Tennis in Themiclesia

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Tennis (Shinasthana: 反奠, pran-drjingh) was first attested in Themiclesia as the influence of real tennis in a 17th-century version of the game of balls, but the game of lawn tennis was first played in Themiclesia in 1879. The latter game originally enjoyed little popularity but gained a following in social clubs around 1895, with the first tournament held in 1899. Tennis evolved from an elite, social sport to a competitive sport in the 1920s but was not popular with the general public until after the Pan-Septentrion War. Between 1947 and 1983, multiple Themiclesian players won major titles in both the amateur and professional games and achieved international recognition, but the nation's dominance in top levels has declined since.

Themiclesia is home to the Lawn Tennis Open Championships of Themiclesia, which is considered one of the four major events in tennis culture.

History

Early history

The game of balls evolved from one that focused on fighting for a ball to one that rewarded moving the ball to a scoring area and not allowing it to come to rest on the ground in the course of the 16th century. Most sports historians attribute this evolution to influence from real tennis, but there is to date no conclusive evidence that real tennis was ever played in Themiclesia or immediate peripheries. A minority of historians argue that the apparent changes in rules were not the result of foreign influence, but domestic evolution. Several written references have been made by Themiclesian merchants and diplomats who went to Casaterra, where the game was played. It is thought that they may have introduced elements of real tennis to balls, which then lost its combative aspect and became more strategic (contact is not allowed in the modern version of balls).

Lawn tennis was brought to Themiclesia by E. R. Ben, who was the Themiclesian consul in Hadaway between 1871 and 1877. The first ever game in Themiclesia was, apparently, played in his very lawn in Kien-k'ang having brought a commercially-sold set of equipment home. Nevertheless, the game did not spread further from his household for some years, as much of the Themiclesian gentry at that time thought that physical exertion was unbecoming of their status. This changed by the end of the 19th century, and games like lawn tennis and croquet became more popular in social clubs in the capital city. In 1894, only a single club was known to have provided premises for the game, but by 1896 six had adopted it for summer entertainment. By 1898, "every fashionable club in the city has a lawn for the playing of the game called 'lawn-tennis'."

In 1899, the first inter-club tournament was held under the name of Lower Themiclesia Lawn Games, inviting "young gentlemen accomplished in the skills of lawn-tennis" to compete. Evidently, older gentlemen were not explicitly invited because they were more likely to be engaged in "serious work" like politics and legal practice, and games like tennis were still considered somewhat incompatible with their social position. Yet for the monied and socially-active young men, tennis became a popular game. A ladies' tournament began in 1902. The introduction of sports had a considerable impact on club culture in Themiclesia, prompting clubs to specialize in providing sports, food, or exclusivity from rivals; some providing sporting facilities felt confident in their ability to retain members even moving to less central areas, where more courts could be built.

45 tennis-playing clubs founded the Themiclesian Lawn Tennis Committee in 1907 to organize tournaments and oversee competitive standards, and in 1908 the Lower Themiclesian Lawn Games were renamed the Themiclesian Lawn Tennis Championships. Some of the early tournaments were played between teams representing clubs, but others were entered individually. The TLTC, with one vote per member club, adopted the rule of amateurism in 1910 to prevent wealthier clubs from bribing players from other clubs to improve their teams in club-versus-club tournaments. The same rule also prevented clubs from paying non-members to play on their behalf, which was advocated by the social reformer S. R. Krep, who argued that all clubs should open their doors to non-members because sports brought a "classless benefit".

Pre-war era

The TLTC was particularly interested in bolstering the reputation of Themiclesian tennis in its early years and to this end set up a ten-tournament calendar in 1915 for players' convenience and to eliminate scheduling issues. Most players who could afford to play continuously in this era possessed considerable wealth as the tournaments did not offer much prize money. In 1924, the International Lawn Tennis Federation recognized the Themiclesian Championships as a major event. The decision was not uncontroversial, as Themiclesia's tennis-playing population still lagged behind other states where tennis was popular, but the TLTC compensated for this fact by presenting a robust list of events and revenues from the crowds that they drew. According to some, the ILTF also considered the future promotion of tennis in the Orient, and Themiclesia's tournaments were, relatively speaking, the best-attended and most accessible in Hemithea. There is a persistent rumour that the TLTC offered a $10,000 bribe to some members of the ILTF, but this remains unsubstantiated.

