Portal:Tennis

Welcome to the Tennis Portal

Panoramic view of Stadium Court in Tennis Center at Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, Florida, United States. Taken during the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open.

Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket strung with a cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's 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 can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users, and is played by people at every level of society and across all ages. 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 croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport today called real tennis.

The rules of modern tennis have changed little since the 1890s. The two exceptions being the server needing to have one foot on the ground at all times prior to 1961, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point-challenge system, which allows a player to contest the line call of a point, a system known as Hawk-Eye. (Full article...)

Selected articles -

Image 1

This is a list of Mixed Doubles Grand Slam tennis tournament champions.

Although several players have won at least one title in each of the four majors to achieve the Career Grand Slam, only three players have won the Grand Slam, all four titles in a single calendar year. This includes one team, Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher in 1963, as well as Court and Owen Davidson separately with different partners. Billie Jean King completed the "non-calendar year Grand Slam" by winning all four majors in a row in a period spanning two calendar years. (Full article...)
Image 2
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the first of the four major tennis tournaments every year, held before the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

The Australian Open typically starts around the middle of January and continues for two weeks, concluding with the men's final traditionally held on the last Sunday of the month. It features men's and women's singles, men's, women's and mixed doubles, juniors’ championships, wheelchair, legends, and exhibition events. (Full article...)
Image 3
The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, was a professional tennis tournament in Sydney, Australia. The tournament was played annually at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre in Sydney Olympic Park. It is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, dating to 1885. In 2020 and 2021, the tournament was briefly replaced by the ATP Cup, before briefly returning in 2022 and has since been replaced in both men's and women's calendars by the United Cup.

The Sydney International was most recently held in 2022 as an ATP 250 event on the men's tour and a WTA 500 event on the women's tour. The tournament is held annually in January immediately prior to the Australian Open as a lead up tournament as part of the Australian Open Series. (Full article...)
Image 4
The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year. In doubles, a Grand Slam may be achieved as a team or as an individual with different partners. Winning all four major championships consecutively but not within the same calendar year is referred to as a "non-calendar-year Grand Slam", while winning the four majors at any point during the course of a career is known as a "Career Grand Slam".

The term Grand Slam is also attributed to the Grand Slam tournaments, referred to as Majors, and they are the world's four most important annual professional tennis tournaments. They offer the most ranking points, prize money, public and media attention, the greatest strength and size of the field and, in recent years, the longest matches for men (best of five sets, best of three for the women).
The tournaments are overseen by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), rather than the separate men's and women's tour organizing bodies, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women's Tennis Association (WTA), but both the ATP and WTA award ranking points based on players' performances in them. (Full article...)
Image 5
The French Open, also known as Roland-Garros, is an annual tennis tournament held over two weeks in May and June. Established in 1891 and played since 1928 on outdoor red clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, the French Open became a Grand Slam event in 1925. It is one of the four tournaments played each year, the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Organised by the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT), the French Open is the second of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the year to be played. In 1968, it was the first Grand Slam tournament to open to non-amateur players.

The winner of the men's singles event receives the Coupe des Mousquetaires, named after The Four Musketeers of French tennis: Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, and René Lacoste. The event was not held from 1915 to 1919 because of the First World War and was held unofficially as the Tournoi de France under German occupation from 1941 to 1944, during the Second World War. (Full article...)
Image 6
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the third of the four Grand Slam tennis events each year, held after the Australian Open and the French Open and before the US Open. It is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious.

Wimbledon has been held since 1877 and is played on outdoor grass courts; it is the only tennis major still played on grass, the traditional surface. It is also the only major that retains a night-time curfew for logistical reasons, with matches continuing until 23:00 BST under floodlighting since 2009. (Full article...)
Image 7
The WTA Finals (formerly known as the WTA Tour Championships or WTA Championships) is the season-ending championship of the WTA Tour. It is the most significant tennis event in the women's annual calendar after the four majors, as it features the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams based on their results throughout the season. The eighth spot is reserved, if needed, for a player or team who won a major in the current year and is ranked from ninth to twentieth.

The tournament predates the WTA Tour and started in 1972 as the championship tournament of the Tour's predecessor: the Virginia Slims Circuit. Since 2003, the tournament has used a unique format not seen in other WTA Tour events: the players are separated into two groups of four, within which they each play three round-robin matches. The top two players or teams from each group after the round-robin stage move on to a knock-out format in the semifinals and final to determine the champion. (Full article...)
Image 8
Many changes in the Grand Slam tennis tournaments have affected the number of titles won by various players during its history. These changes have included the opening of the French national championships to international players in 1925, the elimination of the challenge round in 1922, and the admission of professional players in 1968 (the start of the Open Era).

