$48 Million Prize Money: Anyone For Tennis?

Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles competition, 1877

July 9, 1877 — Play began on this day in the world’s first official lawn tennis tournament. It was the Gentlemen’s Singles competition in a championship organised by the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon, in West London. This would later be recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament or “Major”.

The first Wimbledon men’s champion was Londoner Spencer Gore, aged 27. After rain delayed their match for three days he beat 28-year old William Marshall in three straight sets that lasted 48 minutes and were played before a crowd of about 200. Entry for each spectator cost one shilling (5p or 60 cents).

Like all 22 players in the tournament, Gore and Marshall had to pay an entrance fee of one guinea (£1.05 or $1.27).

Their match was delayed not only by rain but by cricket. The tennis championship was suspended for the weekend so as not to clash with the annual Eton v Harrow schoolboy cricket match at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Spencer Gore would probably have supported the decision. He was a keen cricketer and said later that he found tennis “rather boring.”

Bored or not, he received 12 guineas (£12.60 or $15.20) in prize money and a silver challenge cup, valued at 25 guineas (£25.25, or $30.50). The tournament made a profit of £10 ($12).

By today’s standards the prize money would not even amount to chicken feed. The 2022 men’s singles champion (Novak Djokovic) received £2 million ($2,415,000) and the total paid out to all players in the 2022 championship amounted to £40,350,000 ($48,720,000).

The beginnings of tennis are lost in the mists of time but there is widespread belief that the game was invented in the 11th or 12th century by French monks who taught it to rich aristocrats. They built tennis courts in their courtyards.

England’s King Henry VIII was a fan of the game and played many times on a court that was built at Hampton Court Palace, outside London, in 1625 and still survives.

One of the first English written guides to tennis in 1553 declared: “This game has been created for a good purpose, namely, to keep our bodies healthy, to make our young men stronger and more robust, chasing idleness, virtue’s mortal enemy, far from them and thus making them of a stronger and more excellent nature.”

Like the game itself, the scoring system might also be of French origin, going back to the time when clock faces were used to record scores. Each player would begin at 12 then after scoring they would move to 15 points (quarter past). Another winning stroke would move them to half-past (30), and the third to 45 (quarter to). The first player to move the clock face hand back to 12 would win the match.

It became necessary to change the 45 to 40 because of ties (deuce) and introduction of the advantage law. And the symbol for zero or nought was the oval shaped egg – l’oeuf in French. This was corrupted to the similar-sounding “love” in English.

The first US championship was held at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club in 1880 as the game developed international support. New Zealand held its first championship in 1886, followed by Canada (1890), South Africa and France (1891), Spain (1910), Denmark (1921), Egypt (1925), Italy (1930), and Sweden (1936).

Over the years there have been memorable matches, memorable players – and memorable quotes. Such as these:

“You can’t be considered a good tennis player unless you win Wimbledon. That’s the way it is.” – Mats Wilander

“Girls had never been important. I’d had a girlfriend or two and had liked them a lot but it wasn’t love, because my first love was tennis.”
– Boris Becker

“Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.” – Martina Navratilova

“Being number two sucks.” – Andre Agassi

“I can’t speak for other people, but I still hate losing. When I did lose, I found it easier to yell than cry. Guys aren’t supposed to cry, are they?”
– John McEnroe

“I hate to lose more than I love to win. I hate to see the happiness on their faces when they beat me.”
– Jimmy Connors

“Tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love: the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature.” – Andre Agassi

“And let that be a lesson to you all. No one beats Vitas Gerulaitis seventeen times in a row.” – said by Vitas Gerulaitis after he defeated former World Number One Jimmy Connors in the 1980 Masters semi-finals. Before the match Connors had indeed beaten him sixteen times in a row.

Largely forgotten today, Gerulaitis, born in New York of Lithuanian parents, figured in 30 finals and notched up 26 titles including the 1977 Australian Open championship. He died tragically at the age of 40 in 1994, poisoned by carbon monoxide leaking from a faulty swimming pool heater.

Published: February 13, 2023
Updated: July 9, 2023