Tennis: a snob sport for the upper class?

[LuckyR]

Originally Posted by sureshs

I know a guy whose wife is into competitive horse shows or whatever they are called, and they spend a fortune on special transport for the animals to tournaments and so forth.

It's all relative. 5 to 6 figures seems like a fortune, until you look at 6 to 7 figures...

[goober]

The hoi polloi is beginning to encroach upon us in tennis. Unacceptable. Time to raise the prices of Western grips.

[max]

Originally Posted by Aussieoz

Probably. Blacks werent even allowed in the sport 50 years ago.

Credible proof needed. Citations please. Althea Gibson at Wimbledon, no?

[max]

Originally Posted by goober

The hoi polloi is beginning to encroach upon us in tennis. Unacceptable. Time to raise the prices of Western grips.

I thought the Western Grips were an endangered upland game bird.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by max

Credible proof needed. Citations please. Althea Gibson at Wimbledon, no?

I don't know about 50 years ago or some such specified time, but she used to play tournaments in which she had to change in the parking lot because she was not allowed inside the clubhouse.

[TERRASTAR18]

Originally Posted by max

Credible proof needed. Citations please. Althea Gibson at Wimbledon, no?

and how many tournaments could she play in the us?

[NickC]

And I don't think Golf can be exclusively classified as an elitist sport, while it isn't free to play, there are some excellent public courses around the nation that aren't prohibitively expensive. Hell, here in Tucson, where they hold the Match Play championships (Tiger has played here a few times), members of the public can play the same course in the off-season or in the dead of summer for 30 bucks a round. Not bad for a world-class course. The public 36-hole complex down my street is pretty cheap too.

And for those not ready to hit the links, renting a few clubs and hitting the range is always pretty cheap.

[NLBwell]

Golf, of course is a socialist sport of the masses, since Kim Jong Il played it. He had 11 holes in one and a 38 under par round the first time he played it, as reported in the North Korean media. For more facts on Kim Jong Il, see here:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vic...-1226226100974

Quite an amazing guy. Even implemented a socialist state in the OP's country to create the Workers Paradise.

[stapletonj]

tennis was racially segregated in the american south (no blacks in the country clubs)...tennis was religiously segregated in the american north (No Jews in the country clubs) at the same time.

There was little racial segregation or race problem in western europe at the time. Of course, blacks were less than .1% of the population there. Europe had all kinds of problems with Jews, Catholics vs. Protestants, etc., at that time. Not excusing the racism in the american south, it was a bad thing, a shameful thing. Just pointing out that western civilization across the board at that time was much less tolerant than we would like to think.

(2013-50=1963, 7 years AFTER Brown v. Board, racially integrated colleges were the norm, althogh uneasily so still, even in the South)

50 years ago there were very few public courts in the USA.
Ergo, private clubs only, ergo, elitist image
nail up a basketball hoop anywhere for $10 and a $5 ball
(1963 prices) and you've got a place to play.
See how the elitist image exists?

[Bartelby]

Tennis is a high cost sport when you take into account the training required to practice it proficiently. If you start early your family pays for it and to do that most such families will be well in excess of average income.

[iradical18]

Originally Posted by stapletonj

tennis was racially segregated in the american south (no blacks in the country clubs)...tennis was religiously segregated in the american north (No Jews in the country clubs) at the same time.

There was little racial segregation or race problem in western europe at the time. Of course, blacks were less than .1% of the population there. Europe had all kinds of problems with Jews, Catholics vs. Protestants, etc., at that time. Not excusing the racism in the american south, it was a bad thing, a shameful thing. Just pointing out that western civilization across the board at that time was much less tolerant than we would like to think.

(2013-50=1963, 7 years AFTER Brown v. Board, racially integrated colleges were the norm, althogh uneasily so still, even in the South)

50 years ago there were very few public courts in the USA.
Ergo, private clubs only, ergo, elitist image
nail up a basketball hoop anywhere for $10 and a $5 ball
(1963 prices) and you've got a place to play.
See how the elitist image exists?

