Tennis at the 1912 Summer Olympics

At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden eight tennis events were contested divided over two tournaments; an indoor covered courts tournament, played on wood, held from May 5 until May 12 and an outdoor hard court tournament, played on clay, held from June 28 until July 5.[1]

Tennis at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Date	5–12 May 1912 (indoor) 29 June–5 July 1912 (outdoor)
Edition	5th
Surface	Wood (indoor) Clay (outdoor)
Location	Östermalm Tennis Pavilion, Östermalm
Champions
Men's outdoor singles
Charles Winslow (RSA)
Women's outdoor singles
Marguerite Broquedis (FRA)
Men's outdoor doubles
Harold Kitson / Charles Winslow (RSA)
Mixed outdoor doubles
Dorothea Köring / Heinrich Schomburgk (GER)
Men's indoor singles
André Gobert (FRA)
Women's indoor singles
Edith Hannam (GBR)
Men's indoor doubles
Maurice Germot / André Gobert (FRA)
Mixed indoor doubles
Edith Hannam / Charles Dixon (GBR)

Tennis on covered courts was agreed initially for the 1912 Games, with competitions run for gentlemen's singles and doubles, ladies' singles and mixed doubles.[2] The outdoor tournament was confirmed once the Östermalm Athletic Grounds were completed in late 1911, with the plans modified to have both indoor and outdoor tournaments.[3]

Six countries sent players for the covered court competitions, with representatives from Sweden, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Australasia and Bohemia appearing. Included in this lineup was Australasia's only competitor, the New Zealander Anthony Wilding, who was also the reigning Wimbledon gentlemen's champion.[4] The indoor knockout competition started on 5 May, and continued as expected until the semi final round where Wilding was beaten by Britain's Charles P. Dixon.[5] The British player met Frenchman André Gobert in the final, but Gobert was victorious over the Englishman in straight sets. Wilding took the bronze medal in a playoff against another British player, Arthur Lowe.[6]

The outdoors tennis competition saw seventy players enter from twelve nations. However, Great Britain did not enter any competitors as the dates of the outdoor competition clashed with the 1912 Wimbledon Championships despite attempts by the British authorities to convince the Olympic organizing committee to change the dates. Other noted tennis players including Anthony Wilding, André Gobert and Arthur Gore refused to compete at the Olympics and instead attended Wimbledon.[7] The gold and silver medals in the gentlemen's singles ended up being decided between two South Africans, with Charles Winslow and Harold Kitson playing each other. Winslow won the match and the gold medal, 7–5, 4–6, 10–8, 8–6.[8] The duo also competed as a pair in the gentlemen's doubles and took the gold medal, beating the Austrians Felix Pipes and Arthur Zborzil.[9] Marguerite Broquedis of France defeated Dorothea Koring of Germany in the ladies' singles for the gold medal.[10] In the mixed double Koring teamed up with Heinrich Schomburgk to win the gold, the duo defeating Sigrid Fick and Gunnar Setterwall of Sweden in the final.[11]

Medal summary

Events

Outdoor

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's singles	Charles Winslow  South Africa	Harold Kitson  South Africa	Oscar Kreuzer  Germany
Men's doubles	South Africa (RSA) Harold Kitson Charles Winslow	Austria (AUT) Felix Pipes Arthur Zborzil	France (FRA) Albert Canet Édouard Mény de Marangue
Women's singles	Marguerite Broquedis  France	Dorothea Köring  Germany	Molla Bjurstedt  Norway
Mixed doubles	Germany (GER) Dorothea Köring Heinrich Schomburgk	Sweden (SWE) Sigrid Fick Gunnar Setterwall	France (FRA) Marguerite Broquedis Albert Canet

Indoor

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's singles	André Gobert  France	Charles Dixon  Great Britain	Anthony Wilding  Australasia
Men's doubles	France (FRA) Maurice Germot André Gobert	Sweden (SWE) Carl Kempe Gunnar Setterwall	Great Britain (GBR) Alfred Beamish Charles Dixon
Women's singles	Edith Hannam  Great Britain	Sofie Castenschiold  Denmark	Mabel Parton  Great Britain
Mixed doubles	Great Britain (GBR) Edith Hannam Charles Dixon	Great Britain (GBR) Helen Aitchison Herbert Roper Barrett	Sweden (SWE) Sigrid Fick and Gunnar Setterwall

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	France (FRA)	3	0	2	5
2	Great Britain (GBR)	2	2	2	6
3	South Africa (RSA)	2	1	0	3
4	Germany (GER)	1	1	1	3
5	Sweden (SWE)	0	2	1	3
6	Austria (AUT)	0	1	0	1
	Denmark (DEN)	0	1	0	1
8	Australasia (ANZ)	0	0	1	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (9 nations)		8	8	8	24

Participating nations

A total of 82 tennis players (69 men and 13 women) from 14 nations (men from 14 nations - women from 6 nations) competed at the Stockholm Games:

•  Australasia (1) (men:1 women:0)
•  Austria (3) (men:3 women:0)
•  Bohemia (8) (men:8 women:0)
•  Denmark (10) (men:9 women:1)
•  France (6) (men:5 women:1)
•  Germany (7) (men:6 women:1)
•  Great Britain (11) (men:8 women:3)
•  Hungary (6) (men:6 women:0)
•  Netherlands (1) (men:1 women:0)
•  Norway (7) (men:6 women:1)
•  Russia (2) (men:2 women:0)
•  South Africa (3) (men:3 women:0)
•  Sweden (16) (men:10 women:6)
•  United States (1) (men:1 women:0)

References

1. "Tennis at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
2. Official Report (1913): p. 616.
3. Official Report (1913): p. 617.
4. Official Report (1913): p. 618.
5. Official Report (1913): p. 620.
6. Official Report (1913): p. 621.
7. Official Report (1913): p. 630.
8. Official Report (1913): p. 633.
9. Official Report (1913): p. 634.
10. Official Report (1913): p. 636.
11. Official Report (1913): p. 637.

External links

• International Olympic Committee medal database