Hall of Fame – TalkTennis E-mail: newport@tennisfame.com The achievements of some of the most famous Tennis stars in the history of the sport are listed below. Andre Agassi Andre Agassi finally retired in 2006 at the age of 36, after enjoying one of the most successful Tennis careers in living memory. Agassi remains one of only five players in the history of the sport to have won all four Grand Slam titles. As for many players, the victory which alluded Agassi for the longest was the Men’s Singles title at the French Open. After making a dramatic comeback from a two set deficit, he finally claimed the title in 1999, by defeating Andrei Medvedev 1-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the Final of the tournament. During the course of his career, Agassi won eight Grand Slam tournaments. He was one of the most popular players of the 1990s, frequently drawing attention to himself with his well-developed sense of fashion.

His rivalry with compatriot Pete Sampras drew a great deal of public interest; any match which saw them pitched against each other was always guaranteed to draw a large audience. Agassi was the object of great tabloid scrutiny for a time in 1996 following his split with the actress Brooke Shields. His personal troubles led to a slump in his career, but he recovered quickly and enjoyed a further ten years as a professional player before a back injury forced him into retirement. Agassi married fellow Tennis star Steffi Graf in 2001. Those interested in learning more about Agassi and his career can visit the star’s Official website or his Online Fan Club. Boris Becker Boris Becker stormed onto the international Tennis stage in 1985, when he defeated Kevin Curran to become the youngest ever player to win Wimbledon, at the age of just 17. His power was immediately admired by observers and he acquired the nick-name ‘Boom Boom Becker’ on account of his formidable serve. He would win Wimbledon again in 1986 and 1989. He was finally ranked as the World Number One after his impressive performance in the 1991 Australian Open.

By the end of his career, Becker had won 49 Singles titles (including 6 Grand Slams) and 15 Doubles titles. He also won a Gold medal for Germany with Michael Stich in the Men’s Doubles in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Björn Borg Björn Borg was born in Stockholm in 1956. He enjoyed a successful Tennis career which included eleven Grand Slam titles, including an impressive six victories at the French Open. Borg’s notorious icy exterior meant Tennis commentators tagged him with the nickname ‘Ice Borg’ relatively early in his career. This name never seemed more apt than when Borg faced his nemesis John McEnroe. The intensity of McEnroe and Borg’s rivalry was never greater than during the famous Wimbledon Men’s Singles Final of 1980. Unfortunately for Borg, most Tennis fans look back nostalgically at McEnroe’s dramatic fourth set victory, and sometimes forget that Borg was the eventual victor in what is generally considered to be one of the greatest finals in the history of the tournament.

The final score was 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (16-18), 8-6. During the course of his career, Borg amassed over $3 million in prize money. His achievements were recognised when he was inducted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. Jimmy Connors Connors won 109 titles during his career, including two Wimbledon Men’s Singles titles, off the back of his fantastic array of shots, most notably his incredible backhand. He also distinguished himself by becoming the only player to win the U.S. Open on all three surfaces on which it has been played: grass, clay and the hard court. A contemporary of Björn Borg and John McEnroe, the 1970s and early 1980s were the heyday of Connors’ career. In 1974, he came close to grasping a Golden Grand Slam, managing to win three of the four Grand Slam tournaments; only the French Open alluded him that year, as it would for the duration of his career. For further study of Jimmy Connors then check out his specialist page here on TalkTennis.

Roger Federer Roger Federer looks set to become one of the greatest Tennis players of all time. Federer is currently the undisputed World Number One and has already won ten Grand Slam tournaments and won over $30 million in prize money. He has become particularly skilled on grass, and took the Wimbledon Men’s Singles title with relative ease for four consecutive years between 2003 and 2006. Born in 1981 in Basel, Switzerland, the esteem with which Federer is held by his compatriots was recently made plain by the commission of a postage stamp bearing the Tennis star. Such an honour is unprecedented in Switzerland, as this accolade is usually reserved for long-dead national heroes. More information about Federer’s achievements and developments in his career can be found on his Official Website. Steffi Graf Steffi Graf is an undisputed Tennis legend. A number of pundits and polls have claimed that the former German star might even have been the greatest female player of the 20th Century. During the course of her career Graf won an incredible 22 Grand Slam tournaments, and accomplished the rare feat of winning all four Grand Slams in a single year (1988).

