Tennis is a sport played between either two players (singles) or two teams of two players each (doubles). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a ball, a hollow rubber sphere covered in felt, over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis used to be called lawn tennis to distinguish it from its predecessor real tennis (also known as royal tennis, court tennis or jeu de paume), a form of the game played indoors on a different kind of a court. Originating in England in the late 19th century, the game spread first throughout the English-speaking world, particularly among the upper classes. Tennis is played in the Summer Olympic Games and at all levels of society, by individuals of all ages many countries around the world. Its rules have remained largely unchanged since the 1890s. Along with its millions of players, tennis claims millions of people who follow the sport as spectators, being particularly interested in the four Grand Slam tournaments.

The US Open tennis tournament is chronologically the fourth and final event of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It is held annually in August and September over a two-week period (the weeks before and after Labor Day weekend). The main tournament consists of five championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players. Since 1978, the tournament has been played on acrylic hard court at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York City. The complex was renamed after King during the 2006 US Open.

The US Open differs from the other three Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon Championships) in that there are final-set tiebreaks. In the other three majors, the fifth set for the men and the third set for the women continue until someone wins by two games.

...More selections

Read more...

Rafael Nadal (Catalan pronunciation: [rəˈfɛl nəˈðal pəˈɾeɾə], Spanish pronunciation: [rafaˈel naˈðal paˈɾeɾa]; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His success on clay has earned him the nickname "The King of Clay", and has prompted many experts to regard him as the greatest clay court player of all time. Nadal has won 14 Grand Slam singles titles, the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, a record 18 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, and also was part of the Spain Davis Cup team that won the finals in 2004, 2008 and 2009.

He completed the career Grand Slam by winning the 2010 US Open, being the seventh player in history, and the youngest in the open era, to achieve it. He is the second male player to complete the Career Golden Slam (winner of the four grand slams and the Olympic Gold medal) after Andre Agassi. By winning the 2014 French Open, Nadal became the only male player to win a single Grand Slam tournament nine times and the first to win at least one Grand Slam tournament for ten consecutive years.

Nadal was ranked world No. 2, behind Roger Federer, for a record 160 consecutive weeks before earning the top spot, which he held from 18 August 2008 to 5 July 2009. He regained the world No.1 ranking on 7 June 2010, after winning his fifth French Open title.

More selected biographies

Read more...

“	He's like a cat with seven lives...Nine lives? How many do they have? [Questioner: Nine.]. Yeah, I thought so. Seven would have been easy.	”
— Roger Federer, on Lleyton Hewitt after his semifinal win at Cincinnati Masters, 2007

More selected quotes

Read more

• April 1, 2018 - Sloane Stephens won the title at the Miami Open, defeating Jeļena Ostapenko in straight sets. It was Stephens' sixth career singles title, first Premier Mandatory title, and first title since winning the US Open in September 2017. On the men's side, John Isner won his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title, defeating Alexander Zverev in three sets.

Portal:Tennis/Did you know/02 2025

---

• Create requested tennis articles, or expand tennis stubs.
• Visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Tennis/Assessment, and help out by assessing requested articles.
• Add summaries of good tennis articles and biographies to the list of Selected Articles and list of Selected Biographies.
• Add the Template:WikiProject Tennis tag to talk pages of tennis articles.
• Check the cleanup page and help improve the selected articles.
• Check the article guidelines for areas you may wish to edit in.
• Find images for Category:Wikipedia requested images of tennis people.

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject: