Tennis at the 1908 Summer Olympics | |
---|---|
Date | 6–11 May 1908 (indoor) 6-11 July 1908 (outdoor) |
Edition | 4th |
Surface | Wood (indoor) Grass (outdoor) |
Location | Queen's Club, West Kensington (indoor) All England Club, Wimbledon (outdoor) |
Champions | |
Men's outdoor singles | |
Major Ritchie (GBR) | |
Women's outdoor singles | |
Dorothea Lambert Chambers (GBR) | |
Men's outdoor doubles | |
Reginald Doherty / George Hillyard (GBR) | |
Men's indoor singles | |
Arthur Gore (GBR) | |
Women's indoor singles | |
Gwendoline Eastlake-Smith (GBR) | |
Men's indoor doubles | |
Herbert Roper Barrett / Arthur Gore (GBR) |
Six tennis events were contested at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. [1] Indoor tennis events, on what were officially called 'covered courts', were held for the first time, along with the usual outdoor events. Women's events were contested, with women's singles (but not women's doubles or mixed doubles) and indoor women's singles. The indoor events were held at the covered courts of the Queen's Club and began on 6 May 1908, ahead of the official start of the Games while the outdoor tournament was played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Worple Road from 6 July through 11 July 1908. In total 50 players, 40 men and 10 women, competed. Five nations made their tennis debuts, while five more returned to competition for a total of ten nations. Two players, Les Poidevin and Wimbledon champion Anthony Wilding were nominated for Australasia but through administrative bungling they were not entered. [2]
Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Great Britain (GBR) | 6 | 5 | 4 | 15 |
2 | Germany (GER) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
3 | Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Totals (3 entries) | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
50 players from 10 nations competed. [1]
Four tennis events were contested at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. These were played at the Cercle des Sports de l'Île de Puteaux. All four events were won by British players. 26 tennis players from 4 nations competed, with over half from the host nation of France.
Australia has sent athletes to every Summer Olympic Games, as well as every Winter Olympics except 1924–32 and 1948. In 1908 and 1912 Australia competed with New Zealand under the name Australasia.
At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden eight tennis events were contested divided over two tournaments; an indoor covered courts tournament, played on wood, held from May 5 until May 12 and an outdoor hard court tournament, played on clay, held from June 28 until July 5.
Major Josiah George Ritchie was a tennis player from Great Britain. Major was his first name, not a military title. He was born in Westminster, educated at Brighton College and died in Ashford.
Arthur William Charles Wentworth Gore was a British tennis player.
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The men's (outdoor) singles was one of six lawn tennis events on the Tennis at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. The tournament was played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. There were 31 competitors from 9 nations. Nations could enter up to 12 players. The event was won by Major Ritchie of Great Britain, the nation's third victory in four Games. Otto Froitzheim earned Germany's first medal in the event with his silver. Another Briton, Wilberforce Eaves, took bronze.
The women's singles (outdoor) was one of six lawn tennis events on the Tennis at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. The number of withdrawals resulted in empty brackets, with one player making it to the final without playing a single match while another had to win two to advance to that point. Nations could enter up to 12 players. In all, 13 women from 4 nations were entered but only 5 from Great Britain competed. The tournament was held from 7 to 11 July at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. It was won by Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, with Dora Boothby taking silver and Ruth Winch bronze.
The men's outdoor doubles' was one of six lawn tennis events on the Tennis at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. Nations could enter up to 6 pairs. The event was plagued by withdrawals, with only 12 teams competing of the 21 that entered. There were 24 players from 8 nations. The event was won by Reginald Doherty and George Hillyard after defeating James Cecil Parke and Major Ritchie in the final. Clement Cazalet and Charles P. Dixon took the bronze medal without a bronze-medal match due to the withdrawal of an entire quadrant of the bracket. All three medal pairs were British. It was the second medal sweep in the men's doubles, after the United States did it in 1904, and it was also the last time that the men's doubles gold medal match was contested by pairs representing the same nation until Tokyo 2021. Doherty became the first man to win multiple men's doubles medals and gold medals, having earned gold with his brother Laurence Doherty in 1900.
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. 274 competitors, 264 men and 10 women, took part in 79 events in 16 sports. British athletes won ten gold medals and 41 medals overall, finishing third.
Gladys Shirley Eastlake Smith, also known as Gwendoline Eastlake-Smith and Gladys Lamplough, was a British tennis player. She won an Olympic gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.
Kenneth Powell was a British athlete and tennis player who competed in the 1908 and the 1912 Summer Olympics as well as at the Wimbledon Championships.
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