A unique tennis history book that summarizes 143 years of tennis history.

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If you’d like to buy the PDF version, please contact the author by sending an email to: mazak.karoly[at]gmail[dot]com. The payment instructions will be sent to you. After successful payment, you’ll receive the PDF version by email. The pdf version costs $9.99, same as the Kindle.

Complete tennis history

The book describes the most important tournaments, players and matches for every year between 1877 and 2020 with many interesting facts.

World rankings

Ever wondered who was the best player in 1889? Or in 1912? This book answers your questions with male and female world rankings for every year!

Player descriptions

Hundreds of player descriptions, with more than 100 before 1946, help you better understand the strengths and playing styles of the champions of early times as well.

Clear structure

The book has a clear structure that helps you navigate through the history of tennis. One page for every year, containing a descriptive part followed by world rankings tables.

Length: 154 pages

One pager per year for every year between 1877 and 2020. In addition, the book contains an introduction, a short overview on the origins of tennis, a bibliography, index to the player descriptions and finally a list of the best tennis matches of all time.

10th Edition

The current, Tenth Edition, published in 2021, contains not only a wealth of information on the early history of tennis, but also provides an overview of the actualities.

Available as: Pdf / Kindle / Paperback

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Author’s message

Welcome dear Visitor,

All available tennis history books tackle tennis history unevenly in two main respects. They usually give very little information on the pre-1919 years and do not give enough weight to professional tennis before 1968. I decided to overcome these limitations in my book.

It was not until the groundbreaking publication of Joe McCauley’s “The History of Professional Tennis” (Short Run Book Company, Windsor, 2000) that substantial information on early professionals became available.As for the first four decades of tennis history before World War I, there is still little detailed information, so I visited the Kenneth Ritchie Wimbledon Library to collect results from contemporary tennis magazines.

I have devoted one page for each year between 1877 and 2020. Each page contains a short summary of the major events in that particular year, and year-end rankings in tabulated form that show the performance of the top players at the major events.

The greatest novelty lies in the rankings, as no world rankings have yet been published before 1913, and professional players have usually been omitted from rankings before 1968. To arrive at my rankings I have taken into account contemporary classifications made by tennis journalists, and official national rankings. In combining amateur and professional players before 1968 I took into account the rankings of Ray Bowers and Robert Geist, and had fruitful discussions with them and some other tennis experts.

You can download a Book Sample for free before purchasing the full version. All the pages have the same structure.

If you had any questions, comments, or simply would like to reach out to me, please use the contact form below.

With kind regards,
The Author, Karoly Mazak, PhD

Testimonials

"This is a tremendous effort and undoubtedly a fine document for future reference. The summary of each year and the ranking list attached will serve many researcher in the future. We will be pleased to put a copy on our shelves."

Alan Little Honorary Librarian, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum April 20, 2010

"The Concise History of Tennis (2010), by Karoly Mazak. This e-book is a year-by-year account of (lawn) tennis between 1877 and 2009. Each page contains a short summary of the major events in that particular year, and combined (amateur and professional) year-end rankings in tabulated form that show the performance of the top players at the major events. The greatest novelty of this work is the year-end rankings before 1913. The author has used as many sources as possible, including contemporary magazine classifications (Pastime, Lawn Tennis and Badminton) and official national rankings. The e-book is available at a website with the same name or can be consulted at the Wimbledon tennis library."

Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_number_1_male_tennis_player_rankings November 24, 2014

Structured Data, Review
Title: The Concise History of Tennis
Reviewed by Attila Hardy
Rating: 5.0
Summary: A terrific book about the history of tennis!
Description: Highly recommended for everyone interested in the history of tennis, particularly to those who seek information about the early years of the sport. The wealth of information that can be found in this book is outstanding.