She is also the only player to have won each of the four Grand Slams at least four times. Graf was comfortable on all surfaces, reflected in the 377 weeks she spent ranked as the World Number One by the Women’s Tennis Association. Her Grand Slam victories were also complemented by many other Singles titles, two Olympic Gold medals (in 1984 and 1988) and a Silver medal in 1992. Graf was a member of the Fed Cup team for seven years. Steffi Graf retired from professional Tennis in August 1999 at the relatively young age of 30 due to persistent knee problems. In the same year, she delighted tabloid editors by becoming involved with fellow Tennis player Andre Agassi. The couple were married in 2001 and have two children together. For more on Steffi Graf then click here Martina Hingis Martina Hingis was born in Slovakia (formally Czechoslovakia) in 1980. She became the youngest ever Wimbledon Champion when she and her partner Helena Suková won the Ladies Doubles title when Hingis was only fifteen years old.

By 1997, she had reached Number One in the world rankings, had won the Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles title and the Australian Open. She had also managed to deny Venus Williams the Women’s Singles U.S Open title. While injuries forced her to withdraw from the game in 2001, she made a return to professional Tennis in the 2006/2007 season. Hingis has had quite a career – to read more about it then check out our page dedicated to her. Billie Jean King Billie Jean King was born in California in 1943. By the end of her career she had amassed a whopping 39 Grand Slam victories (12 Singles, 16 Ladies’ Doubles and 11 Mixed Doubles) and over $1 million in prize money at a time when tournaments did not have the immense purses typical today. The American was ranked fourth in the world by 1960 when she was only seventeen years old, and first won a Wimbledon title, the Ladies’ Doubles, a year later. King’s contribution to Tennis did not end with her incredible achievements on the court.

Both during her career and after her retirement, King’s dedication to securing equal opportunities (and, controversially, equal prize money) for women has been second to none. In recent years, the dedication of King and other advocates for complete equality has paid off; the French Open and Wimbledon will pay the winners of the Ladies’ and Men’s Finals equal amounts for the first time in 2007. Such developments have not been without serious debate though. King is well remembered for defeating Bobby King in a match broadcast to over 50 million people from the Houston Astrodome in 1973. She defeated King 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in the match which became known as the "Battle of the Sexes". John McEnroe When most people think of John McEnroe, they recall his notoriously short fuse. His frequent displays of temper, including explosions such as "You cannot be serious!", earned him the nick-name "the Super-brat". McEnroe is remembered for the tense Men’s Singles Final of 1980, when he finally succumbed to his great rival Björn Borg in the fifth set, despite an impressive victory in the fourth.

He exacted his revenge on Borg later in 1980, and again in 1981, when he defeated the Wimbledon Champion at the U.S. Open. He took particular pride in representing the United States in the Davis Cup, an honour he perhaps took particularly seriously as a consequence of his father’s military background. Indeed, McEnroe was born in Germany, where his father was serving, in 1959 before moving back to New York as a toddler. While McEnroe might have almost as many tantrums as aces to his name during his career, he will ultimately be remembered for consistently ranking amongst the top ten male players in the world for ten consecutive years. During that time, he accumulated an impressive seventeen Grand Slam titles: seven Singles'; nine Men’s Doubles; and one Mixed Doubles. McEnroe is now a popular tennis commentator. Fred Perry As visitors enter the All England Club to watch Wimbledon each summer, they walk past a statue of Britain’s greatest Tennis hero. Fred Perry is the most successful British male Tennis star of all time.

His achievements are all the more remarkable considering that he did not take up Tennis until he was eighteen years old; prior to being introduced to the sport, Perry had been a World Table Tennis Champion. Born in Stockport in Cheshire in 1909, Perry went on to win each of the Grand Slam tournaments during the course of his career; the so-called Career Golden Grand Slam. He ranked amongst the top ten players in the world between 1931 and 1936, and was consistently ranked at Number One from 1934-6. Perry represented Great Britain a number of times in the Davis Cup, leading the team to the success which has alluded the national team in recent years. He died in Australia in 1995. For more on the last male English Wimbledon Champion this click here . Pete Sampras Pete Sampras was born in 1971 in Washington D.C. He first captured international attention when he beat Andre Agassi in the final match of the U.S. Open at the age of only nineteen. The roots of a long rivalry were born during the match. Sampras was always at his most comfortable on the lawns of Wimbledon.

