Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Date8–11 April 1896
Edition1st
SurfaceRed clay
LocationAthens Lawn Tennis Club
Champions
Men's singles
 John Boland (GBR)
Men's doubles
 John Boland / Friedrich Traun (ZZX)

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, two tennis events were contested, both for men. They began on 8 April and continued on 9 April, 10 April, and 11 April.[1] 13 or 15 competitors from six nations, including seven Greeks, took part in the tennis competition. Many of the doubles teams were of mixed nationality, including all three medalist pairs. None of the leading players of the time such as Wimbledon champion Harold Mahony, U.S champion Robert Wrenn, William Larned or Wilfred Baddeley participated. To strengthen the field, the organization added sportsmen from other Olympic events, including weightlifter Momčilo Tapavica, hammer thrower George S. Robertson and 800-metres runners Edwin Flack and Friedrich Traun.[2]

Schedule

Date 8 April 9 April 10 April 11 April
Day Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Men's singles Round 1 Quarterfinals Semifinals Final
Men's doubles Quarterfinals Semifinals — Final

Medal summary

Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics

These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given a silver medal and runners-up bronze medals. Athletes coming third received no award.

Events

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's singles[3]
 John Boland
 Great Britain		 Dionysios Kasdaglis
 Greece		 Konstantinos Paspatis
 Greece
Momčilo Tapavica
 Hungary
Men's doubles[4]
  Mixed team (ZZX)
 John Boland (GBR)
 Friedrich Traun (GER)		  Greece (GRE)
Demetrios Petrokokkinos
Dionysios Kasdaglis		  Mixed team (ZZX)
 Edwin Flack (AUS)
 George Robertson (GBR)

The silver-medal winning doubles team of Kasdaglis and Petrokokkinos appears in the IOC results database as a Greek team. In this regard:

  • Kasdaglis, a Greek national who resided in Alexandria after living in Great Britain for years, is listed as Greek in the IOC database for the singles event, but he is listed as Egyptian or British in some sources.
  • Petrokokkinos, who did not win a singles medal, is not identified with any nation in the IOC database, but all sources which state a nationality for Petrokokkinos list him as Greek.

Medal table

Singles final in 1896 Olympic tennis
RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Mixed team1012
2 Great Britain1001
3 Greece0213
4 Hungary0011
Totals (4 entries)2237

Competitors from Australia and Germany won medals only as a part of a mixed team in the doubles event.

Participating nations

A total of 13 tennis players from 6 nations competed at the Athens Games:

The International Society of Olympic Historians lists only thirteen players; according to them, British players Frank and George Marshall did not participate. Other sources do include the Marshalls, for a total of 15 players.

Notes

  1. ↑ Dates given are in the Gregorian calendar. Greece still used the Julian calendar at the time. According to that calendar, the tennis competition began on 27 March and closed on 30 March.
  2. ↑ Gillmeister, Heiner (1998). Tennis : A Cultural History (Repr. ed.). London: Leicester University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0718501952.
  3. ↑ "Athens 1896 Tennis Singles Men Results". Olympics.com. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  4. ↑ "Athens 1896 Tennis Doubles Men Results". Olympics.com. Retrieved 2021-09-02.

References

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