Author : Greg Ruth
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 025205279X
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)
Book Synopsis Tennis by : Greg Ruth
Download or read book Tennis written by Greg Ruth and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing how tennis turned pro The arrival of the Open era in 1968 was a watershed in the history of tennis--the year that marked its advent as a professionalized sport. Merging wide-angle history with individual stories of players and off-the-court figures, Greg Ruth charts tennis’s evolution into the game we watch today. His vivid account moves from the cloistered world of nineteenth-century lawn tennis through the longtime amateur-professional divide and the battles over commercialization that raged from the 1920s until 1968. From there, Ruth details the post-1968 expansion of the game as it was transformed by bankable superstars, a popular women’s tour, rival governing bodies, and sponsorship money. What emerges is a fascinating history of the economics and politics that made tennis a decisive, if unlikely, force in the creation of modern-day sports entertainment. Comprehensive and engaging, Tennis tells the interlocking stories of the figures and factors that birthed the professional game.