He often referred to Centre Court as his "Cathedral". He won his first Wimbledon title in 1993 and would dominate Centre Court for the duration of the 1990s, losing out only to Dutchman Richard Krajicek in the 1996 semi-finals. Fans who flocked to Wimbledon to see Sampras play became even more excited when he was pitched against Agassi. Yet his success was not restricted to Wimbledon alone; from 1993-8 Sampras was ranked as the World Number One on the basis of his success in a variety of Championships. Those interested in learning more about Sampras might want to look at his Official Website or the Pete Sampras Fan Site . Monica Seles Monica Seles was born in Novi Sad in the former Yugoslavia in 1973. Seles has also represented the United States, as she became a U.S citizen in 1994. She became the youngest ever Champion of the French Open in 1990. She went on to win a further eight Grand Slam tournaments.

Seles’ career was interrupted in 1993 when she was stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg in front of 6000 spectators. Her attacker turned out to be a mentally unstable man who was unhappy that Seles had usurped Steffi Graf from the Number One ranking. Fortunately, Seles’ injuries were not life threatening and she recovered quickly. For more on Monica Seles then read our page on her. Serena Williams There are few professional Tennis players who have had the experience of battling their way through the initial stages of a Grand Slam tournament only to look across the net in the Final to be confronted by their own sibling. This is, however, a scenario which the Williams sisters have become accustomed to in recent years. Venus and Serena are the two youngest of the five daughters of Richard Williams. They were raised in the rough L.A. suburb of Compton. Determined for his daughters to find a way out of their deprived neighbourhood, Richard Williams drilled them in the fundamentals of Tennis. When Serena and Venus showed clear aptitude for the sport, he started them on a carefully regimented training programme and began to enter them in youth competitions. Serena was born in Michigan in 1981.

Despite being a year younger than Venus, she managed to win a Grand Slam tournament before her sister. She subsequently won another seven Grand Slams and a number of other Singles and Doubles titles. Before 2002, Serena existed somewhat in the shadow of Venus, but emphatically bucked that trend when she won the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year. Since that point, she has been a prominent figure in women’s tennis, although her forays in other areas such as fashion have seen her influence dwindle. Venus Williams Venus Williams was born in Lynnwood, California in 1980. Venus has had a career marked by winning and losing streaks, but her losing streaks have not detracted from an extraordinary record. She entered her first Grand Slam tournament, the U.S. Open, in 1997, where she became the first unseeded player to reach the Final. She was denied the title in that year, however, by Martina Hingis. Venus fulfilled a dream in 2000 when she won Wimbledon after beating her sister in the the semi-final and her compatriot Lindsay Davenport in the Final.

On the following day, she also claimed the Ladies’ Doubles title, with Serena as her partner. The sisters also played together in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when they took home a Gold medal on behalf of the United States. Venus also managed to win the Gold medal in the Women’s Singles event. tennis | sport | Britannica.com Tennis Roger Federer Tennis, original name lawn tennis, game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly strung rackets to hit a ball of specified size, weight, and bounce over a net on a rectangular court. Points are awarded to a player or team whenever the opponent fails to correctly return the ball within the prescribed dimensions of the court. Organized tennis is played according to rules sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body of the sport. Mariya Sharapova serving during the 2006 U.S. Open women’s final; she defeated Justine … Stan Honda—AFP/Getty Images Tennis originally was known as lawn tennis, and formally still is in Britain , because it was played on grass courts by Victorian gentlemen and ladies. It is now played on a variety of surfaces.

The origins of the game can be traced to a 12th–13th-century French handball game called jeu de paume (“game of the palm”), from which was derived a complex indoor racket-and-ball game: real tennis. This ancient game is still played to a limited degree and is usually called real tennis in Britain, court tennis in the United States, and royal tennis in Australia. The modern game of tennis is played by millions in clubs and on public courts. Its period of most rapid growth as both a participant and a spectator sport began in the late 1960s, when the major championships were opened to professionals as well as amateurs, and continued in the 1970s, when television broadcasts of the expanding professional tournament circuits and the rise of some notable players and rivalries broadened the appeal of the game. A number of major innovations in fashion and equipment fueled and fed the boom. The addition of colour and style to tennis wear (once restricted to white) created an entirely new subdivision of leisure clothing. Tennis balls, which historically had been white, now came in several hues, with yellow the colour of choice.

