THE GRASS COURT TENNIS TOURNAMENT

The Grass Court Tennis Tournament is a weekend in late June on grass courts in Southampton, on Long Island, for sixteen members: a singles draw on the Saturday, doubles and a consolation round on the Sunday, and luncheon on the lawn between. The players call their own lines.

It exists so that members who play meet across a net rather than a table, and so that the Court plays the game on the surface it was made for.

The Grass

Lawn tennis was a game for lawns. Major Wingfield patented it in 1874 for the croquet lawns of English houses, and the first championship, at Wimbledon in 1877, was held to pay for the roller that kept the club’s grass flat.

It crossed the Atlantic the same year it was patented, to a lawn at Nahant, outside Boston, and the first national championship was played in 1881 on the grass of the Newport Casino. James Gordon Bennett had built the Casino after a friend of his was dismissed from the Newport Reading Room; the story on Bellevue Avenue is that Bennett had bet him he would not ride his horse onto its porch.

The championship stayed on grass until 1974, and left it for clay the next year. Wimbledon has been the only major on grass since 1988.

Grass is dear to keep and unplayable when wet, which is why so little of it is left. On it the ball skids, stays low and keeps its speed, points are short, and the serve and the volley decide them. It rewards nerve.

The Weekend

Sixteen places. The singles draw is made on the Saturday morning and played through the day, the best of three sets. The eight who lose in the first round go into a consolation draw of their own.

Luncheon is on the lawn beside the courts on both days, between the morning and afternoon rounds.

On the Sunday the doubles are drawn, with pairs made by lot, and the consolation round is finished. The two finals are played in the late afternoon, with everyone watching.

Lines are called by the player on whose side the ball lands, and a doubt goes to the opponent. There are no umpires and no arguments.

What Is Asked

Tennis whites, and nothing else, as at Wimbledon.

A racket of one’s own, and flat-soled shoes that will not mark the grass.

A player who enters plays both days.

Nobody is pitched between sets.

The Places

Sixteen. It is a draw of four rounds, and what the courts can play through in two days.

Members are written to in March.

The sum is stated in the invitation and covers the courts, the balls and luncheon on both days.

Wimbledon opens the same week, and the Court is there for its second week.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.