| Benson & Hedges Classic | |
|---|---|
| Defunct tennis tournament | |
| Tour | Grand Prix circuit |
| Founded | 1973 |
| Abolished | 1974 |
| Editions | 2 |
| Location | Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Surface | Hard / indoor |
The Benson & Hedges Classic is a defunct tennis tournament that was played on the Grand Prix tennis circuit from 1973 to 1974. The event was held in Christchurch, New Zealand at the Cowles Indoor Stadium. [1] This had a wood floor overlain with carpet for tennis events.
| Year | Champions | Runners-up | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 |  Fred Stolle |  Brian Gottfried | 7–6, 6–4, 6–1 |
| 1974 | Roscoe Tanner | Ray Ruffels | 6–4, 6–2 |
| Year | Champions | Runners-up | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 |  Anand Amritraj Fred McNair |  Jürgen Fassbender  Jeff Simpson | W/O |
| 1974 |  Ismail El Shafei Roscoe Tanner | Syd Ball Ray Ruffels | W/O |
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 that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball validly will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.
The US Open Tennis Championships is a hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Queens, New York. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year. The other three, in chronological order, are the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. The US Open starts on the last Monday of August and continues for two weeks, with the middle weekend coinciding with the US Labor Day holiday. The tournament is of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, originally known as the U.S. National Championship, for which men's singles and men's doubles were first played in August 1881. It is the only Grand Slam that was not affected by cancellation of World War I and World War II or interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam playing together or a player may achieve it 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 International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there are 211 national and six regional associations that make up the ITF's membership.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of professional tennis players, and Drysdale became the first president. Since 1990 the association has organized the ATP Tour, the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the organization's name. It is the governing body of men's professional tennis. In 1990 the organization was called the ATP Tour, which was renamed in 2001 as just ATP and the tour being called ATP Tour. In 2009 the name of the tour was changed again and was known as the ATP World Tour, but changed again to the ATP Tour by 2019. It is an evolution of the tour competitions previously known as Grand Prix tennis tournaments and World Championship Tennis (WCT).The ATP's global headquarters are in London. ATP Americas is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida; ATP Europe is headquartered in Monaco; and ATP International, which covers Africa, Asia and Australasia, is based in Sydney, Australia.
The Italian Open, originally called the Italian International Championships, is a tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is one of the most important clay tennis tournaments in the world with the men's competition being an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour, and the women's competition being a WTA 1000 event on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. The two events were combined in 2011. The tournament is played on clay courts, currently during the second week of May. The event is also known as the "Rome Masters" for male edition, as well as sponsored name "Internazionali BNL d'Italia". Rafael Nadal has won the men's singles title a record ten times.
The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open, is an annual tennis tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, United States. The owner is Larry Ellison, executive chairman and co-founder of Oracle. The tournament director is former world No. 2 player Tommy Haas. The tournament is a Masters 1000 event on the men's tour and is a WTA 1000 event on the women's tour.
The Miami Open is a tennis tournament held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is part of the men's ATP Tour Masters 1000 circuit, and part of the women's WTA 1000 circuit. The Miami Open is usually held between March and April.
The Canadian Open, also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. The men's competition is a Masters 1000 event on the ATP Tour, and the women's competition is a WTA 1000 tournament on the WTA Tour. The competition is played on outdoor hard courts.
The Cincinnati Masters or Cincinnati Open is an annual outdoor hardcourt tennis event held in Mason, Ohio near Cincinnati. The event started on September 18, 1899, and is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city. The tournament is the second largest summer tennis event in the U.S. after the US Open, as its men's event is one of the Masters 1000 tournaments on the ATP Tour and its women's event is one of the WTA 1000 events on the WTA Tour.
Tennis was part of the Summer Olympic Games program from the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics, but was dropped after the 1924 Summer Olympics due to disputes between the International Lawn Tennis Federation and the International Olympic Committee over how to define amateur players. After two appearances as a demonstration sport in 1968 and 1984, it returned as a full medal sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics open for all players regardless of their age and status and has been played at every summer Games since then.
The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP Tour. The ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments are on the entry-level of international professional tennis competition. The ATP Challenger Tour is administered by the Association of Tennis Professionals. Players who succeed on the ATP Challenger Tour earn sufficient ranking points to become eligible for main draw or qualifying draw entry at ATP Tour tournaments. Players on the Challenger Tour are usually young players looking to advance their careers, those who fail to qualify for ATP events, or former ATP players looking to get back into the big tour.
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sport with more complex rules. Most rules of (lawn) tennis derive from this precursor and it is reasonable to see both sports as variations of the same game. Most historians believe that tennis was originated in the monastic cloisters in northern France in the 12th century, but the ball was then struck with the palm of the hand; hence, the name jeu de paume. It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called "tennis." It was popular in England and France, and Henry VIII of England was a big fan of the game, now referred to as real tennis.
The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's double and mixed doubles, are currently held in odd numbered years. The World Team Table Tennis Championships, which include men's team and women's team events, were first their own competition in 2000. The Team Championships are held in even numbered years.
The Nottingham Open was originally known as the Nottingham Championships or Nottingham Lawn Tennis Tournament (1887–1967), is a tennis tournament for men and women held in Nottingham, United Kingdom, played on outdoor grass courts at the Nottingham Tennis Centre. After being discontinued in 2008, it was downgraded in 2011 to ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Women's Circuit. briefly re-established as an ATP World Tour 250 event on the men's tour in 2015 and 2016, before returning to a Challenger event in 2017, and since 2015 it has been an international event on the women's tour. The tournament is held in June as a "warm-up" for Wimbledon.
The ATP Masters is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour since its inception in 1990. The ATP Masters tournaments along with the Grand Slam tournaments and the Year-end Championships make up the most coveted trophies on the annual ATP Tour calendar, in addition to the Olympics, hence they are collectively known as the 'Big Titles'.
Bianca Vanessa Andreescu is a Canadian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 4 in the world, and is the highest-ranked Canadian in the history of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Andreescu was the champion at the US Open and the Canadian Open in 2019, defeating Serena Williams to win both titles. She is the first Canadian tennis player to win a major singles title, and the first to win the Canadian Open in 50 years. She was also the first player to win a major singles title as a teenager since Maria Sharapova in 2006.
Aryna Siarhiejeŭna Sabalenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Sabalenka has won one major singles title, at the 2023 Australian Open, and two major doubles titles, at the 2019 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open, both partnering Elise Mertens. She has won 18 career titles in total, twelve in singles and six in doubles.
Elena Andreyevna Rybakina is a Kazakhstani professional tennis player. She is the reigning champion at Wimbledon and the first Kazakhstani player to win a title at a major. She is also the first to be ranked in the world's top 10, with a career-high ranking of No. 7 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and the current Kazakhstani No. 1 player in women's singles. Rybakina has reached twelve other finals on the WTA Tour, winning three further titles, including a WTA 1000 title at the 2023 Indian Wells Masters.
 | This tennis-related competition article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |