Tennis is one of the world's most popular sports, as levels of participation and spectatorship demonstrate. Moreover, tennis has always been one of the world's most significant sports, expressing crucial fractures of social class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity - both on and off court.

This is the first book to undertake a survey of the historical and socio-cultural sweep of tennis, exploring key themes from governance, development and social inclusion to national identity and the role of the media. It is presented in three parts: historical developments; culture and representations; and politics and social issues, and features contributions by leading tennis scholars from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

The most authoritative book published to date on the history, culture and politics of tennis, this is an essential reference for any course or program examining the history, sociology, politics or culture of sport.

Robert J. Lake (Editor) is Instructor in the Department of Sport Science at Douglas College, Canada. He has written on numerous socio-historical aspects of tennis including social class, gender, national identity, media, coaching and talent development policy. His first book A Social History of Tennis in Britain (Routledge, 2015) won the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize in 2016 awarded by the British Society of Sports History.

Carol A. Osborne (Assistant Editor) is Senior Lecturer in Sport and Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Her research focuses on women in sports history and gender relations in sport. She sat on the executive committee of the British Society of Sports History (BSSH) 2007-17 and has worked as an independent History Consultant with the UK-based Sporting Heritage CIC.

1. Introduction to the History and Historiography of Tennis

Robert J. Lake

Part I: Historical Developments (Commercialization, Professionalization and the Creation of Tennis Celebrities; Globalization and Internationalization of Tennis)

2. From Folk Game to Elite Pastime: Tennis and its Patrons

Brad Hummel and Mark Dyreson

3. Grass Roots: The Development of Tennis in Britain, 1918-1978

Joyce Kay

4. Coaching and Training in British Tennis: A History of Competing Ideals

Robert J. Lake, Dave Day and Simon J. Eaves

5. Golden Years and Golden Stars: International Women's Tennis between the Wars

Elizabeth Wilson

6. A Transcendent Game Plan: Bill Tilden's Rhetorical Strategy in Defying the USLTA

John Carvalho and Michael Milford

7. Fred Perry and the amateur-professional divide in British tennis between the wars

Kevin Jefferys

8. Boris Becker and Steffi Graf: German tennis, media images and national identity

Kristian Naglo

9. The Female Hero through the Cultural Lens: Comparing Framing of Li Na in Chinese and Western Media

Steve Bien-Aimé, Haiyan Jia and Chun Yang

10. The World's Game? Globalization and the Cultural Economy of Tennis

Barry Smart

11. Jeu de Paume, Lawn Tennis and France's National Identity from the 1870s to the Musketeers Era

Patrick Clastres

12. Lawn Tennis in Ireland: The Untold History, 1870-1914

Simon J. Eaves and Tom Higgins

13. Socio-cultural Transformations of Tennis in the Czech Republic

ArnoSt Svoboda and Dino Numerato

14. A Brief Historical, Political and Social Analysis of Argentine Tennis

Robert G. Rodriguez

15. Indian Tennis: Past Perfect, Present Continuous, Future Tense

Suvam Pal

16. Tennis in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region

Mahfoud Amara

Part II: Culture and Representations (Gender, Race, Class, the Arts and Media)

17. Fashioning Competitive Lawn Tennis: Object, Image, and Reality in Women's Tennis Dress 1884-1919

Suzanne Rowland

18. Wimbledon Women: Elite Amateur Tennis Players in the Mid-Twentieth Century

Janine van Someren and Stephen Wagg

19. Beyond the "Kournikova Phenomenon": Race and Beauty in a 'Colorblind' Culture

Helen Ditouras

20. Making Work out of Play: The Troubling Gender Performances of Bill Tilden

Nathan Titman

21. Your Racquet Should Do the Talking: Masculinity and Top - Class Tennis, 1930s to the Early Twenty First Century

Stephen Wagg

22. "You've Come a Long Way Baby" but When Will You Get to Deuce? The Media (Re)presentation of Women's Tennis in the Post Open Era

John Vincent

23. Veiled Hyper-Sexualization: Deciphering Strong is Beautiful as collective identity in the WTA's global ad campaign

Travis R. Bell and Janelle Applequist

24. Warriors of the Court: Richard "Pancho" González, Rosie Casals and the History of U.S. Latino/as in Tennis

José M. Alamillo

25. Historical Changes in Playing Styles and Behavioural Etiquette in Tennis: Reflecting Broader Shifts in Social Class and Gender Relations

Robert J. Lake

26. The Seductions of Modern Tennis: Technical Invention, Social Practice, Literary Discourse

Alexis Tadie

27. Understanding Competitive Tennis through Literature and the Visual Arts: Society, Celebrity and Aesthetics

Alexis Tadie

28. The Literature of Tennis

Jeffrey O. Segrave

29. International Tennis Art

Ann Sumner

30. Tennis and the Media: A History of Shifting Attitudes toward Tennis Journalism and Broadcasting

Robert J. Lake and Simon J. Eaves

31. Exploring an Online Tennis Community

Nadina Ayer and Ron McCarville

32. Tennis & Social Media

Katie Lebel and Karen Danylchuk

Part III: Politics and Social Issues (Governance, Nationalism and Identity: Race, Gender, Class and Disability)

33. Tennis Governance: A History of Political Power Struggles

Robert J. Lake

34. Defending the Grand Slam: Government Intervention, Urban Renewal and Keeping the Australian Open

Alistair John and Brent McDonald

35. Tennis and the Olympics: An Historical Examination of their On-Off Relationship since 1896

Matthew P. Llewellyn and Robert J. Lake

36. The Wimbledon Effect: The Tennis Championships as Changing National Symbol

Stephen Wagg

37. Andy Murray and the Borders of National Identities: (Re)Claiming a Tennis Champion

John Harris

38. Racial Politics in the History of American Tennis

Sundiata Djata

39. Arthur Ashe: Politics, Racism and Tennis

Eric Allen Hall

40. The Original 9: The Social Movement That Created Women's Professional Tennis, 1968-1973

Kristi Tredway

41. Giving all women the chance: The Battle of the Sexes in Popular Culture

Jessica Luther

42. Break Point: Renée Richards and the Significance of Sex and Gender in Women's Tennis

Lindsay Parks Pieper

43. Venus and Serena are "Doing It" for Themselves: Theorizing Sporting Celebrity, Marxism and Black Feminism for the Hip-Hop Generation

Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe

44. Wheelchair Tennis: Historical Development and Narratives of Play

Linda K. Fuller

45. A History of Social Exclusion in British Tennis: From Grass Roots to the Elite Level

Robert J. Lake