One of the sound posts in this thread. Depending on where you play the reputation still carries weight, as a brown guy with tattoos there are some places I've played where I've definitely felt out of place. To answer the OP's question though, tennis began as a royal sport and it was common for wealthy estates to be built with lawn tennis courts.

[El Diablo]

^^ the suggestion that "50 years ago there were very few public courts in the USA" is absurd. I started playing as a small kid 50 years ago and courts at high schools, middle schools and public parks were not only abundant but easier to access than years later because the tennis boom of the 70s had not yet begun. What WAS available to the affluent though was quality instruction, which could not yet be found easily in public settings.

[ramos77]

I find tennis is full of introverts and really really weird/stange people...

Is it just me?

[iradical18]

Originally Posted by ramos77

I find tennis is full of introverts and really really weird/stange people...

Is it just me?

Hmm, I'm not too sure actually. I think the majority of folks I've met over my years playing have been rather normal but there has been a character or two in there.

[LuckyR]

Originally Posted by El Diablo

^^ the suggestion that "50 years ago there were very few public courts in the USA" is absurd. I started playing as a small kid 50 years ago and courts at high schools, middle schools and public parks were not only abundant but easier to access than years later because the tennis boom of the 70s had not yet begun. What WAS available to the affluent though was quality instruction, which could not yet be found easily in public settings.

I agree. Of course I grew up in SoCal, where every high and elementary school had courts as did plenty of parks. In fact as a kid I didn't know of any private clubs (I am sure now, looking back, that they existed, and even if they did, they were absolutely not required to play the game).

The basketball analogy is inaccurate in the sense that anyone with a hoop, a driveway to a garage and a ball can play BBall for a few bucks, but then again a Target racquet and a can of balls is not expensive either, if you have access to courts, which in the US 35 years ago was pretty easy.

[Amelie Mauresmo]

I think tennis in North America still has the stigma of being a rich white country club sport but in other parts of the world it is seen as a way to gain more opportunity in life. So many Eastern European players play tennis as a way out to have a good life make good money.

[Amelie Mauresmo]

Originally Posted by max

Credible proof needed. Citations please. Althea Gibson at Wimbledon, no?

You never heard of google? Geesh, Wimbledon and the US Open were very elitist and extremely racist in the 1950s everyone knows that.

Also remember, there was the whole segregation and social apartheid in the USA during the 1950s so Althea Gibson's incredible rise to become a tennis champion is even more extraordinary.

Althea Gibson wasn't allowed to play the US OPEN until 1950 and only after her fellow American a white tennis player Alice Marble wrote a letter criticizing the USTA for their racism. Marble said Althea should be allowed to play and she did due to Marble's letter. Gibson won the US OPEN twice.

As for Wimbledon, it wasn't until the mid 1950s until Gibson was allowed to even play Wimbledon because of the color barrier. Gibson won Wimbledon twice in 1957 and 1958.

[acura9927]

Not expensive, try getting into sportbikes, the latest sportbikes 600cc and above. Call and try to get bike insurance, you will be in for sticker shock.

[pushing_wins]

Originally Posted by ramos77

I find tennis is full of introverts and really really weird/stange people...

Is it just me?

not at the sub 4.0 level

but, for sure, at the 4.5+ levels

musicians practice on different pieces of music. for tennis, a cross court forehand is a cc fh.

[ollinger]

The upper class can sometimes be giving to the great unwashed beneath. Dwight Davis came from a priveleged background, started the competition that became the Davis Cup while he was at Harvard, then returned to his native St. Louis where, as Parks Commissioner, he created the first municipal tennis courts in America. Maybe it was that competitive spirit that took him to greater heights, including serving as Secretary of War (War Dept. subsequently became Defense Dept.) in Washington some years later.