Racket frames, which had been of a standard size and shape and constructed primarily of laminated wood, were suddenly manufactured in a wide choice of sizes, shapes, and materials, the most significant milestones being the introduction of metal frames beginning in 1967 and the oversized head in 1976. Similar Topics racquetball While tennis can be enjoyed by players of practically any level of skill, top competition is a demanding test of both shot making and stamina, rich in stylistic and strategic variety. From its origins as a garden-party game for ladies in whalebone corsets and starched petticoats and men in long white flannels, it has evolved into a physical chess match in which players attack and defend, exploiting angles and technical weaknesses with strokes of widely diverse pace and spin. Tournaments offer tens of millions of dollars in prize money annually. History Origin and early years There has been much dispute over the invention of modern tennis, but the officially recognized centennial of the game in 1973 commemorated its introduction by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873.

He published the first book of rules that year and took out a patent on his game in 1874, although historians have concluded that similar games were played earlier and that the first tennis club was established by the Englishman Harry Gem and several associates in Leamington in 1872. Wingfield’s court was of the hourglass shape and may have developed from badminton . The hourglass shape, stipulated by Wingfield in his booklet “Sphairistiké, or Lawn Tennis,” may have been adopted for patent reasons since it distinguished the court from ordinary rectangular courts. At the time, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was the governing body of real tennis, whose rules it had recently revised. After J.M. Heathcote, a distinguished real tennis player, developed a better tennis ball of rubber covered with white flannel, the MCC in 1875 established a new, standardized set of rules for tennis. A Game of Tennis: Fact or Fiction? Meanwhile, the game had spread to the United States in the 1870s.

Mary Outerbridge of New York has been credited with bringing a set of rackets and balls to her brother, a director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. But research has shown that William Appleton of Nahant, Massachusetts , may have owned the first lawn tennis set and that his friends James Dwight and Fred R. Sears popularized the game. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent An important milestone in the history of tennis was the decision of the All England Croquet Club to set aside one of its lawns at Wimbledon for tennis, which soon proved so popular that the club changed its name to the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. In 1877 the club decided to hold a tennis championship, and a championship subcommittee of three was appointed. It decided on a rectangular court 78 feet (23.8 metres) long by 27 feet (8.2 metres) wide. They adapted the real tennis method of scoring—15, 30, 40, game—and allowed the server one fault (i.e., two chances to deliver a proper service on each point). These major decisions remain part of the modern rules.

Twenty-two entries were received, and the first winner of the Wimbledon Championships was Spencer Gore. In 1878 the Scottish Championships were held, followed in 1879 by the Irish Championships. There were several alterations in some of the other rules (e.g., governing the height of the net) until 1880, when the All England Club and the MCC published revised rules that approximate very closely those still in use. The All England Club was the dominant authority then, the British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) not being formed until 1888. In 1880 the first U.S. championship was held at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. The victor was an Englishman, O.E. Woodhouse. The popularity of the game in the United States and frequent doubts about the rules led to the foundation in 1881 of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association, later renamed the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association and, in 1975, the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA). Under its auspices , the first official U.S.

national championship , played under English rules, was held in 1881 at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island . The winner, Richard Sears , was U.S. champion for seven consecutive years. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Tennis had taken firm root in Australia by 1880, and the first Australian Championships were played in 1905. The first national championships in New Zealand were held in 1886. In 1904 the Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia (later of Australia) was founded. The first French Championships were held at the Stade Français in 1891, but it was an interclub tournament that did not become truly international until 1925; the French Federation of Lawn Tennis was established in 1920. Other national championships were inaugurated in Canada (1890), South Africa (1891), Spain (1910), Denmark (1921), Egypt (1925), Italy (1930), and Sweden (1936).

In 1884 a women’s championship was introduced at Wimbledon, and women’s national championships were held in the United States starting in 1887. Outstanding players Tennis in the 1880s was dominated by the remarkable twin brothers William and Ernest Renshaw . William won the Wimbledon singles championship seven times, on three occasions defeating his brother in the final. Ernest was victorious once, and in partnership they won the doubles championship, first played at Oxford in 1879, seven times. In the 1890s public interest began to wane. The Wimbledon Championships showed a financial loss in 1894 and 1895; the All England Club committee turned back to croquet to revive its flagging fortunes. The popularity of Wimbledon and tennis were reestablished by two more brothers: Reginald and Laurie Doherty . Reginald won the Wimbledon singles from 1897 to 1900. Laurie won from 1902 to 1906, took the U.S. championship in 1903, and won a gold medal in the Olympic Games in 1900.

The early 20th century The first international team competition was the Davis Cup , officially called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy, which was donated by U.S. doubles champion Dwight Davis in 1900. Only Great Britain challenged the first year; it was defeated by the United States, Davis himself playing on the victorious team. There was no challenge in 1901, but in 1902 a strong British team that included the Doherty brothers went to America. The United States retained the trophy, but the following year the Doherty brothers helped Britain win the cup, which it retained the next three years. Dwight F. Davis. Colorsport Professional and open tennis As tennis began to establish its popularity, there was a need for professionals to coach and to organize, but, unlike real tennis, there were no competitions in which professionals could play. This changed in 1926 when Charles C. (“Cash and Carry”) Pyle, a successful sports promoter in the United States, offered Suzanne Lenglen $50,000 to go on a professional tour of America playing Mary K. Browne, who had been U.S.

singles champion from 1912 to 1914. He also signed four male players. The tour, played in major arenas, drew large crowds and was a financial success. For the next 40 years, pro tennis consisted primarily of barnstorming tours that featured the reigning champion playing a recently signed amateur champion. Starting in the 1930s, many of the amateur champions became barnstorming professionals. After World War II, Jack Kramer became the pro champion and in the early 1950s took over promotion of the pro tour. He kept raiding the amateur ranks, signing such stars as Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, Lew Hoad, and Ken Rosewall. They made money with the one-night stands, but their matches were virtually unreported. Although the traditional tournament circuit was avowedly amateur, leading players were paid substantial guarantees “under the table” in addition to expenses. For more than four decades there was discussion of having “open” competition between amateurs and pros to end the hypocrisy of “shamateurism,” but proposals were always defeated by conservative elements within the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF—later the ITF).

In 1967, however, two new professional groups were formed: the National Tennis League, organized by former U.S. Davis Cup captain George MacCall, and World Championship Tennis (WCT), founded by New Orleans promoter Dave Dixon and funded by Dallas oil and football tycoon Lamar Hunt . Between them they signed a significant number of the world’s top players, professional and amateur. In 1967 a British proposal for a limited schedule of open tournaments was voted down by the international federation, but the British LTA refused to accept the verdict. In December 1967, despite the threat of expulsion from the ILTF, the LTA voted to abolish the distinction between amateurs and pros in their tournaments. This revolutionary step forced an emergency meeting of the ILTF in March 1968 in which 12 open tournaments were approved. The era of open professionalism in tennis dawned in 1968. The open era The first open tournament was the British Hard Courts at Bournemouth in April 1968, where the champions were Ken Rosewall and Virginia Wade.

The first open Wimbledon was a joyous occasion, as many past champions who had been stripped of membership in the All England Club when they turned professional were welcomed back. The total prize money was £26,150 ($62,760), of which £2,000 went to men’s singles champion Rod Laver and £750 went to women’s singles winner Billie Jean King. The singles titles at the first U.S. Open, with a total purse of $100,000, were won by Arthur Ashe , the sport’s first black male champion, and Wade. Within two decades the major championships had multimillion-dollar purses, and top players could expect to earn in excess of $1,000,000 a year on the court alone. Laver became the first player to sweep the major titles a second time and the first to do so as a professional. Arthur Ashe returns a ball during the U.S. National Championships in 1965. © Bob Gomel—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images The transition years from quasi-amateurism to full-fledged professional tennis were rife with political disputes and lawsuits for control of what had become a big-money sport.

Both male and female players formed guilds—the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which in 1986 became the Women’s International Tennis Association (WITA). Previous player unions had been ineffective, but the ATP showed itself a potent political force when the majority of its members boycotted Wimbledon in 1973 in a dispute over the eligibility of the Yugoslav pro Nikki Pilic. The women’s union proved similarly unified. The women have had a separate pro tour, except at the major championships, since 1971. The first few seasons of open tennis were ruled by players who were products of the old system and reflected its behavioral standards and norms. These included the compact, classical Rosewall , the Australian John Newcombe, and the Americans Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith. As television, in America and later worldwide, became an increasingly significant force in tennis, a new breed of flamboyant and often flippant , cocky, and quick-tempered player developed. Among them was Ilie Nastase —a dark, handsome, mercurial Romanian noted for his rapid mood swings. While winning the 1972 U.S.

Open, the 1973 French Open, and four Masters titles, he created chaos and controversy on the court with colourful, and occasionally off-colour, tantrums and tirades. He was perhaps an influence on Jimmy Connors , a brash American whose aggressive, blood-and-guts, all-court style and feisty temperament captivated audiences whether they loved or loathed him. In 1974 Connors won Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and the U.S. Open. In an intensely competitive era that produced short careers, Connors enjoyed extraordinary longevity at the top. He won Wimbledon again in 1982, the U.S. Open four more times, and the WCT Championship in 1977 and 1980. Following the fiery Connors as the dominant player was the relatively cool Björn Borg , who led Sweden to its first triumph in the Davis Cup in 1975.

Practically unbeatable on slow clay, he won the French Open six times between 1974 and 1981 and remarkably adapted his game to fast grass, adding a sledgehammer serve and underspin approach shot, to win Wimbledon five years running , 1976–80. No player had done that since the champion had to play through the draw, starting in 1922. The American John McEnroe ended Borg’s Wimbledon reign in 1981 and beat him in the 1980–81 U.S. Open finals. Between 1979 and 1984 McEnroe, a torrid-tempered left-hander of exquisite athleticism and racket control, won Wimbledon three times, the U.S. Open four times, the Masters three times, and the WCT Championship four times. Sweden’s Björn Borg returning a shot at Wimbledon in 1976, the first of his five consecutive … Leo Mason The balance of power in men’s tennis shifted back to Europe in the 1980s. Borg inspired a new wave of players in Sweden .

A sophisticated junior-development system created a group of Swedish players—led by 1982, 1985, and 1988 French Open champion Mats Wilander. Another European country with a long tennis tradition that reached new heights in the 1980s was Czechoslovakia . One of the foremost players and coaches in Europe in the 1920s and ’30s was the Czech Karel Kozeluh. Czechoslovakia produced men’s Wimbledon champions Jaroslav Drobny in 1954 and Jan Kodeš in 1973. Among the players to come out of Czechoslovakia’s player-development system and become dominant in the 1970s and ’80s were Martina Navratilova , who became a U.S. citizen; Hana Mandlikova, who became an Australian citizen in 1987; and Ivan Lendl, who took up residence in the United States.

The European tennis boom of the 1980s also swept through West Germany , which produced Boris Becker , who won the Wimbledon singles in 1985 at age 17 (the youngest man and first unseeded player to do so), and Steffi Graf , who in 1987 ended Navratilova’s five-year reign as the top-ranked woman in tennis and in 1988 won the Grand Slam, becoming the first woman to do so since Margaret Court in 1970. Boris Becker. Simon Bruty/Getty Images Graf’s emergence also ended an extraordinary streak by the American Chris Evert , who had won at least one of the Grand Slam singles titles for 13 consecutive years, 1974–86, an unprecedented feat. A paragon of backcourt consistency and controlled temperament, Evert was the perfect contrast in both style and personality to several net-rushing rivals: the Australian Evonne Goolagong , who won her first Wimbledon in 1971 at age 19, Billie Jean King, and Navratilova, whom Evert played in 13 Grand Slam finals in one of the game’s greatest rivalries.

Evert, probably more than anyone, popularized the two-handed backhand, and she made a steady baseline game the prevalent style of a whole generation of women players. During the 1990s Steffi Graf collected 14 of her 21 career Grand Slam singles titles. Tall and athletic, Graf used powerful ground strokes and excellent court coverage to dispatch opponents. Her primary rival during this period was Yugoslavia’s Monica Seles , who collected seven Grand Slam titles between 1990 and 1992. Though Graf retired in 1999, the women’s tour still boasted exceptional competition and talented players, such as Martina Hingis of Switzerland (winner of five major titles before the age of 20) and American Lindsay Davenport, who won titles at the U.S. Open (1998), Wimbledon (1999), and the Australian Open (2000). At the turn of the century, sisters Venus and Serena Williams of the United States emerged as a new force on the women’s tour. Serena won the U.S.

Open in 1999, 2002, and 2008; the French Open in 2002; Wimbledon in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, and 2012; and the Australian Open in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010. Venus won Wimbledon five times (2000–01, 2005, 2007–08), the U.S. Open twice (2000–01), and an Olympic gold medal in tennis (2000). The sisters were credited with popularizing the sport among African Americans. The men’s game increasingly emphasized athleticism and power in the 1990s. Pete Sampras of the United States best epitomized this style of play, using devastating serves and ground strokes, along with exceptional agility, to claim a record-setting 14 Grand Slam titles; the record was later surpassed by Roger Federer of Switzerland.

Players such as Patrick Rafter of Australia, Sweden’s Stefan Edberg, and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov also claimed their share of major titles during the decade, but Andre Agassi surfaced as Sampras’s primary rival. Agassi won singles titles at the Australian Open (1995, 2000–01, 2003), the French Open (1999), Wimbledon (1992), and the U.S. Open (1994, 1999) and finished the 1999 season as the top-ranked player on the tour. In the early 21st century, Federer emerged as one of the game’s dominant players. He won an unprecedented 17 men’s singles Grand Slam championships—seven Wimbledon titles (2003–07, 2009, and 2012), five U.S. Opens (2004–08), four Australian Opens (2004, 2006–07, and 2010), and one French Open (2009). One of Federer’s main rivals was Rafael Nadal of Spain.

