Tennis

What is tennis?

Tennis is a racquet sport in which two players (singles) or two pairs (doubles) hit a ball over a net into the opposing court, scoring when the opponent cannot make a legal return.^[1] It has a fully global professional game: a year-round calendar across every continent, crowned by the four Grand Slam tournaments.^[2]

How does tennis work?

Scoring is nested: points (15, 30, 40, game) build games; six games — with a tiebreak at 6–6 — build a set; matches are best of three sets, or best of five for men at the Grand Slams.^[1] Serve alternates by game, and play differs markedly across the three main surfaces — hard, clay and grass — each with its own season and specialists.^[1] [2]

Disciplines & events in tennis

The professional pyramid runs from the World Tennis Tour (formerly the ITF World Tennis Tour) through the ATP Challenger / WTA 125 level to the main ATP and WTA Tours.^{[4] [5][23]}

What are tennis's origins?

Tennis descends from the medieval French handball game jeu de paume; the modern outdoor game was codified in 1870s England — Walter Wingfield patented a lawn tennis set in 1874, and the first Wimbledon Championships followed in 1877.^[2] The international federation was founded in Paris in 1913, and the Open Era — professionals and amateurs competing together — began in 1968.^[4] [2] Tennis appeared at the first modern Olympics in 1896, left the program after 1924, and returned for good at Seoul 1988.^[3]

Where is tennis popular?

Tennis is played on every continent; Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Serbia, Great Britain), the United States, Australia and Argentina have long histories in the sport.^[2] World Tennis states that it has 214 member nations, and professional events are staged in dozens of countries every season.^[4][24]

Who governs tennis?

Tennis has an unusual shared governance structure. World Tennis (a trading name since 2026 of ITF Limited, which also trades as the International Tennis Federation, ITF, and whose constitution gives its first object as to “act as the governing body for the sport of tennis worldwide”)^[22][25] is the world federation — rules of the game, the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup, Olympic tennis, and the junior, wheelchair and entry-level professional circuits.^[4] The men's and women's professional tours are governed separately by the ATP and WTA, while each Grand Slam is staged by its national association (Tennis Australia, the FFT, the All England Club with the LTA, and the USTA).^[5] [6] National federations govern domestically, and the independent International Tennis Integrity Agency polices anti-corruption and anti-doping.^[4]

What are the most important competitions in tennis?

• The four Grand Slams — the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.^[2]
• The ATP and WTA Tours — Masters 1000 / WTA 1000 events down to 250 level, crowned by the year-end ATP Finals and WTA Finals.^[5] [6]
• National-team cups — the Davis Cup (since 1900) and Billie Jean King Cup (since 1963), plus the mixed-team United Cup.^[4]
• Olympic tennis — medals contested since 1988's return.^[3]

How is tennis awarded?

• Titles. Tournament champions — Grand Slam titles above all — define careers; there are no judged scores, only match wins.^[2]
• Ranking points. Every professional result converts to ATP or WTA ranking points; the weekly world rankings decide tournament entry and seeding.^[5] [6]
• Prize money. Professional purses run from World Tennis Tour events to Grand Slam championships worth millions; the Slams pay equal prize money to men and women.^[2] [6]
• Year-end honors. Year-end No. 1, tour awards, and the world champion designations of World Tennis (the ITF).^[4]
• College honors. In U.S. college tennis, All-America recognition is conferred through the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).^[7]

What is the college role in tennis?

U.S. college tennis is a major development route: NCAA team and individual championships are contested each May, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) runs the rankings and All-America honors, and rosters are heavily international.^[7] [8] A long line of top professionals — from John Isner and Danielle Collins to Cameron Norrie and Ben Shelton — reached the ATP and WTA tours through college programs, and college results feed directly into the pro pathway via ITA–ITF accelerator programs.^[7]

Which media cover tennis?

Tennis has a deep dedicated press: Tennis Channel (U.S. television), TENNIS Magazine and TENNIS.com, and international outlets such as Tennis Majors, alongside blanket coverage of the Slams by ESPN, BBC Sport, Eurosport and the world's sports dailies — L'Équipe (Roland-Garros' home paper), Marca and La Gazzetta dello Sport among them.^[2] The official ATP and WTA ranking databases are the sport's records of standing, with UTR the rating standard of the college game.^[5] [6]

→ Full list: Top media in tennis

Who has won the most in tennis?

Grand Slam singles titles, all-time and Open Era (since 1968), through the 2026 US Open, won by Alexander Zverev and Elena Rybakina; neither result changes the tables below.^[9][26] Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles are as the competitions' own honour rolls count them: the Davis Cup lists predecessor teams (Australasia, British Isles, Czechoslovakia) as separate rows; the Billie Jean King Cup merges them.

Most Grand Slam singles titles — men, all-time

Open Era only (since 1968) — men

Most Grand Slam singles titles — women, all-time

Open Era only — women

Most Davis Cup titles — countries

Most Billie Jean King Cup (Fed Cup) titles — countries

Ties are broken by gold, then silver; a tie at tenth place is shown in full when four or fewer share it. Historic teams are kept as separate rows exactly as the source counts them. Verified September 2026.^{[9] [10] [11] [12] [13]}

Which brands supply and sponsor tennis?

Tennis runs two approval questions from one rulebook. Rule 3 requires that a ball used in a tournament played under the Rules of Tennis “must be named on the official ITF list of approved balls”; Rule 4 instead has the ITF “rule on the question of whether any racket or prototype complies with Appendix II”, with no racket list published.^[14] The 2026 ball-approval procedures (E97-010 rev. 25) state that “ITF Approval does not imply any other form of approval or endorsement”.^[15] The annual technical booklet, read on 20 September 2026, directs readers to the approved-ball list on the ITF’s tennis technology pages.^[16]

Kit is regulated by the tournament, not by a supplier licence. The 2026 Grand Slam Rule Book requires “clean and customarily acceptable tennis attire” as determined by each tournament, exceptions going from manufacturers to the Director of Rules and Regulations, its grass-court shoe appendix adding that “No manufacturer’s identification is to be used on the base of the outsole”.^[17] Limits on marks worn sit with the sponsorship and athlete marketing rules.

Designations are bought separately from approval. Dunlop has held the Official Ball of the ATP Tour designation since 2019 and extended it through 2028 on 17 November 2023;^[18] EQT was announced on 3 June 2026 as “the first official private markets partner of the ATP Tour”, through 2030.^[19]

Badge and instrument differ in timing and measurement. Rolex states that it became Official Timekeeper of Wimbledon in 1978; its 2022 Roland-Garros release calls it Premium Partner and Official Timekeeper there for a fourth consecutive year.^[20] Line calls are separate: the ATP announced on 28 April 2023 tour-wide adoption of Electronic Line Calling Live from 2025, noting that “Multiple suppliers are currently approved to provide ELC Live technology on hard court and on grass”.^[21]