |
Charles Gilbert Heathcote Bye |
F.N. Langham Julian Marshall Lestocq Robert ErskineBye |
August
No events
September
| Date | Tournament | Winner | Finalist | Semifinalist | Quarter finalist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September | 1877 Waterford tournament[7] Ireland Waterford, Ireland Grass Singles |
Ireland Vere St. Leger Goold ? |
Ireland H. H. Elliott |
Ireland Vere St. Leger Goold Bye Ireland J. C. Roberts? |
Ireland H. H. Elliott Bye Ireland John M. Brown? Ireland Mr. Moore? |
October
| Date | Tournament | Winner | Finalist | Semifinalist | Quarter finalist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 October | 1877 Dublin University LT Championships[8] Ireland Dublin, Ireland Hard (Asphalt) Singles |
Ireland Richard Manders ? |
Ireland George Henry Shannon |
Ireland George Henry Shannon Bye Ireland Charles Dubedat? |
Ireland Robert Edward Shaw ? |
November to December
No events
List of tournament winners
Important tournament in bold
Spencer Gore - Wimbledon-(1)
Ireland Richard Manders - Dublin-(1)- Vere St. Leger Goold - Waterford-(1)
Rankings
Source: The Concise History of Tennis
| Karoly Mazak World Rankings for 1877 [9] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Player | |||
| 1 | Spencer Gore (ENG)
| |||
| 2 | William Marshall (GBR)
| |||
| 3 | Charles Gilbert Heathcote (GBR)
| |||
| 4 | Lestocq Robert Erskine (SCO)
| |||
| 5 | Nathaniel F. Langham (GBR)
| |||
See also
References
- ^ "Abolition of Challenge Rounds". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. EVENING POST, VOLUME CIII, ISSUE 65, 20 MARCH 1922. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
- ^ Nauright, John; Parrish, Charles (2012). Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. p. 198. ISBN 9781598843002.
- ^ Gillmeister, Heiner (1998). Tennis:Cultural History. London: A&C Black. p. 199. ISBN 9780718501952.
- ^ Mazak, Karoly (2010). The Concise History of Tennis | The complete tennis history from 1877 (6th ed.). Karoly Mazak (Ph.D.). p. 3.
- ^ Lake, Robert J. (2014). A Social History of Tennis in Britain: Volume 5 of Routledge Research in Sports History. Routledge:. p. 48. ISBN 9781134445578.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - ^ "The Championships Wimbledon 1877 Gentleman's singles" (PDF). LTA. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
- ^ "Waterford 1877 Ireland". tennisarchives.com. Tennis Archives. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- ^ "Dublin University LT Championships 1877". tennisarchives.com. Tennis Archives. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- ^ Mazak, Karoly (2010). The Concise History of Tennis. p. 5.
Sources
- A Social History of Tennis in Britain: Lake, Robert J. (2014), Volume 5 of Routledge Research in Sports History. Routledge, UK, ISBN 9781134445578.
- Ayre's Lawn Tennis Almanack And Tournament Guide, 1908 to 1938, A. Wallis Myers.
- British Lawn Tennis and Squash Magazine, 1948 to 1967, British Lawn Tennis Ltd, UK.
- Dunlop Lawn Tennis Almanack And Tournament Guide, G.P. Hughes, 1939 to 1958, Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd, UK
- Lawn tennis and Badminton Magazine, 1906 to 1973, UK.
- Lowe's Lawn Tennis Annuals and Compendia, Lowe, Sir F. Gordon, Eyre & Spottiswoode
- Spalding's Lawn Tennis Annuals from 1885 to 1922, American Sports Pub. Co, USA.
- Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice, Nauright John and Parrish Charles, (2012), ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbra, Cal, USA, ISBN 1598843001.
- The Concise History of Tennis, Mazak Karoly, (2010), 6th Edition, 2015.
- Tennis; A Cultural History, Gillmeister Heiner, (1997), Leicester University Press, Leicester, UK.
- The Tennis Book, edited by Michael Bartlett and Bob Gillen, Arbor House, New York, 1981 ISBN 0-87795-344-9
- The World of Tennis Annuals , Barrett John, 1970 to 2001.
- Total Tennis:The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia, by Bud Collins, Sport Classic Books, Toronto, Canada, ISBN 0-9731443-4-3
- Wright & Ditson Officially Adopted Lawn Tennis Guide's 1890 to 1920 Wright & Ditsons Publishers, Boston, Mass, USA.
- http://www.tennisarchives.com/
- https://thetennisbase.com/