Although initially thought of as a clay-court specialist—he captured a record seven French Open titles (2005–08 and 2010–12)—Nadal also won at Wimbledon (2008 and 2010), the Australian Open (2009), and the U.S. Open (2010). Andre Agassi, 1999. Clive Brunskill—Allsport/Getty Images Organization and tournaments The ITF and the national associations that constitute it govern tennis worldwide; they oversee international competitions such as the Davis Cup and Federation Cup and tennis in the Olympic Games, which was restored to medal-sport status for the 1988 Games—the first time since 1924. The professional circuits were governed from the late 1970s by the Men’s and Women’s International Professional Tennis councils. These groups, made up of representatives of the ITF, players, and tournaments, oversee the international calendar, the implementation of rules and codes of conduct, and the training and supervision of tour officials.

The councils work closely with the ATP and WITA, which supply a number of services and benefits to players and tournaments and maintain rankings that provide the basis for entry into tournaments and seedings. Until 1974, when South Africa won by default over India, only four nations had won the Davis Cup: Australia, Great Britain, France, and the United States. The championships of those four countries are the traditional “major” tournaments that make up the Grand Slam. Wimbledon in Britain is the oldest, having been played on the lawns of the All England Club since 1877. The French championships , played at Stade Roland-Garros in Auteuil, on the outskirts of Paris , are recognized as the world’s premier clay-court tournaments. The U.S. championships were played on grass from their inception in 1881 through 1974; the next three years they were played on a synthetic clay surface at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills , New York, and in 1978 the tournament moved to the rubberized asphalt courts of the USTA National Tennis Center in nearby Flushing Meadow Park.

The Australian Championships were played on grass in several cities until 1968, when they moved to Melbourne; in 1988 they moved within that city to the synthetic courts of the new Australian National Tennis Centre. Justine Henin returning a shot during the 2007 U.S. Open. Xinhua/Landov The principal team events are the Davis Cup, Federation Cup, and Wightman Cup (U.S. versus British women). The Davis Cup series consists of five matches played over three days: two singles, one doubles, then two “reverse” singles. The Davis Cup draw was played in two zones from 1923 through 1965 and in four zones from 1966 through 1980. Starting in 1981, the top 16 teams competed in a World Group and all other participating nations in four zones. The Federation Cup , inaugurated in 1963, is contested at one site over a one-week period, each series consisting of three matches: two singles and a doubles. The Wightman Cup alternates between U.S. and British sites and consists of best-of-seven matches: five singles and two doubles.

Page 1 of 2 Boris Becker - Biography - IMDb Boris Becker Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (30) | Personal Quotes (1) Overview (4) 6' 1½" (1.87 m) Mini Bio (1) Boris Franz Becker was born on November 22, 1967 in Leimen, West Germany, the only son in the family of an architect. His father built the tennis center (Blau-Weiss Tennisklub), where young Becker was usually playing against young Steffi Graf in training matches. In 1984 he became a professional tennis player. Becker was an unknown 17-year-old unseeded outsider at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in 1985, when he shot to fame by setting the record for Wimbledon, becoming the youngest player ever to win the men's final. He was also the first unseeded player ever and the first German to win the men's single title at Wimbledon. He was nicknamed "Boom Boom" for his huge serve.

Becker reached the Wimbledon final 7 times in 10 years and won 3 men's single titles, among the total of 49 singles and 15 doubles victories over the course of his career. Becker became the second youngest player, after Björn Borg , to be introduced into the tennis' Hall of Fame in 2003. He ranks third in sport career earnings with $25,080,956. But pressures and demands on him brought too much stress into his life. At the age of 31 Becker retired from professional tennis. In 1993, he married Barbara Feltus , who was the daughter of an African-American serviceman and a white German lady. The celebrity couple appeared naked on the cover of "Stern" magazine before their marriage (the photo was made by her father). They married on December 17, 1993, and had their first son, Noah, born on January 18, 1994, and their second son Elias, born on September 4, 1999. Becker gained respect for his stance against racism.

