Tennis history: Top 10 game changers

Published by Suzi Petkovski

Andy Murray reacts to a Hawkeye challenge at Wimbledon
We look back at the 10 things that have made the biggest difference in the history of tennis.

The arrival of Open tennis in 1968 was the most revolutionary moment in the game’s history. But change has continued apace: computer rankings, the rise of player power, evolving on-court styles, game-shaping modern equipment, surface changes and global expansion into new markets. Suzi Petkovski surveys the top 10 game-changers in pro tennis.

1. Open tennis & prize money
Wimbledon’s decision to throw open the gates to professionals at its 1968 Championships effectively dissolved the old tennis order, finally ending the damaging schism between amateurs and outlaw professionals.

Ken Rosewall, banned from the majors for 11 years, won the first open Grand Slam at Roland Garros, while Rod Laver won the first pro Wimbledon and became the first player to bank $100,000 in a season and $1 million in his career.

The riches on offer transformed the game from an amateur pursuit to a lucrative career, attracting a global pool of players, and arguably giving rise to the pushy “tennis parent” intent on seeing their kids cash in.

2. Youth will be served

Chris Evert’s charge to the semifinals of the 1971 US Open as a 16-year-old provided a road-map for the modern-day tennis prodigy. The slightly built baseliner with a deadly accurate double-handed backhand showed that teenagers could rule the game.

Apart from Evert, teenage Grand Slam winners in the Open era have included Evonne Goolagong, Bjorn Borg, Tracy Austin, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Steffi Graf, Michael Chang, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Monica Seles, Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal. All but Chang were multiple major winners and world No.1s.

3. Player power
If any one event symbolised the turning political tide, in favour of players at the expense of the old amateur establishment, it was the ATP player boycott of Wimbledon 1973. Over 80 top players (including defending champion Stan Smith and three-time winner John Newcombe) gave up a shot at the game’s greatest title to fight instead for the right of players to determine where they compete.

At the centre of the maelstrom stood Nikki Pilic, suspended by his Yugoslav federation for refusing to play a Davis Cup tie. When fellow federations upheld the ban, barring Pilic from Wimbledon, the players went to war in a defining line-in-the-sand moment for player power.

Wimbledon 1973 also saw the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), with the women players united rather than contracted to separate circuits run by different amateur and pro entities. Led by Billie Jean King, the nine rebel women players who signed $1 contracts to form the Virginia Slims Tour in 1970 were now the establishment, and their breakaway tour became the precursor to the WTA Tour.

The players’ next big power-play was the so-called car-park coup at the 1989 US Open which saw the formation of the ATP Tour. The players, via their union, had become co-owners of the men’s circuit (outside the Grand Slams and Davis Cup), going into partnership with tournament directors.

The coup – with former No.1 Mats Wilander lending visible support – was announced in the car-park at Flushing Meadows, as the US Open refused the ATP permission to use its facility.

4. Computer rankings
A tennis world without computer rankings is inconceivable now, such is the dependence on the official tennis pecking order for tournament entry and seedings, not to mention endorsement riches, career goals and prestige. But until 1973, player rankings were subjective lists compiled by leading tennis commentators and writers, mostly from the Grand Slam nations, and often only issued at season’s end.

So fragmented were the various circuits that different ranking lists were issued for specific surfaces. Players gained entry to tournaments by writing to event directors and hoping for an invitation in reply.

The players’ union ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) formed in 1972 and wasted no time establishing an official, objective ranking system, taking the discretion away from tournament directors (apart from wildcards) and giving players the power to determine their own schedule. Ilie Nastase was the first player atop the ATP rankings, in August 1973. The first WTA rankings were issued in November 1975, with Chris Evert at No.1.

5. Gear changes: Pam’s Prince and string theory
Pam Shriver’s stunning run to the final of the 1978 US Open as a 16-year-old, brandishing a new-fangled, large-headed Prince frame, was the death-knell for wooden racquets. Five years on, Chris Evert was the last Grand Slam winner to wield a wood racquet, at the 1983 French Open.