All of these tournaments have been listed based on the modern definition of a tennis major, rather than when they were officially recognized by the ILTF. The Grand Slam tournaments are the annual four major tennis events played in the Open Era, which began in 1968, superseding the Amateur Era. The Australian and U.S. tournaments were officially recognized by the ILTF in 1924, and the French Championships followed a year later in 1925 when it became open to all international players. The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) had several grievances with the ILTF and refused to join when it was formed in 1913. (Full article...)
Image 9

Novak Djokovic

The tennis rivalry between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal was the most prolific in men's tennis in the Open Era. It is widely considered by players, coaches, and pundits as among the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport and by many as the greatest. The pair contested at least one professional match every year from 2006 to 2022, and in 2024. Nadal and Djokovic are statistically two of the most successful male players in the history of the sport.

They faced each other 60 times, including in all four major finals, with Djokovic leading 31–29 overall. Djokovic leads 15–13 in finals of all levels, while Nadal leads 11–7 at the majors, including 5–4 in major finals. Nadal leads 8–2 at the French Open and 2–1 at the US Open, while Djokovic leads 2–1 at Wimbledon and 2–0 at the Australian Open. Djokovic is the only player to have beaten Nadal in all four majors. He also leads their five-set match record at 2–1. Djokovic ranks first and Nadal ranks second on the men's all-time list for the most major singles titles, with 24 and 22 titles respectively. Their rival Roger Federer ranks third with 20 titles. (Full article...)
Image 10

The US Open Series was the name given by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to a series of North American professional tennis tournaments leading up to and including the US Open. It was part of the "North American hard-court season". (Full article...)
Image 11
World number 1 ranked female tennis players is a year-by-year listing of the female tennis players who were ranked as world No. 1 by various contemporary and modern sources.

Notes: (Full article...)
Image 12

The Bentley Fortissimo tennis racquet of 1972 was the first oversize tennis racquet to be produced and demonstrated publicly. Prior to its introduction, all tennis racquets were much smaller in terms of the stringbed size, measured in square inches. Today, that size, known as standard, is not used by any professional player for professional match play.

The Fortissimo was shown in 1972 at the "Spoga", a sporting goods show in Germany. Its designer is Kurt Klemmer, who made the racquet with an epoxy fiberglass process. The Fortissimo was not produced on a commercial scale. Racquet engineer Siegfried Kuebler stated that it did not create a favorable impression with tennis players but was positively received by racquet designers. (Full article...)
Image 13

In tennis, the strings are the part of a tennis racquet which make contact with the ball. The strings form a woven network inside the head (or "hoop") of the racquet. Strings have been made with a variety of materials and possess varying properties that have been measured, such as dynamic stiffness, tension retention, thickness (gauge), string texture (shape of the string), and rebound efficiency. (Full article...)
Image 14

Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France (to distinguish it from longue-paume, and in reference to the older, racquetless game of jeu de paume, the ancestor of modern handball and racquet games). Many French real tennis courts are at jeu de paume clubs.

The term real was first used by journalists in the early 20th century as a retronym to distinguish the ancient game from modern lawn tennis (even though, at present, the latter sport is seldom contested on lawns outside the few social-club-managed estates such as Wimbledon). (Full article...)
Image 15

The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for men's and women’s tennis, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the ATP Tour as well as the WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour (starting in 2025). Since 2025, it is advertised as the "HSBC Championships" after its title sponsor.
Queen's is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, and serves as a grass court warm-up for Wimbledon.

