Tennis Freak

Present-day version of tennis is a hugely popular sport and is played by different people across the world on different types of surfaces but this was not always the case. Introduced mainstream public as a sport in the late 1800s, it was considered to be an elite sport. It is played and followed by the people from the upper status of the society and the common public was almost unaware about the sport. In fact, this elitism was the reason why private tennis clubs are found in the first place.Tennis clubs in their formative years were only open to the elite few who belonged to the higher class societies. Even in their entry and acceptance into tennis clubs were largely restricted invitations or by solicitation of large donations. As a result, tennis was hugely popular and was restricted to a select few in different pockets of the world. Tennis clubs started realizing this and the decided to increase the popularity of the sport either individually or collectively.

This resulted in the introduction of club-based tournaments that were conducted on a periodic basis where members of the club competed against each other in a game of tennis. The system of club competition is gradually evolved into a system of interclub competition based on rivalry. It was the end of 1800s, there were many interclub competitions only increase the popularity of the sport but also enable players to improve their skills by competing and learning from each other. But this rise in popularity was not in proportion to rise popularity of other sports and to mitigate this deficiency tennis clubs started to organize open tournaments that attracted participation from the general public also. The introduction of tournaments was revolutionary in terms of popularization of the sport. The mainstream public became aware about the sport and also started to take an active interest in it. Club-based competitions attracted players from all across the world which indirectly increase the prestige of the tennis club that was conducting the tournament. The revelation of tennis clubs did not stop there and eight hybridized into a more professional kind of setup that involved grand slam and prestigious tournaments or the consumption and also the participation of general public. Modern-day tennis clubs probably do not retain the elitism that was standard in the olden day clubs. However the prestige associated with tennis club membership and traditions of organizing professional tournaments have been taken to the next level due to the advancement of technology and also increase in the popularity of the sport.