Not for the last time, technology had galloped ahead of the rules of the game. By the time officials realised there was no rule limiting a racquet’s head size, the horse had bolted. Young players benefitted from the power boost of the bigger, graphite frames, while all-court craft and touch was on the wane. Tennis was transformed and the changes were irreversible.

String technology has in the past decade trumped racquet technology in altering the game.

Nylon strings took over from gut, their greater power and “bite” on the ball massing the odds even more in favour of aggressive baseliners and making serve-volley obsolete. The Big Banger string used by Rafael Nadal has been labelled “the string that changed the game”. Babolat was at the forefront of the string revolution; their own line of generic-looking racquets serving to reinforce that the string’s the thing in determining playing characteristics.

6. The umpire strikes back
Professional umpires made their long-awaited debut in 1985. The chaotic antics of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase made pro officials necessary; no longer could tennis tolerate the damage to the brand caused by out-of-control matches, obscene outbursts and top players’ blatant intimidation of officials. Within a few years of pro umpires, public attention shifted to the epic play rather than epic tantrums.

7. Keep off the grass
Until 1975, three of the four tennis majors were played on grass. The US Open switched to clay in 1975–77 and onto Flushing Meadows and hardcourt in 1978. But it was the Australian Open’s move to Melbourne Park in 1988 that signalled the end of grass as the dominant Grand Slam surface.

For Australia, the change from Kooyong grass to Melbourne Park hardcourt meant the rebirth of the Australian Open and the end of Australia’s tradition as a grass court nation.

8. Tennis lifts its off-court game

Sally Jenkins’ controversial, gloves-off “Is Tennis Dying?” cover story in Sports Illustrated back in 1994 is probably the most influential piece of tennis journalism in the Open era and the punch to the flabby mid-section that the game needed to remake itself as entertainment and actively engage with fans. Although some efforts were gimmicky, the game never again took its fans for granted or its eye off the marketing game. Players too acceded to courtside interviews that covered more than their next opponent. The off-court engagement with fans has gone into overdrive since the advent of social media, linking the global tennis community in 24/7 conversation.

9. Hawk-eyes have it

How happy was Nick Kyrgios for the existence of Hawk-Eye, after successfully overturning a double-fault call on one of his nine match points down against Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon? The Hawk-Eye line-calling review technology has enhanced the game’s credibility, ensuring players won’t be robbed of wins by wrong calls. At least in theory – it falls on the player to refer the call to Hawk-Eye, if they haven’t used up their allotted challenges.

Tennis could not afford another controversy like Serena Williams’ narrow loss to Jennifer Capriati at the 2004 US Open, when several calls cost Serena the match, while Hawk-Eye replays on TV to a worldwide audience showed that the calls were erroneous.

Since its debut at the 2006 Hopman Cup and the Challenge System premiere at the 2007 Australian Open, Hawk-Eye technology has been seamlessly accommodated by the game, embraced by fans, media and players – with the sometimes comical exception of Roger Federer.

10. Going global

New tennis powers have relentlessly chipped away at the dominance of the Grand Slam nations during the Open era. In the 40-plus years of ATP rankings, No.1s have come from no less than 11 non-major nations: Romania, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Chile, Spain, Russia, Brazil, Switzerland and Serbia. The current “golden age” of men’s tennis, featuring the fabled Big Four – all Europeans – underlies the power shift in the game from America to Europe, a change that is looking permanent.

In the women’s game too, No.1s have hailed from 10 European nations. Then there is the groundbreaking Li Na, who brought China into the game. Just 10 years ago, no Chinese had even won a pro title. Nobody back then would ever have picked a Chinese Grand Slam champion, let alone a multiple winner. Tennis has long courted Chinese investment but thanks to its home-grown champion, China is now well and truly invested in the game.

This article first appeared in Australian Tennis Magazine.

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