Last Wednesday’s post focused on the tennis ball that the fledgling United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) selected for the first official National Championship tournament. The event that eventually transformed into the US Open was held at the Newport Casino from August 31 through September 3, 1881. That first event established the foundations of how tournaments are conducted in the United States to this day.
The “National Lawn-Tennis Tournament” announcement that ran in the New York Times shortly before the first event was conducted sheds light on the nature of membership in the USLTA. Individuals could not directly enter, but rather had to be submitted by a member club. There was no concept of individual membership.
The article hints that the tournament may have been used as an incentive to get clubs that did not initially sign on with the USLTA to make that commitment. A cutoff date for club membership was established that would allow non-member clubs to send its representatives to the tournament. That is pretty clear evidence that not all tennis clubs signed on with the USLTA when it was founded earlier in the year.
Each club was allowed to enter up to four singles players and two doubles teams into the tournament. That kept the draws down to a manageable size and also encouraged the member clubs to send their best competitors. The entry fee was $5 per club without regard to how many entries were actually submitted. That would be about $170 today, which is a bargain by modern entry fee standards.
The tournament was “drawn by lot,” establishing matchups in a single elimination draw that is still the foundation of international tournament tennis. Sadly, no “vantage games” were played until the finals. As it turns out, no-ad scoring isn’t a modern innovation. The matches were played to best of three sets until the finals when best of five was put into play along with “vantage games.”
As the tournament dates drew closer, a second announcement was printed in the New York Times. That article described the same particulars as the original announcement, but also included one additional detail. A tournament committee had been created consisting of two men. The requirement for sanctioned events to have a tournament committee is still codified in the USTA Friend at Court to this day.
The national championship tournament ultimately attracted 26 entries for the “singles matches.” 24 of those players were on hand as play began on August 31, 1881. It was the start of organized tennis in the United States.
- NATIONAL LAWN-TENNIS TOURNAMENT, The New York Times, July 14, 1881.
- LAWN-TENNIS TOURNAMENT, The New York Times, August 3, 1881.
- THE LAWN-TENNIS TOURNAMENT, The New York Times, September 1, 1881.
