newmark401
Professional
By Mark Ryan
One of the enduring myths about French tennis is that the French Closed Championships, or French National Championships, were the precursor to the modern-day French Open. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. After all, the French Closed Championships were, as their title indicates, closed, meaning that only French players and overseas players registered with French clubs could take part in them.
The French Closed Championships began in 1891 with a men’s singles event and continued for many years, with a women’s singles event being added in 1897. By 1914 there were also men’s, women’s and mixed doubles event at this tournament. By 1914 the French Closed Championships also had a permanent home, on the clay courts of the Racing Club de France in Paris. The original venue(s) and surface(s) for this tournament remain obscure. However, it is clear that clay was the surface used, if not at the very beginning, then soon afterwards.
In 1891, when the first French Closed Championships took place, tennis, or lawn tennis as it was then known, was still very much in its infancy, although growing increasingly popular, not just in the British Isles, but on the Continent and elsewhere. As its popularity increased, so did the number of tournaments. Nowadays, most tournaments tend to take place over one week and to begin on the Monday and end on the Sunday. However, when tennis was still young this was not always the case, especially in France, where a tournament could begin mid-week and end on the following Monday and where Sunday play was not uncommon.
In addition, a “tournament” often meant just a men’s singles event with very few competitors, with “byes” sometimes being awarded in more than just the first round. A men’s doubles event would usually be added at some point, followed by a mixed doubles event and a handicap singles event for women (there was often also a handicap singles event for men) and, later on, a non-handicap women’s singles event and, still later, a women’s doubles event. Handicap doubles and mixed events were not uncommon too. This pattern began in the British Isles and spread to the Continent and elsewhere.
The French, inventors of jeu de paume, a precursor of tennis, embraced its more modern form as enthusiastically as any other nation. The French even tried to embrace grass courts, but these proved impossible to maintain due to the climate in France, so a switch was made early on to clay courts. In his book “Tennis: A Cultural History”, Heiner Gillmeister writes that tennis clubs were being established in France as early as 1877, the year of the first Wimbledon tournament, when the Decimal Club of Paris was founded by ten Englishmen, lawn tennis being very much an English import brought over by English tourists or popularised by English people living in France. Hence its early popularity in north-west coastal towns such as Le Havre, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dinard (the Tennis Club de Dinard was founded circa 1879).
Heiner Gillmeister also notes the founding of other clubs in the Paris region, including the Racing Club de France, a multi-sports club founded in 1882, which adopted lawn tennis into its programme in 1885 and had a number of courts in the Bois de Boulogne. The Stade Français was founded in 1883 and, in the beginning, was also a racing club. Its first tennis courts were built in 1889, indoors, on wood (the first wooden courts ever built in France). In 1899, the Stade Français acquired a large area in Saint-Cloud Park, where a number of hard (clay) courts were built, and it was here that the first World Hard Court Championships would take place in 1912.
Another important early Parisian club was the Cercle des Sports de l’Ile de Puteaux, founded in 1886 by Count Léon de Janzé. This club initially had ten courts (Heiner Gillmeister calls them “sand courts laid out on a bed of rubble”). Finally, there was, and still is, the Tennis Club de Paris, founded in 1895 by a number of benefactors, including Armand Masson, a French Canadian based in Paris and husband of the tennis champion (Françoise) Adine Masson, who was also French-Canadian.
The Tennis Club de Paris was originally located at 91 Boulevard Exelmans in the Auteuil district of the capital. This club was, and still is, wholly devoted to tennis. When it was first founded it had four indoor (wood) courts and five exterior clay courts. As early as 1895, the year of its founding, the Tennis Club de Paris arranged an open tournament on its indoor courts. However, the dates, 22-27 November, were not propitious and few overseas players took part (the first winners of the singles events were André Vacherot and Adine Masson). It was therefore decided to hold the tournament at a more favourable time, namely over the Easter weekend. This tournament became known as the French Covered Courts Championships but, interestingly, was also referred to simply as the French Championships.
Its new position in the calendar did attract more overseas players to the French Covered Courts Championships, with subsequent winners of the men’s singles event including Manliffe Goodbody of Ireland, the Englishmen George Simond and Major Josiah Ritchie, and the New-Zealander Tony Wilding. The women’s singles event was dominated by French players, although the Englishwoman Gladys Eastlake-Smith won the title in 1907.
In 1900, five years after the inauguration of the French Covered Courts Championships at the Tennis Club de Paris, the aforementioned Cercle des Sports de l’Ile de Puteaux club started its own tennis tournament, which was to become known as the Paris Championships. This tournament was played on the club’s clay courts. According to R.B. Hough, writing in the chapter entitled “Play in France and Switzerland” in the book “Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad” (1903): “At Puteaux there is an Annual Summer Meeting, at which the championships of Paris are played, and a very enjoyable tournament it is from a social point of view. The Comte de Janzé is President of the club, and the meeting is under his management, consequently it is well looked after. R. F. Doherty carried all before him there in 1902.”