But in 2000, his wife took both sons to Florida and filed a petition in Miami court, ignoring their prenuptial agreement, that entitled her to a single payoff of $2,500,000. She got 14,400,000 and the custody of both sons, and her lawyer was paid for by Becker. His high-profile marriage and an equally high-profile divorce from model Barbara Feltus was paralleled by the story of him impregnating a Russian-African model Angela Ermakova at an upscale London restaurant in the summer of 1999, and having an illegitimate child (Anna, born on March 22, 2000). After having positive DNA test results, Becker recognized his fatherhood of a daughter Anna and payed a generous $5,000,000 settlement in 2001. This came on top of his tax problems, for which he was fined $500,000. He also suffered from alcohol and drug addiction, which complicated matters in his turbulent life.

Boris Becker was able to overcome the mistakes of his past and moved on with his life, by first moving from Monaco to Mallorca and to Zug, Switzerland. His sincere and open autobiography, titled "Boris Becker - The Player: The Autobiography" was published in 2004. He works with a British TV sports-show and has a regular gig as a BBC commentator at Wimbledon. Becker also plays exhibitions on the Senior ATP Tour and on the Billie Jean King's World Team Tennis tour. Outside of his sports career Boris Becker has been a successful businessman. He owns half of the tennis racquet company Völkl, collaborates with watchmakers, owns several Mercedes dealerships and also does promotions for Mercedes-Benz. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Spouse (2) (January 26, 2001) A Munich court granted Becker a divorce. Ex-wife Barbara reportedly got a $14.4 million settlement, their condo on Florida's exclusive Fisher Island and custody of their sons, Noah and Elias. Member of the Laureus World Sports Academy, a European foundation devoted to achieving social change through sports.

Father Karl-Heinz, an architect, designed the tennis center where Becker and Steffi Graf played against each other as children. Never won a professional tournament on clay. In 1992, ignoring his nation's euphoria over reunification, Becker refused to serve as ambassador for Berlin's bid to host the 2000 Olympics, saying he feared a triumphant Germany might stir its citizens' old fantasies about a master race. Owns 3 Mercedes-Benz dealerships. The only unseeded player to win the Wimbledon's men's singles title and the first German ever to win it. (August 4, 2002) Boris Becker Sports Collection presented in Italy. It will be launched worldwide in February 2003. Won the 1992 Olympic men's tennis doubles title with Michael Stich . (October 24, 2002) Convicted of tax evasion after a two-day trial in Munich. Becker was given two years' probation, fined $500,000, and ordered to pay all court costs.

Becker, who admitted he lived in Germany from 1991-1993 while claiming to reside in the tax haven of Monte Carlo, has already paid $3 million in back taxes. Publisher of Germany's Tennis Magazine [2002] Fathered a daughter, Anna (b. March 22, 2000 in London, UK), by Russian-African model Angela Ermakova. The child was conceived in a closet at Nobu restaurant, where Ermakova worked as a waitress, after a drunken Becker had a fight with his wife. At first he denied paternity, but after DNA tests proved his paternity Becker said he wants to meet Anna - but is afraid that Ermakova would turn the meeting into a media circus. On July 9, 2001, he agreed to pay Ermakova $5 million. Career prize earnings: $21,966,402. Youngest men's Wimbledon champ in history (1985 at age 17 years, 7 months).

Becker won 49 singles titles, including six Grand Slams [Wimbledon (1985, 1986, 1989), Australian Open (1991, 1996) and US Open (1989)], plus 15 doubles titles. First player to win a Grand Slam title after becoming a father (1996 Australian Open) Inducted into The International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 12, 2003. Lives in Schwyz, Switzerland. Has written with "advisers" his yet-untitled autobiography, due in stores in November, Bertelsmann Publishers announced. (August 6, 2003). Announced his retirement on June 25, 1999. Hours after losing to Patrick Rafter in the 4th round at Wimbledon. Although he can speak English, Becker was granted permission to testify in German and have the proceedings translated into German during his divorce trial in Miami. Son of Elvira Becker . Signs with PokerStars.net and will play on its European Tour (November 2007). Launched "Boris Becker TV" online media platform.

The site follows Becker's daily life, and shows clips of his career. (May 2009). Married Lilly Kerssenberg the same day his ex-wife Barbara remarried. Among the 200 guests were Mika Häkkinen and Franz Beckenbauer . Amadeus Benedict Edley Luis Becker, Becker's 4th child, and first with wife Lilly Kerssenberg, born on February 9, 2010 in London, UK.

Question: Sport - which tennis player has the nickname "BOOM-BOOM"?
Answer: BORIS BECKER