Wimbledon Day 11, Grand Slam History
Three continents, four tournaments and the African tour that almost happened
Jul 12, 2024
The British Covered Court Championships (BCCC), a Grand Slam contender, was an indoor tennis event held from 1885 through 1971, played in London, England, with date fluctuating between October and March.
It was only natural. The founders of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon Village — the first club to hold a lawn tennis championship — essentially believed their tournament the end-all, be-all, the World Cup of Tennis. But other tournaments disagreed.
The directors of the Bad Homburg Lawn Tennis Club — first ever lawn tennis club in Germany — deemed their event as the “Championship of Europe,” which went on from 1892 to 1914. From 1912 to 1923 the World Hard Court Championships — held on the clay of the Stade Français in Saint-Cloud, a Paris suburb — regarded itself a Major, too. The lists started to go on and on until even the founders of the World Covered Court Championships — three major tournaments played indoors on wood floors, with its venue changed from year-to-year among several countries — sought top billing for their events.
In the end, the Davis Cup, the premier international team event for men became a deciding factor: the first four countries to win the Davis Cup under the International Lawn Tennis Federation (now the ITF) were England, American, France and Australia. In the 1923 ITF General Meeting, Wimbledon lost its bid to retain the “World Championship” title and it was replaced by four “Grand Slams,” a term originating in Bridge, referring to a player winning every trick.
Jasmine Paolini, 28, from Tuscany has won two WTA singles titles, including the WTA 1000 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships, and recently ascended to WTA No. 7. This is her second Grand Slam final in two months. She lost the French Open final to Iga Świątek.
Day 11 at the hypothetical World Cup of Tennis proved another unexpected surprise in possibly the most upside down tournament in recent memory. The No. 7 seed, Jasmine Paolini edged out a more experienced Donna Vekic in the first semifinal of the day, 2-6 6-4 7-6 (10-8), to become the first Italian to reach a Wimbledon women's singles final in history. Following that upset, sleeper Barbora Krejcikova elminated the 2023 women’s championship Elena Rybakina in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to try to add a second Grand Slam trophy (Krejcikova won the 2021 French Open) to her case. Paolini, who had never won a match Wimbledon before this year, said: “I was just repeating to myself to fight for every ball…This match I will remember forever,” Paoloini said after the two-hour-51-minute match, also the longest women's singles semi-final at Wimbledon. Krejcikova dedicated her win to her former coach, the late Jana Novotná, who won the 1998 title.
Lorenzo Musetti, 22, from Tuscany, has a career-high ranking of ATP No. 15 and has won two ATP Tour singles titles. He started 2024 with his first win at a Major defeating Benjamin Bonzi during the Australian Open.
On the men’s side, the semi-finals go on tomorrow with defending champion Carlos Alcaraz meeting Daniil Medvedev on Centre Court, while Novak Djokovic, who ascended to the final four after an injured Alex de Minaur pulled out of the quarterfinals will play Lorenzo Musetti, another Italian, who defeated Taylor Fritz in five sets on Wednesday. “After the birth of my son, I will put this in the second position,” said Musetti, who is not formally married to his partner. “Of course, for my career it is the best day of my life.”
A postcard of Forest Hills Stadium from 1938. Built in 1923, it could hold nearly 13,000 people and four tennis courts.
Without the Davis Cup’s existence, over the weekend two Italians, one Serbian and one Czech would likely be playing for World Cup of Tennis, full stop. But there were other considerations, as well. Namely, the United States. From the very beginning, the U.S. Championships caught the arbiters of tennis not only because of its breadth —the U.S. was a big country with players from many states — but also because it was almost as enthusiastic about tennis as the British. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (now the USTA) started to apply pressure, not only because American players were winning, but also because of the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, one of the nicest tennis clubhouses and stadiums recently built.
Some at that fateful 2023 ITF meeting believed Australia, a onetime penal colony of England where British soldiers introduced the sport, the more natural choice over the United States. Australia also had Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding who captured the Davis Cup from Great Britain in 1907 and put their Australia on the map. But the French, where tennis (joue de palm) is thought to have originated, brought up a problem: red clay. A clay circuit had been around since the 1890s, and the prestigious Monte-Carlo tournament, as well as the 1900 and 1923 Olympics, were held on clay. In 1928, the French also opened Roland-Garros, built to preserve France's tennis success after winning the Davis Cup, and the dominance of Suzanne Lenglen as well as les Quatre Mousquetaires — Jacques “Toto” Brugnon, Jean Borotra (the “Bouncing Basque”), Henri Cochet (the “Magician”), and René Lacoste (the “Crocodile”) — ensured that France received its place among the Grand Slams.
From left, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, René Lacoste and Jean Borotra — the Four Musketeers — in the 1930s, at the entrance to Roland Garros, home of the French Open.
But what happened to Africa and South America? Or the Far East? Colonizers spread the sport to all the countries on those continents. Moreover, each has its own continent-wide football tournament featuring many country teams. Why not tennis?
One man tried to change that, at least in Africa. During a meeting of the ATP — the Open-Era men’s players’ association — immediately before the 1971 AELTC Championships, Cliff Drysdale mentioned that Johannesburg wanted a South Africa Open for the tour, before turning to his confidante and comrade, Arthur Ashe, stating, “But they’d never let you play.” Drysdale meant that the apartheid government of his native country would refuse Ashe, a black player, a visa. Ashe nonetheless pushed for one, which Prime Minister John Vorster promptly rejected for two years. In response, Ashe hit the road. For 18 days, he and another pal, Stan Smith, went on a 2,500-mile tennis expedition of six African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana — and Nigeria. Ashe played his first South African Open in November 1973, fulfilling a long-held dream by traveling to South Africa to become the first black man to play in that country’s national tennis tournament.
Arthur Ashe readies for a serve during the 1976 World Championship Tennis (WTC) Lagos Tennis Classic, commonly known as the Lagos Open (left). A tournament poster.
One man who especially took notice was Olatunji Ajisomo Abubakar Sadiq Alabi, better known as Lord Rumens, a Nigerian tycoon, philanthropist and socialite. Then president of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club in 1976, Rumans invited Ashe to Nigeria to play in the $60,000 World Championship Tennis (WCT) Lagos Tennis Classic, also known as the Lagos Open. Up until January 1976, all seemed relatively calm in a country 16 years out of independence from Great Britain. But in January, demonstrations in front of the U.S. Embassy started taking place on a daily basis. Ashe and his entourage decided to fly to Lagos anyway — potential upheaval or not. But on that Friday, February 13th —the fourth day of the Open — General Murtala Mohammed, the Nigerian Head of State, was stuck in a traffic jam when a lieutenant colonel named Bukar Suka Dimka, and three other officers filled his metallic-black Mercedes Benz with bullets. Mohammed died on site. Forces loyal to Mohammed crushed the coup several hours later.
John McDonald, the International Director of the WCT, pushed for the players to continue despite the tumultuous conditions. The matches resumed Sunday, February 15th with four Americans (Dick Stockton, Bob Lutz, Ashe and Jeff Borowiak) in the quarterfinals. On Monday, February 16, 1976, middle class Nigerians filled the terraces of the 75-year-old LLTC to the brim, ready to watch their black hero play his semi-final match against Borowiak. Ashe had just won the first set in a tie-break and was about to serve at a game apiece when five men marched on to the court. One of the soldiers shoved the barrel of his machine gun into the back of Ashe’s sweat-soaked shirt. Another, an army Captain loyal to Mohammed, shouted at the crowd “What are you doing? We are in mourning. You are making money!” Ashe and Borowiak walked off the court with arms raised, leaving their gear behind. Everyone else ran for their lives.
(Left to right) American player, Jeff Borowiak, Arthur Ashe, footballer Pelé, and Dutch player, Tom Okker, hanging out during a tournament — and a 1976 military coup — in Lagos, Nigeria.
Donald Easum, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, had been watching the semi-final match with his security detail. Once outside the stadium, he located Ashe and Borowiak and secured vehicles to transport them to the Embassy. On their way, Ashe and Borowiak’s car came across another traffic jam caused by a soldier beating a Nigerian spectator in the middle of the road. The players got out of the car and ran to the Embassy on foot. The 18-man WCT contingent comprising 14 players, including Ashe, two officials and two English journalists departed in a convoy of cars with an armed police escort the next morning for Lagos International Airport they boarded a military aircraft bound for Accra, Ghana — the first foreigners allowed to leave after the failed coup. “The incident has done a lot of damage to Black Africa. Anyone wanting to play a tournament there now will probably hesitate,” Ashe lamented to Jet magazine. “Unfortunately, that’s the mentality toward Black Africa.” And toward many other places, as well. Will Saudi Arabia and China change it?
Center court of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, where Arthur Ashe played in the 1976 Lagos Open.
Things we like: The Court of Carpets in Jaipur, India, where Rohan Bopanna filmed a popular Instagram spot to coincide with the opening of Jaipur Rugs’ first London showroom. Okay, sure, it’s an endorsement, but those are some beautiful shots played on some gorgeous rugs After Wimbledon, Bohanna will head to Paris to represent India at the Olympics.
Things we think need improvement: The 2024 U.S. Open Power of Tennis poster released last week. After a stunning tribute to Billie Jean King and 50 years of the WTA, the Open, I suppose, can be excused for having an “off” year.
One of two designs by artist Chelsey Farris, a graphic designer at cloud platform Panzura. Her LinkedIn profile explains the “balls.”
Recommendations: The Wimbledon Village Windows Competition — almost as prestigious as the going-on down the road. Almost.
The British Covered Court Championships (BCCC), a Grand Slam contender, was an indoor tennis event held from 1885 through 1971, played in London, England, with date fluctuating between October and March.
It was only natural. The founders of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon Village — the first club to hold a lawn tennis championship — essentially believed their tournament the end-all, be-all, the World Cup of Tennis. But other tournaments disagreed.
The directors of the Bad Homburg Lawn Tennis Club — first ever lawn tennis club in Germany — deemed their event as the “Championship of Europe,” which went on from 1892 to 1914. From 1912 to 1923 the World Hard Court Championships — held on the clay of the Stade Français in Saint-Cloud, a Paris suburb — regarded itself a Major, too. The lists started to go on and on until even the founders of the World Covered Court Championships — three major tournaments played indoors on wood floors, with its venue changed from year-to-year among several countries — sought top billing for their events.
In the end, the Davis Cup, the premier international team event for men became a deciding factor: the first four countries to win the Davis Cup under the International Lawn Tennis Federation (now the ITF) were England, American, France and Australia. In the 1923 ITF General Meeting, Wimbledon lost its bid to retain the “World Championship” title and it was replaced by four “Grand Slams,” a term originating in Bridge, referring to a player winning every trick.
Jasmine Paolini, 28, from Tuscany has won two WTA singles titles, including the WTA 1000 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships, and recently ascended to WTA No. 7. This is her second Grand Slam final in two months. She lost the French Open final to Iga Świątek.
Day 11 at the hypothetical World Cup of Tennis proved another unexpected surprise in possibly the most upside down tournament in recent memory. The No. 7 seed, Jasmine Paolini edged out a more experienced Donna Vekic in the first semifinal of the day, 2-6 6-4 7-6 (10-8), to become the first Italian to reach a Wimbledon women's singles final in history. Following that upset, sleeper Barbora Krejcikova elminated the 2023 women’s championship Elena Rybakina in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to try to add a second Grand Slam trophy (Krejcikova won the 2021 French Open) to her case. Paolini, who had never won a match Wimbledon before this year, said: “I was just repeating to myself to fight for every ball…This match I will remember forever,” Paoloini said after the two-hour-51-minute match, also the longest women's singles semi-final at Wimbledon. Krejcikova dedicated her win to her former coach, the late Jana Novotná, who won the 1998 title.
Lorenzo Musetti, 22, from Tuscany, has a career-high ranking of ATP No. 15 and has won two ATP Tour singles titles. He started 2024 with his first win at a Major defeating Benjamin Bonzi during the Australian Open.
On the men’s side, the semi-finals go on tomorrow with defending champion Carlos Alcaraz meeting Daniil Medvedev on Centre Court, while Novak Djokovic, who ascended to the final four after an injured Alex de Minaur pulled out of the quarterfinals will play Lorenzo Musetti, another Italian, who defeated Taylor Fritz in five sets on Wednesday. “After the birth of my son, I will put this in the second position,” said Musetti, who is not formally married to his partner. “Of course, for my career it is the best day of my life.”
A postcard of Forest Hills Stadium from 1938. Built in 1923, it could hold nearly 13,000 people and four tennis courts.
Without the Davis Cup’s existence, over the weekend two Italians, one Serbian and one Czech would likely be playing for World Cup of Tennis, full stop. But there were other considerations, as well. Namely, the United States. From the very beginning, the U.S. Championships caught the arbiters of tennis not only because of its breadth —the U.S. was a big country with players from many states — but also because it was almost as enthusiastic about tennis as the British. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (now the USTA) started to apply pressure, not only because American players were winning, but also because of the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, one of the nicest tennis clubhouses and stadiums recently built.
Some at that fateful 2023 ITF meeting believed Australia, a onetime penal colony of England where British soldiers introduced the sport, the more natural choice over the United States. Australia also had Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding who captured the Davis Cup from Great Britain in 1907 and put their Australia on the map. But the French, where tennis (joue de palm) is thought to have originated, brought up a problem: red clay. A clay circuit had been around since the 1890s, and the prestigious Monte-Carlo tournament, as well as the 1900 and 1923 Olympics, were held on clay. In 1928, the French also opened Roland-Garros, built to preserve France's tennis success after winning the Davis Cup, and the dominance of Suzanne Lenglen as well as les Quatre Mousquetaires — Jacques “Toto” Brugnon, Jean Borotra (the “Bouncing Basque”), Henri Cochet (the “Magician”), and René Lacoste (the “Crocodile”) — ensured that France received its place among the Grand Slams.
From left, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, René Lacoste and Jean Borotra — the Four Musketeers — in the 1930s, at the entrance to Roland Garros, home of the French Open.
But what happened to Africa and South America? Or the Far East? Colonizers spread the sport to all the countries on those continents. Moreover, each has its own continent-wide football tournament featuring many country teams. Why not tennis?