The fact that Reggie Doherty, the elder of the two great English tennis-playing brothers, won the men’s singles at this event in 1902 makes it clear beyond doubt that this tournament was indeed open to overseas players. However, in its early years it appears to have suffered from a lack of participation by foreign players because its place in the calendar – at the end of June/beginning of July – clashed with a number of tournaments being held at the same time in Great Britain.
In the chapter from “Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad” quoted from above, R.B. Hough goes on to write that, “In the provinces, Dinard, Nice, and Cannes are the most important tournaments.” As already indicated, the Tennis Club de Dinard was founded circa 1879. The first tennis tournament took place there circa 1890; it was open to overseas players and was held on clay. Early winners of the men’s singles event included the Englishman Arthur Wentworth Gore and Harold Mahony of Ireland. The unheralded Englishwoman Ivy Arbuthnot won the women’s singles title several times in the 1890s; her compatriots Dorothea Douglass and Hilda Lane won it in later years.
At least one tennis tournament was inaugurated in Cannes around the beginning of the 1890s. According to the website www.cannes.com, in the early 1880s the English Renshaw twins, William and Ernest, had several courts built on the site of the future Beau Site Hotel in Cannes. It is clear that the Renshaws helped to popularise the sport of tennis in the south of France at this time, when they moved there in the winter to practise and play in a more favourable climate. However, it should not be forgotten that tennis was also growing in popularity in other parts of the country at the same time, especially, as already indicated, along the north-west coast.
By the turn of the nineteenth century, the tournament held at the Beau Site Hotel in Cannes was a fixed feature of the tennis and social calendar in the south of France. This tournament, known as the Championships of Cannes, attracted many of the top French and overseas players, and was won several times by Laurie Doherty, who was just coming into his own circa 1900. Both the men’s singles and women’s singles events at the Championships of Cannes would be dominated by overseas players for many years.
So would the singles events at the South of France Championships, held further up the coast in Nice. This tournament was inaugurated circa 1894. Laurie Doherty won it many times; Reggie Doherty also won the singles title, as did Tony Wilding. The German player Countess Clara von der Schulenburg and the Englishwoman Blanche Hillyard were among the early winners of the women’s singles title in Nice.
The fact that all of these tournaments were open not just to French but also to overseas players, makes a mockery of any claim that the French Closed Championships tournament was the precursor of the modern French Open. The real international tournaments were these open ones, and it was the desire to create a major clay court tournament on a par with Wimbledon and open to players of all nations which led to the holding of the first World Hard Courts Championships in Paris in 1912. But that is another story.
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One of the enduring myths about French tennis is that the French Closed Championships, or French National Championships, were the precursor to the modern-day French Open. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. After all, the French Closed Championships were, as their title indicates, closed, meaning that only French players and overseas players registered with French clubs could take part in them.
The French Closed Championships began in 1891 with a men’s singles event and continued for many years, with a women’s singles event being added in 1897. By 1914 there were also men’s, women’s and mixed doubles event at this tournament. By 1914 the French Closed Championships also had a permanent home, on the clay courts of the Racing Club de France in Paris. The original venue(s) and surface(s) for this tournament remain obscure. However, it is clear that clay was the surface used, if not at the very beginning, then soon afterwards.
In 1891, when the first French Closed Championships took place, tennis, or lawn tennis as it was then known, was still very much in its infancy, although growing increasingly popular, not just in the British Isles, but on the Continent and elsewhere. As its popularity increased, so did the number of tournaments. Nowadays, most tournaments tend to take place over one week and to begin on the Monday and end on the Sunday. However, when tennis was still young this was not always the case, especially in France, where a tournament could begin mid-week and end on the following Monday and where Sunday play was not uncommon.
In addition, a “tournament” often meant just a men’s singles event with very few competitors, with “byes” sometimes being awarded in more than just the first round. A men’s doubles event would usually be added at some point, followed by a mixed doubles event and a handicap singles event for women (there was often also a handicap singles event for men) and, later on, a non-handicap women’s singles event and, still later, a women’s doubles event. Handicap doubles and mixed events were not uncommon too. This pattern began in the British Isles and spread to the Continent and elsewhere.
The French, inventors of jeu de paume, a precursor of tennis, embraced its more modern form as enthusiastically as any other nation. The French even tried to embrace grass courts, but these proved impossible to maintain due to the climate in France, so a switch was made early on to clay courts. In his book “Tennis: A Cultural History”, Heiner Gillmeister writes that tennis clubs were being established in France as early as 1877, the year of the first Wimbledon tournament, when the Decimal Club of Paris was founded by ten Englishmen, lawn tennis being very much an English import brought over by English tourists or popularised by English people living in France. Hence its early popularity in north-west coastal towns such as Le Havre, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dinard (the Tennis Club de Dinard was founded circa 1879).
Heiner Gillmeister also notes the founding of other clubs in the Paris region, including the Racing Club de France, a multi-sports club founded in 1882, which adopted lawn tennis into its programme in 1885 and had a number of courts in the Bois de Boulogne. The Stade Français was founded in 1883 and, in the beginning, was also a racing club. Its first tennis courts were built in 1889, indoors, on wood (the first wooden courts ever built in France). In 1899, the Stade Français acquired a large area in Saint-Cloud Park, where a number of hard (clay) courts were built, and it was here that the first World Hard Court Championships would take place in 1912.
Another important early Parisian club was the Cercle des Sports de l’Ile de Puteaux, founded in 1886 by Count Léon de Janzé. This club initially had ten courts (Heiner Gillmeister calls them “sand courts laid out on a bed of rubble”). Finally, there was, and still is, the Tennis Club de Paris, founded in 1895 by a number of benefactors, including Armand Masson, a French Canadian based in Paris and husband of the tennis champion (Françoise) Adine Masson, who was also French-Canadian.
The Tennis Club de Paris was originally located at 91 Boulevard Exelmans in the Auteuil district of the capital. This club was, and still is, wholly devoted to tennis. When it was first founded it had four indoor (wood) courts and five exterior clay courts. As early as 1895, the year of its founding, the Tennis Club de Paris arranged an open tournament on its indoor courts. However, the dates, 22-27 November, were not propitious and few overseas players took part (the first winners of the singles events were André Vacherot and Adine Masson). It was therefore decided to hold the tournament at a more favourable time, namely over the Easter weekend. This tournament became known as the French Covered Courts Championships but, interestingly, was also referred to simply as the French Championships.
Its new position in the calendar did attract more overseas players to the French Covered Courts Championships, with subsequent winners of the men’s singles event including Manliffe Goodbody of Ireland, the Englishmen George Simond and Major Josiah Ritchie, and the New-Zealander Tony Wilding. The women’s singles event was dominated by French players, although the Englishwoman Gladys Eastlake-Smith won the title in 1907.
In 1900, five years after the inauguration of the French Covered Courts Championships at the Tennis Club de Paris, the aforementioned Cercle des Sports de l’Ile de Puteaux club started its own tennis tournament, which was to become known as the Paris Championships. This tournament was played on the club’s clay courts. According to R.B. Hough, writing in the chapter entitled “Play in France and Switzerland” in the book “Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad” (1903): “At Puteaux there is an Annual Summer Meeting, at which the championships of Paris are played, and a very enjoyable tournament it is from a social point of view. The Comte de Janzé is President of the club, and the meeting is under his management, consequently it is well looked after. R. F. Doherty carried all before him there in 1902.”
The fact that Reggie Doherty, the elder of the two great English tennis-playing brothers, won the men’s singles at this event in 1902 makes it clear beyond doubt that this tournament was indeed open to overseas players. However, in its early years it appears to have suffered from a lack of participation by foreign players because its place in the calendar – at the end of June/beginning of July – clashed with a number of tournaments being held at the same time in Great Britain.
In the chapter from “Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad” quoted from above, R.B. Hough goes on to write that, “In the provinces, Dinard, Nice, and Cannes are the most important tournaments.” As already indicated, the Tennis Club de Dinard was founded circa 1879. The first tennis tournament took place there circa 1890; it was open to overseas players and was held on clay. Early winners of the men’s singles event included the Englishman Arthur Wentworth Gore and Harold Mahony of Ireland. The unheralded Englishwoman Ivy Arbuthnot won the women’s singles title several times in the 1890s; her compatriots Dorothea Douglass and Hilda Lane won it in later years.
At least one tennis tournament was inaugurated in Cannes around the beginning of the 1890s. According to the website www.cannes.com, in the early 1880s the English Renshaw twins, William and Ernest, had several courts built on the site of the future Beau Site Hotel in Cannes. It is clear that the Renshaws helped to popularise the sport of tennis in the south of France at this time, when they moved there in the winter to practise and play in a more favourable climate. However, it should not be forgotten that tennis was also growing in popularity in other parts of the country at the same time, especially, as already indicated, along the north-west coast.
By the turn of the nineteenth century, the tournament held at the Beau Site Hotel in Cannes was a fixed feature of the tennis and social calendar in the south of France. This tournament, known as the Championships of Cannes, attracted many of the top French and overseas players, and was won several times by Laurie Doherty, who was just coming into his own circa 1900. Both the men’s singles and women’s singles events at the Championships of Cannes would be dominated by overseas players for many years.
So would the singles events at the South of France Championships, held further up the coast in Nice. This tournament was inaugurated circa 1894. Laurie Doherty won it many times; Reggie Doherty also won the singles title, as did Tony Wilding. The German player Countess Clara von der Schulenburg and the Englishwoman Blanche Hillyard were among the early winners of the women’s singles title in Nice.
The fact that all of these tournaments were open not just to French but also to overseas players, makes a mockery of any claim that the French Closed Championships tournament was the precursor of the modern French Open. The real international tournaments were these open ones, and it was the desire to create a major clay court tournament on a par with Wimbledon and open to players of all nations which led to the holding of the first World Hard Courts Championships in Paris in 1912. But that is another story.
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