Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics

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]

Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Date	8–11 April 1896
Edition	1st
Surface	Red clay
Location	Neo Phaliron Velodrome Athens Lawn Tennis Club
Champions
Men's Singles
John Boland (GBR)
Men's Doubles
John Boland / Friedrich Traun (ZZX)

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	John Boland  Great Britain	Dionysios Kasdaglis  Greece	Konstantinos Paspatis  Greece
			Momčilo Tapavica  Hungary
Men's doubles	Mixed team (ZZX)  John Boland (GBR)  Friedrich Traun (GER)	Dionysios Kasdaglis and Demetrios Petrokokkinos (GRE)	Mixed team (ZZX)  Edwin Flack (AUS)  George Robertson (GBR)

The doubles team of Kasdaglis and Petrokokkinos appears in the IOC results database as a mixed team. Kasdaglis is listed as Greek in the database for the singles event. Petrokokkinos, not having won a singles medal, is not identified with any nation in the IOC database; however, all sources which do give a nationality for Petrokokkinos give it as Greek. Kasdaglis, a Greek national residing in Alexandria after years in Great Britain, is listed as Egyptian or as British in some sources.

Medal table

Singles final in 1896 Olympic tennis

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Mixed team	1	1	1	3
2	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
3	Greece	0	1	1	2
4	Hungary	0	0	1	1
Totals (4 nations)		2	2	3	7

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

Participating nations

A total of 15 tennis players from 6 nations competed at the Athens Games:

•  Australia (1)
•  France (1)
•  Germany (1)
•  Great Britain (4)
•  Greece (7)
•  Hungary (1)

The International Society of Olympic Historians gives only thirteen players; according to them British players Frank and George Marshall did not participate.

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.

References

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at )
• Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at )
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.