The Sunday News
TENNIS can be described as a game in which two or four players strike a ball with racquets over a net stretched across a court. The usual form (originally called lawn tennis) is played with a felt-covered hollow rubber ball on a grass, clay, or artificial surface.
In fact tennis is a racquet sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racquet that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent’s court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a good return. The opponent who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite opponent will.
Tennis is also an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racquet, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as “lawn tennis”. It had close connections both to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racquet sport of real tennis. During most of the 19th-century in fact, the term “tennis” referred to real tennis, not lawn tennis.
The rules of tennis have changed little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tie-break in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point challenge system, which allows a player to contest the line call of a point.
Tennis is played by millions of recreational players and is also a popular worldwide spectator sport. The four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the “Majors”) are especially popular: the Australian Open played on hard courts, the French Open played on red clay courts, Wimbledon played on grass courts, and the US Open played also on hard courts. In Zimbabwe tennis was popularised by the Black siblings namely Cara, Wayne and Byron. It can also be recalled that the retired trio of Kevin Ullyett, Wayne and Byron, went on to put Zimbabwe on the tennis world map through their exploits especially in the Davies Cup.
While attending Prince Edward, Black who was just 13 years old defeated an 18-year-old opponent from Oriels with a score of 6-1 6-1.
He attended the University of Southern California and was named an All-American by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). In 1995 Black was a US Open quarter-finalist and in 2000 he reached the same round at Wimbledon.
An accomplished doubles player, Black became World No. 1 in doubles in February 1994.
He won the 1994 French Open partnering Jonathan Stark. Black was a doubles finalist in three other majors, the 94 and 2001 Australian Opens and 1996 Wimbledon. Black is one of the few professional players to have played with a double-handed forehand.
Black formed the core of the Zimbabwean Davis Cup team with his brother Wayne and in 1990 Black was awarded the Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award.
As we brace for the Region Five Games which will be hosted by Bulawayo from 5 to 14 December, the country will be eager to know whether the nation is on course to produce juniors players who can go on and surpass the achievements of the Blacks, et al.