Andy Murray won a record five singles titles between 2009 and 2016, and a record six championships in total (including one doubles title in 2019). (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various tennis-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Erin Routliffe was part of the 2025 winning women's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 2New Show Court Arena that opened in 2022 (from Australian Open)
Image 3Andrea Vavassori was part of the 2025 winning mixed doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 4Chris Evert, the all-time record holder in women's singles (from French Open)
Image 5View from seats of Wimbledon Court No. 1 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 6Aerial view of the grounds (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 7Current Men’s singles trophy (from US Open (tennis))
Image 8Elise Mertens was part of the 2025 winning women's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 9Richard Sears, a joint all-time record-holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 10Veronika Kudermetova was part of the 2025 winning women's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 11Elise Mertens was part of the 2026 winning women's doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 12Todd Woodbridge holding the Gentlemen's doubles silver challenge cup in 2004 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 13The various trophies contested at the Wimbledon championships being displayed at the All England Club museum (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 14Umpires Magdi Somat and Carlos Bernardes between Wimbledon matches in 2013 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 15Iga Świątek, the 2025 ladies' singles champion. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 16John Peers was part of the 2026 winning mixed doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 17People watching the Championships' broadcast in Canary Wharf (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 18Wimbledon ball girl at the net, in the 2007 edition (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 19Debenture of the All England Lawn Tennis Ground Ltd., issued 20th August 1930 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 20Rod Laver Arena night session in 2007, the last year the tournament used the Rebound Ace surface. (from Australian Open)
Image 21Rod Laver Arena, the main court of the Australian Open, in 2023 (from Australian Open)
Image 22Marcel Granollers was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2025. (from French Open)
Image 23Molla Mallory, the all-time record holder in women's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 24Aryna Sabalenka, 2025 women's singles champion. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 25Court Philippe Chatrier during the 2013 French Open (from French Open)
Image 26Elena Rybakina, 2026 women's singles champion. (from Australian Open)
Image 27Horacio Zeballos was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2025. (from French Open)
Image 28A 2015 Wimbledon Championships tennis ball manufactured by Slazenger (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 29Novak Djokovic, the all-time record holder in men's singles. (from Australian Open)
Image 30Rafael Nadal holding the Coupe des Mousquetaires in 2006 (from French Open)
Image 31New Rod Laver Arena entrance added in 2018 as part of the Melbourne Park redevelopment. (from Australian Open)
Image 32Sem Verbeek was part of the 2025 winning mixed doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 33Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open in 2005 prior to its redevelopment. Rod Laver Arena is in the background. (from Australian Open)
Image 34Margaret Court, the all-time record holder in women's singles. (from Australian Open)
Image 35Sébastien Grosjean takes a shot on Court 18 during the 2004 Championships. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 36Rafael Nadal, the all-time record holder in men's singles (from French Open)
Image 37Coco Gauff, the 2025 women's singles champion (from French Open)
Image 38Arthur Ashe Stadium with the roof closed in 2018. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 39Carlos Alcaraz, 2026 men's singles champion. (from Australian Open)
Image 40The order of play for all courts is displayed on boards around the grounds. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 41Arthur Ashe stadium in 2010, before the retractable roof was added. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 42Court 10. On the outside courts there is no reserved seating. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 43Martina Navratilova, the all-time record holder in women's singles (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 44The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment precinct on the banks of the Yarra River in 2010. (from Australian Open)
Image 45Kateřina Siniaková was part of the 2025 winning mixed doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 46Jannik Sinner, the 2025 gentlemen's singles champion. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 47Centre Court at Wimbledon in May 2019 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 48The five different layers composing the clay courts (from French Open)
Image 49Bill Larned, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 50Julian Cash was part of the 2025 winning men's doubles team with. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 51Carlos Alcaraz, the 2025 men's singles champion (from French Open)
Image 52Gabriela Dabrowski was part of the 2025 winning women's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 53Carlos Alcaraz, 2025 men's singles champion. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 54Olivia Gadecki was part of the 2026 winning mixed doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 55Sara Errani was part of the winning women's and mixed doubles team in 2025. (from French Open)
Image 56Marcel Granollers was part of the 2025 winning men's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 57Lloyd Glasspool was part of the 2025 winning men's doubles team. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 58Jasmine Paolini was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2025. (from French Open)
Image 59Strawberries and cream at Wimbledon (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 60Andrea Vavassori was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2025. (from French Open)
Image 61Bill Tilden, a joint all-time record holder in men's singles (from US Open (tennis))
Image 62Christian Harrison was part of the 2026 winning men's doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 63Zhang Shuai was part of the 2026 winning women's doubles team. (from Australian Open)
Image 64Sara Errani was part of the 2025 winning mixed doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 65The Ladies' (top) and Gentlemen's singles trophies (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 66Commemorative plaque at Court 18 marking the longest tennis match in history (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 67Roger Federer, the all-time record holder in men's singles (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 68The Royal Gallery at Centre Court, Wimbledon (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 69Horacio Zeballos was part of the 2025 winning men's doubles team. (from US Open (tennis))
Image 70Wimbledon operates a ticket resale system where returned Show Court tickets can be purchased. All proceeds go to charity. (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 71A Royal Marines Commando as a services steward in 2005 (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 72Spencer Gore, the winner of the inaugural Wimbledon Championship (from Wimbledon Championships)
Image 73Neal Skupski was part of the 2026 winning men's doubles team. (from Australian Open)

Related WikiProjects

WikiProject Tennis
Grandslam project • Davis Cup/Fed Cup project
WikiProject Sports • WikiProject Olympics

Selected biography -

Vondroušová at the 2023 US Open

Markéta Vondroušová (Czech: [ˈmarkɛːta ˈvondrouʃovaː]; born 28 June 1999) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 6 in singles by the WTA. Vondroušová has won three WTA Tour-level singles titles, including the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. She is the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon women's singles title. She was also runner-up at the 2019 French Open, and claimed a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Vondroušová is a former junior world No. 1, having won two major doubles titles. She had a quick breakthrough on the WTA Tour, winning the 2017 Ladies Open Biel Bienne at age 17 in just her second career WTA Tour singles event. This helped her reach the top 100 of the WTA rankings before turning 18. Vondroušová struggled with injuries early in her career, most notably missing the second half of the 2019 season shortly after her French Open final. Her signature shot is the drop shot. She is one of the best returners on tour, having led the tour in percentage of return games won and percentage of return points won in 2019 among all players with at least ten matches. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that American Colossus is a biography of a man who was "the most famous sportsman in the world" and "the most forgotten great athlete in American history"?
... that in high school, tennis player Sara Daavettila went an entire season without losing a game?

Selected quote -

“

If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration.

”

— Serena Williams

Selected picture -

The center court of the Olympic Green Tennis Center in Beijing.

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