The first stadium dedicated to tennis was erected in 1919 on the grounds of the Tsikw Lawn Club; with a seating capacity of 3,500, it was the largest sporting venue in Themiclesia. A smaller stadium was built in Samia Club in 1920, and the Themiclesian Championships bounced between the grounds of the two clubs until after the war. To promote the Themiclesian Championships, the TLTC offered free hotel rooms to foreign players coming to play, though in the 20s and 30s the event had the weakest draw amongst the major events by a considerable margin. Top players did not frequently play in Themiclesia, and the Championships were considered a lesser event, despite formal recognition by the ILTF.

The first Themiclesian professional, Martin Duk (1892 – 1976), signed a 100-match contract with an Anglian promoter in 1925 and played in Anglia, Sieuxerr, and Tol Galen. His performance was unremarkable according to contemporaries, and when he retired from professional playing he became a coach in the Lang-pin Club helping members improve their games.

PSW

The development of tennis was interrupted by the Pan-Septentrion War. As many renowned players entered the armed forces, the habit of playing tennis spread into parts of the forces stationed close to tennis courts. Various bases of the Themiclesian Air Force mowed corners of aerodromes to install tennis courts, but other units also took advantage of nearby facilities. Some private clubs voluntarily permitted military officers to play at their facilities without membership as part of the Armed Forces Leisure Establishment's initiatives; however, this privilege was not automatically extended to non-officers. Even at clubs not participating in the Establishment's initiative, officers with membership at one club could often persuade another club's officials to permit temporary use of facilities. By the end of the war, regular tournaments were held between the services and regiments, and long-standing rivalries developed.

Post-war boom

Starting the national reconstruction in 1943, the government actively supported the suburbanization of Themiclesia's two largest cities, Kien-k'ang and Rak. Government directives encouraged planners to include leisure and sports facilities in new, less-dense communities, as a remedy for dismal sanitary conditions in urban slums, and their effects on health, revealed by the war. Many planners preferred tennis courts, particularly around Kien-k'ang, to fulfill these directives. This was because tennis courts did not require any superstructure or foundations, but only a lawn, net-posts, and fences. Grass courts were considered cheaper to erect compared to hard and clay courts, which either required foundations or regular maintenance. Even the net was often replaced with a rope. As grass grew naturally in most places, planners believed that the community only needed a roller, lawn mower, and white paint for lines to maintain the courts. Two players required only racquets and balls.

The plenitude of tennis courts and players returning from the forces resulted in a boom in tennis and related activities in Themiclesia starting in 1947. The image of a family enjoying tennis together was promoted as the Government's successful settlement of veterans, who numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and their re-integration into domestic life. For the first time, the centre of tennis-playing shifted from private clubs to public courts, which numbered 4,000 nationally by 1950. A larger tennis-playing population also created demand for coaching and local tournaments, which the TLTC was quick to fulfill. Moreover, the middle-class connotations of the sport rendered it attractive to many communities.

The phenomenal spread of tennis was inseparable from the success of Michael Sup, who was a discharged Air Force officer and won the Championships of Anglia in 1947, 49, and 50 in men's singles. After Sup, players like Mjat, Kar, Teng, and Ligwh in the men's game and Prat and Ka-sna in the womens' made Themiclesia a serious contender in international amateur tennis, and similar inroads were made in the professional game, which restarted in earnest in 1951. Their successes encouraged the TLTC to form a permanent team to compete in the Player's Cup, the pre-eminent championship between nations. The Cup Team also permitted the TLTC to interpose itself in the training of hopefuls and their going abroad. Cup Team and Club excursions were used as an excuse for transporting players to tournaments, when they otherwise ought to have paid for passage themselves.

Peak popularity

At the peak of the tennis craze, it is estimated that about 10% of Themiclesians (or about 3.2 million people in 1970) have played tennis at least once. Even though only a minuscule fraction thereof ever became heavily involved in the sport (and a smaller number professionally), the TLTC reached into schools, local tournaments to scout for talent and offered them free or discounted instruction. The very talented were located this way and given passage or vouchers to play at more competitive tournaments. At the same time, the private clubs that made up the TLTC also received guaranteed spots at tournaments it organized.

While there was no formal training scheme, Themiclesian players since the early 50s often showed a particular preference for net play, and the strategy of serve and volley became pre-eminent amongst high-level Themiclesian players in the late 50s. Michael Sup did not invent the strategy but utilized it to great effect in his success in Anglia. Due to Sup's reputation, the Cup Team looked for and developed foremost this strategy in new players, who often did not need encouragement to adopt an idol's style.

