Tennis

Tennis is a sport that is played either between two players (singles) or two teams of two players (doubles). Tennis is an Olympic sport and has players at all levels of society and at all ages around the world. It is a popular spectator sport with a global audience.

The game as we know it dates back to 16th-century France. It spread to Europe, becoming popular in England in the 19th century, before spreading around the world. In 1884, women competed alongside men at Wimbledon. During the 1920s, women's tennis emerged as a popular spectator sport; French player Suzanne Lenglen is credited for popularizing tennis, as she was the first to reveal her calves and forearms, instead of wearing the concealing garments that were more conventional at the time.

In 1970, U.S. player Billie Jean King, with eight others, formed the Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit. In 1973, King founded the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and that year Wimbledon and the US Open offered equal prize money to men and women for the first time. Lucrative television contracts coupled with high-end sponsorship has pushed the prize money and earnings of women tennis players to the tens of millions.

Sony Ericsson became the tour's worldwide title sponsor in 2005. This $88 million, six-year deal was the largest and most comprehensive sponsorship in the history of tennis and of women's tennis. The tour includes 2,200 players representing 96 nations and competing for over $86 million at 53 events in 33 countries and four Grand Slam [Page 1446]tournaments: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. There are five tiers of WTA events, and Futures tournaments organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) form the lower levels.