Formation | 1881 |
---|---|
Type | Private Members Club |
Location |
|
Region served | Manchester |
Official language | English |
Website | Official website |
The Northern Lawn Tennis Club, or simply The Northern, is a members-owned sporting club in West Didsbury, Manchester. It was home to the prestigious Northern Championships, considered one of the most important tournaments in the world for many years (the others being Wimbledon, the U.S. National championships and the Irish Championships). [1] [2] [3] It was later the venue for the Manchester Trophy (the successor to that former event), which was played on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's Circuit.
The club was established in December 1881 in nearby Old Trafford on grounds leased from the De Trafford Estate. Initial membership was limited to 250 people who had to pay one guinea entrance fee as well as one guinea subscription. [4] In 1909 the club moved to its current location in Didsbury. Over the years the club has hosted many international tournaments including the Manchester Open, [5] which started in 1880 as the Northern Lawn Tennis Championships, [6] and the current Manchester Trophy [7] on the ITF Women's Circuit and formerly part of the ATP Challenger Tour. The club has hosted many players including Ken Rosewall, Maureen Connolly, Pete Sampras and Martina Navratilova.
The club is a member of the Lawn Tennis Association and has facilities offering 22 tennis courts: three indoor courts, nine grass courts, three clay courts, six synthetic tiger turf, an indoor half wall and a junior court. In a normal season, outdoor play will commence on the grass courts around the second week in May and finish around the second week of September. [8]
It also has large squash facilities: six courts in total and is an affiliated member of England Squash & Racketball. [9] There is also a gym on site with fitness classes and a bar and restaurant area.
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be used to create a tennis court, each with its own characteristics which affect the playing style of the game.
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".
Clark Graebner is a retired American professional tennis player.
The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships men's grass court lawn tennis tournament. It has 28 outdoor courts and ten indoor. With two courts, it is also the national headquarters of real tennis, hosting the British Open every year excepting 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Queen's Club also has rackets and squash courts; it became the headquarters for both sports after the closure of the Prince's Club in 1940.
The U.S. National Indoor Championships was a tennis tournament that was last held at the Racquet Club of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Also known as the U.S. International Indoor Championships. The event was played on indoor hard courts and usually took place in February. For much of its more than 100-year history it was a combined men's and women's tournament but in 2014, its final year, only a men's tournament was held. The event was previously known under various sponsored names including the Memphis Open, the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, the Kroger St. Jude Championship, and the Volvo Championships. It was called throughout most of its history the National Indoor Championships.
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, 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.
The 1877 Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament or "Major". The AEC & LTC had been founded in July 1868, as the All England Croquet Club. Lawn tennis was introduced in February 1875 to compensate for the waning interest in croquet. In June 1877 the club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, needed to maintain the lawns. A set of rules was drawn up for the tournament, derived from the first standardised rules of tennis issued by the Marylebone Cricket Club in May 1875.
The Nottingham Open, 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 Manchester Open previously known as the Northern Lawn Tennis Championships, the Northern Championships, the Northern Tennis Tournament and the Manchester Trophy was a grass court tennis tournament on the ATP Tour held at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club, in the Didsbury suburb of Manchester, Great Britain. The tournament had been held annually from 1880 to 2009.
The 1990 Manchester Open, also known by its sponsored name Direct Line Insurance Manchester Open, was an ATP men's tennis tournament held at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club in West Didsbury, Manchester in the United Kingdom and played on outdoor grass courts that was part of the World Series of the 1990 ATP Tour. It was the inaugural edition of the tournament and was held from 18 to 25 June 1990. Second-seeded Pete Sampras won the singles title, his first on grass, by defeating Gilad Bloom in the final.
The Manchester Trophy was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was previously part of the ATP Challenger Tour and now currently part of the ITF Women's Circuit. It is held annually at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club in the Didsbury suburb of Manchester, England since 1995. The original defunct tournament, the Manchester Open, began in 1880 as the prestigious Northern Championships and continued until the event became a lower level Challenger tournament in 1995. The Challenger event ended in 2009, but was revived in 2015. The men's tournament was discontinued after the 2016 edition while the women's tournament was established in 2017 and ended in 2019.
The Eastern Grass Court Championships was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament held on outdoor grass courts in the New York City area from 1927 to 1969. It was founded by the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association of the USLTA, and in 1939, became the first tennis competition to be televised in the United States.
The Irish Open and originally known as the Irish Championships or Irish Lawn Tennis Championships, and for sponsorship reasons also known as Carroll's Irish Open Championships was a men's and women's tennis tournament held at the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club in Dublin, Ireland. Before the creation of the International Lawn Tennis Federation and the establishment of its world championship events in 1913, it was considered by players and historians one of the four most important tennis tournaments to win. the others being Wimbledon, the U.S. National championships and the Northern Championships. The men's event was part of the pre-open era tour from inception until 1967. It was then part of the open era non-aligned independent tour (1968–69). From 1970 to 1974, it was an event on the Grand Prix tennis circuit. The women's event was on the same tours as the men except for when it became part of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour from 1971 to 1973. The men's edition was played until 1979, and the women's ended in 1983 when they both ceased to part of the top level world tennis circuit.
Wylie Cameron Grant was an American tennis champion.
Mary Isabella "May" Langrishe was an Irish tennis player. In the most important tennis tournaments of the late 19th century she won the singles title at the presitigous Irish Championships held at the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club three times in 1879, 1883 and 1886, the Northern Championships in 1880, and was a semi finalist at the Wimbledon Championships in 1891. She was active between 1879 and 1892 and won 20 career singles titles.
Lance Tingay was a British sports journalist, historian, and author of several tennis books. For many years his annual ranking of top tennis players was "the only one that counted" before ATP rankings were introduced in 1973.
Mary Hardwick was a British female tennis player who was active during the 1930s and the 1940s.
Joyce Williams also known as Joyce Barclay is a retired tennis player from Scotland who was active in the 1960s and 1970s.
Constance Laura Mary Smith, also known as Constance Langley Smith, was an English tennis player active in the very early years of women's tennis in the 19th century. She was a finalist at the prestigious Northern Championships where she lost to Ireland's May Langrishe. She was active from 1881 to 1891 and won 2 career singles titles.
The Eastern Clay Court Championships was a combined men's and women's international tennis tournament on clay courts founded in 1927 by the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association of the USLTA. The championships were held in various locations in the New York City area, U.S. until 1971.