"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. What emerges is a fascinating history of the economics and politics that made tennis a decisive, if unlikely, force in the creation of modern-day sports entertainment. Comprehensive and engaging, this book tells the interlocking stories of the figures and factors that birthed the professional game"--
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Tennis Amateurs and Tennis Professionals
1. Amateur Associations along the American Atlantic Coast
2. The West Coast Game
3. The Cause Célèbre of the Pioneering Professional
4. Depression-Era Developments in Amateur and Professional Tennis
Photo Section 1
5. Wartime Southern California Professionals
6. The Cultural Contexts of Mid-Century Women's Tennis
7. The "Kramer Karavan"
8. The World Champion from "The Wrong Side of the Tracks"
9. Tennis Opens
Photo Section 2
10. The Rise and Demise of World Championship Tennis
11. The Impact of Sports Agents and Agencies on Professional Tennis
12. Women's Professional Tennis in the Early Open Era
Conclusion: Professional Tennis as Global Entertainment
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
Greg Ruth