One man tried to change that, at least in Africa. During a meeting of the ATP — the Open-Era men’s players’ association — immediately before the 1971 AELTC Championships, Cliff Drysdale mentioned that Johannesburg wanted a South Africa Open for the tour, before turning to his confidante and comrade, Arthur Ashe, stating, “But they’d never let you play.” Drysdale meant that the apartheid government of his native country would refuse Ashe, a black player, a visa. Ashe nonetheless pushed for one, which Prime Minister John Vorster promptly rejected for two years. In response, Ashe hit the road. For 18 days, he and another pal, Stan Smith, went on a 2,500-mile tennis expedition of six African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana — and Nigeria. Ashe played his first South African Open in November 1973, fulfilling a long-held dream by traveling to South Africa to become the first black man to play in that country’s national tennis tournament.
Arthur Ashe readies for a serve during the 1976 World Championship Tennis (WTC) Lagos Tennis Classic, commonly known as the Lagos Open (left). A tournament poster.
One man who especially took notice was Olatunji Ajisomo Abubakar Sadiq Alabi, better known as Lord Rumens, a Nigerian tycoon, philanthropist and socialite. Then president of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club in 1976, Rumans invited Ashe to Nigeria to play in the $60,000 World Championship Tennis (WCT) Lagos Tennis Classic, also known as the Lagos Open. Up until January 1976, all seemed relatively calm in a country 16 years out of independence from Great Britain. But in January, demonstrations in front of the U.S. Embassy started taking place on a daily basis. Ashe and his entourage decided to fly to Lagos anyway — potential upheaval or not. But on that Friday, February 13th —the fourth day of the Open — General Murtala Mohammed, the Nigerian Head of State, was stuck in a traffic jam when a lieutenant colonel named Bukar Suka Dimka, and three other officers filled his metallic-black Mercedes Benz with bullets. Mohammed died on site. Forces loyal to Mohammed crushed the coup several hours later.
John McDonald, the International Director of the WCT, pushed for the players to continue despite the tumultuous conditions. The matches resumed Sunday, February 15th with four Americans (Dick Stockton, Bob Lutz, Ashe and Jeff Borowiak) in the quarterfinals. On Monday, February 16, 1976, middle class Nigerians filled the terraces of the 75-year-old LLTC to the brim, ready to watch their black hero play his semi-final match against Borowiak. Ashe had just won the first set in a tie-break and was about to serve at a game apiece when five men marched on to the court. One of the soldiers shoved the barrel of his machine gun into the back of Ashe’s sweat-soaked shirt. Another, an army Captain loyal to Mohammed, shouted at the crowd “What are you doing? We are in mourning. You are making money!” Ashe and Borowiak walked off the court with arms raised, leaving their gear behind. Everyone else ran for their lives.
(Left to right) American player, Jeff Borowiak, Arthur Ashe, footballer Pelé, and Dutch player, Tom Okker, hanging out during a tournament — and a 1976 military coup — in Lagos, Nigeria.
Donald Easum, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, had been watching the semi-final match with his security detail. Once outside the stadium, he located Ashe and Borowiak and secured vehicles to transport them to the Embassy. On their way, Ashe and Borowiak’s car came across another traffic jam caused by a soldier beating a Nigerian spectator in the middle of the road. The players got out of the car and ran to the Embassy on foot. The 18-man WCT contingent comprising 14 players, including Ashe, two officials and two English journalists departed in a convoy of cars with an armed police escort the next morning for Lagos International Airport they boarded a military aircraft bound for Accra, Ghana — the first foreigners allowed to leave after the failed coup. “The incident has done a lot of damage to Black Africa. Anyone wanting to play a tournament there now will probably hesitate,” Ashe lamented to Jet magazine. “Unfortunately, that’s the mentality toward Black Africa.” And toward many other places, as well. Will Saudi Arabia and China change it?
Center court of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, where Arthur Ashe played in the 1976 Lagos Open.
Things we like: The Court of Carpets in Jaipur, India, where Rohan Bopanna filmed a popular Instagram spot to coincide with the opening of Jaipur Rugs’ first London showroom. Okay, sure, it’s an endorsement, but those are some beautiful shots played on some gorgeous rugs After Wimbledon, Bohanna will head to Paris to represent India at the Olympics.
Things we think need improvement: The 2024 U.S. Open Power of Tennis poster released last week. After a stunning tribute to Billie Jean King and 50 years of the WTA, the Open, I suppose, can be excused for having an “off” year.
One of two designs by artist Chelsey Farris, a graphic designer at cloud platform Panzura. Her LinkedIn profile explains the “balls.”
Recommendations: The Wimbledon Village Windows Competition — almost as prestigious as the going-on down the road. Almost.
Adrian Brune
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