Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics | |
---|---|
Date | 8–11 April 1896 |
Edition | 1st |
Surface | Red clay |
Location | Athens Lawn Tennis Club |
Champions | |
Men's singles | |
John Boland (GBR) | |
Men's doubles | |
John Boland / Friedrich Traun (ZZX) |
At the 1896 Summer Olympics, two tennis events were contested, both for men. They began on 9 April and continued on 8 April, 10 April, and 11 April. [1] 13 or 15 competitors from six nations, including seven Greeks, took part in the tennis competition. Many of the doubles teams were of mixed nationality, including all three medalist pairs. None of the leading players of the time such as Wimbledon champion Harold Mahony, U.S champion Robert Wrenn, William Larned or Wilfred Baddeley participated. To strengthen the field, the organization added sportsmen from other Olympic events, including weightlifter Momčilo Tapavica, hammer thrower George S. Robertson and 800-metres runners Edwin Flack and Friedrich Traun. [2]
Date | 8 April | 9 April | 10 April | 11 April |
---|---|---|---|---|
Day | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
Men's singles | Round 1 | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final |
Men's doubles | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | — | Final |
These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given a silver medal and runners-up bronze medals. Athletes coming third received no award.
Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
Men's singles | John Boland Great Britain | Dionysios Kasdaglis Greece | Konstantinos Paspatis Greece |
Momčilo Tapavica Hungary | |||
Men's doubles | Mixed team (ZZX) John Boland (GBR) Friedrich Traun (GER) | Greece (GRE) Demetrios Petrokokkinos Dionysios Kasdaglis | Mixed team (ZZX) Edwin Flack (AUS) George Robertson (GBR) |
The silver-medal winning doubles team of Kasdaglis and Petrokokkinos appears in the IOC results database as a Greek team. In this regard:
Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mixed team | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
2 | Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
3 | Greece | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
4 | Hungary | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Totals (4 entries) | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
Competitors from Australia and Germany won medals as a part of a mixed team in the doubles event.
A total of 13 tennis players from 6 nations competed at the Athens Games:
The International Society of Olympic Historians lists only thirteen players; according to them, British players Frank and George Marshall did not participate. Other sources do include the Marshalls, for a total of 15 players.
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad and commonly known as Athens 1896, were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had been created by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, the event was held in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896.
The 1900 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, France, from May 14 to October 28, 1900, as part of the 1900 World's Fair.
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, were a summer multi-sport event held in Athens, the capital of Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896, and were the first Olympic Games of the Modern era.
John Mary Pius Boland was an Irish Nationalist politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for South Kerry from 1900 to 1918. He was also noteworthy as a gold medallist tennis player at the first modern Olympics.
Sir George Stuart Robertson was a British barrister, public servant, athlete, tennis player, and classical scholar. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Australia competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896. One athlete from Victoria, a British colony which later formed part of Australia, competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Edwin Flack was born in the United Kingdom and was resident in London in 1896, but spent most of his life in Australia and so is considered an Australian athlete by the International Olympic Committee.
Ten athletes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland competed in seven sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Great Britain athletes were the fifth most successful in terms of overall medals (7) and tied for fifth in gold medals (2). The 7 medals came on 23 entries in 14 events.
Greece was the host nation of the 1896 Summer Olympics held in Athens. The number of Greek contestants is commonly cited as 169, but as many as 176 Greeks contested events in all nine sports. The Greeks were by far the most successful nation in terms of total medals with 47, 27 more than the United States of America. Nevertheless, their number of first-place finishes (10) was one fewer than the Americans' 11. The Greeks had 172 entries in 39 events. Only 4 events had no Greek entrants—the 400 metres and the high jump in athletics and the vault and the team horizontal bar in gymnastics.
Hungary competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Austrian and Hungarian results at early Olympic Games are generally kept separate despite the union of the two nations as Austria-Hungary at the time.
Dimitrios written also as Demetrius Emmanuel (Greek: Δημήτριος Εμμανουήλ) Kasdaglis written also as Casdagli(s) (Greek: Κάσδαγλης), (10 October 1872 in Salford – 6 July 1931 in Bad Nauheim) was a Greek-Egyptian tennis player. He competed in the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens and the 1906 Intercalated Games, also in Athens.
Konstantinos Paspatis was a Greek tennis player. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He was born in Liverpool, England and died in Athens.
Evangelos Rallis was a Greek tennis player. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Demetrios Stephen Petrokokkinos was a Greek tennis player. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Greece has competed at every Summer Olympic Games, one of five countries to have done so, and most of the Winter Olympic Games. Greece has hosted the modern Olympic Games twice, both in Athens for the Summer Olympic Games, in 1896 and 2004.
Early Olympic Games allowed for individuals in a team to be from different nations. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) now groups their results together under the mixed team designation. Until 2024 IOC used code ZZX and since 2024 code XXB for designating mixed teams. At the 1896 Summer Olympics, two of three of the medalling pairs in the doubles event in tennis were of mixed nationality.
The men's doubles was one of two tennis events on the tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The six pairs that entered were seeded into a single elimination tournament. Only five actually competed, hailing from four nations but entering as three Greek teams and a pair of mixed teams. It was the only event in the 1896 Summer Olympics that had mixed teams.
The Egyptian Olympic Committee considers the nation to have first competed in the Summer Olympic Games at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. According to the official report, the nation sent one fencer, Ahmed Hassanein, who competed in the individual foil and épée events. There is uncertainty, however, as to whether he competed, as the official report lists all entrants in fencing regardless of their actual participation, and no results are known for Hassanein.
The Athens Lawn Tennis Club is a multi-sports club that is located in Athens, Greece. The club currently has departments in bridge, gymnastics, squash, and in men's, women's and youth tennis. The club hosted the tennis events of the 1896 Summer Olympics, as well as the tennis events of the 1906 Intercalated Games. In more modern times, the men's Athens Open (1986–1994) and the women's Athens Trophy (1986–1990) professional tournaments were held there.
Two athletes, both men, competed under the Egyptian banner at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece, and took part in five events across three sports. Arthur Marson, a track and field athlete, did not place within the top six in the 5 mile and failed to finish the marathon. Eugenio Colombani competed in cycling and Greco-Roman wrestling, but did not reach the finals of either event. Egypt, therefore, did not win any medals at the Games.
Georgios Simiriotis was a Greek tennis player, who won a silver medal in the mixed doubles event at the 1906 Intercalated Games. He also won multiple Panhellenic Tennis Championship events in 1906 and 1908.