It has also been argued that the condition of Themiclesian public courts contributed to the ubiquity of serve and volley. As public grass courts out of maintenance often suffered from overgrowth, unevenness, divots, and bald spots, players avoided the unpredictable and skidding bounce by approaching the net and forced opponents to negotiate with the bounce (to "take the bounce" in Themiclesian jargon) by pinning them at the baseline. Underspin and slice were often employed to accentuate low and skidding bounces, and it was not unusual to aim for bald spots on court to create the same deliberately. While not all grass courts were in poor shape, different maintenance practices created much variation in playing characteristics; thus, even on well-maintained courts, top players usually avoided an unfamiliar bounce by approaching the net.

The countervailing strategy to serve and volley, for the returner, was to force the server to stay back with a powerful return or hit an upwards volley on a return aimed at their foot; ideally, this would either allow the returning to approach the net or to finish off the point by out-volleying the server. These two strategies dramatically shortened rallies. Many Themiclesian players in the 60s, like Smljem and Rje, enjoyed a reputation for highly aggressive play, seeking to end points as early as possible. The application of this style did not go unopposed by other players, many of whom adopted the same playing style.

Between 1961 and 1970, Themiclesian players captured 31% of major titles over all disciplines.

Transformation and decline

In 1967, the ILTF negotiated with the major events in Anglia, Sieuxerr, Tír Glas, and Themiclesia to allow professionals to compete in the most prestigious events, whereas they were formerly barred. After some controversy, all four events starting with Anglia in July 1968 permitted professional participation. The abolition of amateurism was thought to intensify competition and therefore create more commercial opportunities. Except on clay, serve and volley remained the dominant strategy on grass into the 1970s, but the ILTF became concerned that the convergence of playing styles hampered the promotion of the game. In the mid-70s, several important tournaments moved to new surfaces to improve viewing interest. It has been shown that a desire for longer rallies is associated with longer commercial breaks on television.

The replacement of grass courts by other surfaces has been associated by some commentators with the decline of Themiclesian dominance at the top levels of the game, leading to the conspiracy theory that the ILTF was jealous of (or even financially against) Themiclesian success and modify rules to dampen it. The decline of Themiclesian performance is linked by others to a range of other, internal problems, including insufficient financial support, institutional inflexibility, and ideological conservatism. Mark Sadh argued that the dimunution of grass courts cannot be the only reason why "the last time a Themiclesian player won a major was in 1985", since "wanting performance carries over to the remaining grass courts".

The decline in performance was very sharp and began in the late 70s with the retirement of Mik-ma and Lan, two professionals generally regarded as the most representative figures in Themiclesian tennis from 1970 to 1978. In 1989, the champion and commentator Matthew Terry noted that

Themiclesians have fallen off a cliff from professional tennis and entered a sorry state of deterioration. The juniors are not emerging. If you look at the draws at majors in their heydays, as many as a quarter came from Themiclesia, but in this decade only a handful did. Eventually the champs have to retire, and if you don't have the a large player base at a high level, you won't find new champs. Something went terribly wrong at some point. They didn't think this through.

Graphite racquets, which permitted faster and easier shots from the baseline, combined with improved playing providing true and higher bounces, have been cited as principal reasons for the decline of the serve and volley strategy, which most Themiclesian professionals utilized. Contrary to some beliefs, Themiclesian pros did not categorically hesitate in switching to newer technology, and those who persisted with wooden racquets mostly did so for familiarity, like those of other nationalities doing likewise. Yet the lack of junior development, which Terry blames for Themiclesia's implosion, may have been associated with conservative coaching technique that did not reflect current trends in playing style. Sim attributes this lag to the fact that top coaches in the Player's Cup Team were always retired champions, who almost universally played the serve and volley game. He says,

Themiclesian champions often concern themselves with the game after retirement, acting as head coaches who decided which techniques to develop in younger and forthcoming professionals. They taught the game they knew best with sincerity and a desire to support, but their game was not necessarily the game that today's playing conditions favour. As a new generation of champions failed to materialize, the older ones continued to teach outdated techniques. As late as 1999, I am told, the Player's Cup Team was still teaching serve and volley as its primary strategy, as though the year were still 1970. (!) We are led to ask why were younger coaches not imported, or their knowledge not imparted on younger players. Maybe their courts were still the ruinously bad grass courts, maybe they felt unable to appoint a nobody and retire a decorated champion, or maybe they believed that serve and volley would return in a talented player's hands. We don't know for sure, but we are trying to recovery the history of a lost generation that mostly gave up the game.

Despite this decline at the highest level, the number of amateur tennis players in Themiclesia has not suffered any serious decline until the 90s. Nevertheless, conservatism was also reported at the amateur level in the 1990s.

