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 other two non-individual events, in gymnastics, featured only non-mixed teams).
The doubles team of Kasdaglis and Petrokokkinos appears in the IOC results database as a Greek team.[1]
Kasdaglis is listed as Greek in the database for the singles event: however, as he was a Greek national residing in Alexandria after years in Great Britain, he is listed as Egyptian or as British in some sources.
Petrokokkinos, who did not win a singles medal, is not identified with any nation in the IOC database; however, all sources which give a nationality for Petrokokkinos list him as Greek.
Background
This was the first appearance of the men's doubles tennis. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics where tennis has been on the program: from 1896 to 1924 and then from 1988 to the current program. A demonstration event was held in 1968.
Under ancient Greek single-elimination tournament rules, there were no brackets as under modern single-elimination rules; instead, all participants in a round were paired off with one bye if a round had an odd number of participants left. This format could result in a semifinals round with only 3 competitors (as happened in both the 1896 wrestling and doubles tennis events, which started with 5 wrestlers/pairs: the first round had two matches, with one wrestler/pair having a bye, and the second round had only one match, with another wrestler/pair having a bye; a modern tournament would have had one match in the first round with three byes, leading to two semifinals). The organizers avoided this problem in the singles tennis by dividing the players into four groups, with each group playing a single elimination tournament and the winner of each group advancing to the semifinals.[3]
Schedule
The competition took placed over 4 days, with one day of rest before the final.
The International Society of Olympic Historians gives only five teams; according to them Frank and George Marshall did not participate. The score of the final is not certain; Le Velo is the only 1896 source to give a score and provides 5–7, 6–4, 6–1.[citation needed] Boland's journal has 5–7, 6–3, 6–3.[3]
Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at )
At the 1896 Summer Olympics, two tennis events were contested, both for men. They began on 8 April and continued on 9 April, 10 April, and 11 April. 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.
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.
Friedrich Adolf "Fritz" Traun was a German athlete and tennis player. Born into a wealthy family, he participated in the 1896 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal in men's doubles. He committed suicide after being accused of fathering a child out of wedlock.
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.
Germany competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The Germans were the third most successful nation in terms of both gold medals and total medals (13). Gymnastics was the sport in which Germany excelled. The German team had 19 athletes. The Germans had 75 entries in 26 events, taking 13 medals.
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.
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.
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The men's singles was one of two tennis events on the Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The fifteen entrants were seeded into a single-elimination tournament, with thirteen competing. They represented six nations.
The men's Greco-Roman was the only wrestling event on the Wrestling at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme.
Chile's Fernando González and Nicolás Massú defeated Germany's Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schüttler in the final, 6–2, 4–6, 3–6, 7–6(9–7), 6–4 to win the gold medal in Men's Doubles tennis at the 2004 Summer Olympics. It was Chile's first ever Olympic gold medal. Massú and González also won gold and bronze, respectively, in the singles competition. Germany won its third medal in four Games in the event. In the bronze medal match, Croatia's Mario Ančić and Ivan Ljubičić defeated India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, 7–6(7–5), 4–6, 16–14. It was Croatia's first medal in men's doubles since 1992.
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.
Germany's Boris Becker and Michael Stich defeated South Africa's Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval in the final, 7–6(7–5), 4–6, 7–6(7–5), 6–3 to win the gold medal in Men's Doubles tennis at the 1992 Summer Olympics. It was Germany's first medal in the event, though German player Friedrich Traun had been part of a mixed team that won in 1896. It was South Africa's first medal in the men's doubles since 1912. Croatia's Goran Ivanišević and Goran Prpić and Argentina's Javier Frana and Christian Miniussi won the bronze medals, which were both countries' first medals in the event.
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The United States' Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan defeated France's Michaël Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final, 6–4, 7–6(7–2) to win the gold medal in Men's Doubles tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics. This completed a career Golden Slam for the Bryan brothers, making them the second men's doubles team to do so. Their victory marked the first instance that both Olympic tennis doubles titles were claimed by siblings; fellow Americans Serena and Venus Williams won the women's doubles title. It was the record fourth gold medal for the United States in men's doubles. In the bronze-medal match, France's Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet defeated Spain's David Ferrer and Feliciano López, 7–6(7–4), 6–2. With France's silver and bronze, this was the first time since 1924 that one nation won multiple medals in the men's doubles.
Xenophon Emmanuel Kasdaglis, or Xenophon Casdagli, was an Egyptiote Greek – later a British citizen – tennis player. He competed in the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens.
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.
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