There is no compulsory qualification to teach tennis in Themiclesia, but those without a license issued by the TLTC are rarely employed at elite institutions. They require letters of recommendation, a voucher of good conduct, and the approval of a panel of existing, mostly veteran, coaches. These were measures imposed in the 60s to ensure quality of instruction and boost new coaches with the sheen of champions' approval. However, it seems to have created a bias in the content taught. Some licensed coaches have told me privately that, regardless what you're good at, you have to be able to teach serve and volley to convince the panel to grant the license. Teaching that style was also known, or at least rumoured, amongst applicants as the easiest way to secure their approval. And, obviously, you have to be licensed in order to sit on the licensing panel. This suggests to me that the preference for serve and volley is internally reproduced by the TLTC itself.

The state of public courts and the characteristics of the governing body have also been blamed for the decline of tennis success. Harper:

Most grass courts in Anglia and Vinya had been converted to hard courts with slower surfaces by 1990, but the TLTC did not promote the same conversion. This may be connected to the fact that the TLTC was dominated by private clubs, of which only one (2000) played on hard courts, the most typical surface. The prevalence of bad grass courts enhances the appeal of privately-manicured courts, according to the confessions of one club administrator in 1991, and many clubs could not spend the up-front money to convert their grass courts to hard courts. This was a period when private club membership was on the decline, and many clubs had to cut down on major investments. If Themiclesian tennis was still played on a surface that nowhere was common, then the coaches could persist teaching a game that wouldn't work elsewhere...

Resurgence

In the early 2000s, some commentators and former champions started a campaign to "save the Open", as a number of other events began to outdraw it in the 90s, notably in Dayashina and Hanhae. According to its most vocal proponents, if Themiclesian tennis continued to decline, the Themiclesian Open was in danger of being replaced with another event elsewhere in Hemithea; however, others believed that as long as facilities, sponsorships, and broadcasting remained popular, that would not be a realistic danger. All this, they claim, could be accomplished without successful Themiclesian players, and Themiclesian tennis fans do not appear to be sensitive to the nationality of players exhibited. The lack of Themiclesian players "is not associated with a decline in revenues at the Open", according to its memorandum to the Board of Governors.

In 2002, Charles Krim MP delivered a speech in the House of Commons accusing the TLTC, the de facto national governing body, of incompetence, close-mindedness, and self-serving tendencies in managing tennis in the country. He characterized tennis organization in Themiclesia was "more than anything else about creating royalty income for private clubs that lend grounds to tournaments." He then encouraged local tournaments to form independent associations not under the control of TLTC. The minister responsible for sports at that time responded that "courts and coaching of the first class [...] are all in private clubs" and "it would be difficult to imagine how tennis is to be organized outside of private clubs, since they do account for most tournament premises and provide the logistics of their commercial promotion and broadcast."

Notable players

Men's

  • Michael Sup (1897 – 1985):
Anglia: F (1923), SF (1922, 1924), 3R (1920)
Sieuxerr: 2R (1921, 1923)
Tír Glas: F (1923), QF (1922, 1921)
Themiclesia: W (1922, 1923, 1924)

Women's

Facilities

Governing body

The Themiclesian Lawn Tennis Committee is the de facto governing body of lawn tennis in Themiclesia, and its rules of play are regarded as standard in the country. The TLTC is composed of 163 member clubs, all of whom agree to host public tournaments only under the rules given by the TLTC. The TLTC engages in commercial and leisurely promotion of tennis in Themiclesia, most visibly by organizing tournaments, sponsorships, and broadcasting. The general assembly of clubs is the highest authority within the body and elects an executive committee to oversee its ordinary activities.

The TLTC is responsible for various rule changes implemented in the game. In 1960, as part of the international trend, the foot fault rule was amended to permit both feet to leave the ground during service; formerly, at least one foot had to remain on the ground at the point of impact. In 1973, the Themiclesian Open imitated Anglia and instituted a 12-point tie-breaker in all sets at 8-games-all, except the final set which players must win by a 2-game advantage. In the Open of 1982, the tie-breaker was moved to 6-games-all. The tie-breaker was introduced to curtail matches of prodigious length, which was argued to tax players needlessly as well as encumbered television broadcast and advertisements. Nevertheless, individual tournaments do retain the right to decide whether tie-breakers will be used and its format, only the rule must be uniform throughout the event and announced in advance. In 2019, two of the four majors have institued tie-breakers in the final set, but the Themiclesian Open is not currently considering such a change.

Tournaments

See also

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