Since 1899, just 25 years after the first recorded playing of the sport in America, tennis tournaments have been staged in Cincinnati. That legacy is celebrated in vivid fashion in the book “From Club Court to Center Court, The Evolution of Professional Tennis in Cincinnati.”
The book, now in its ninth edition, is the first complete compilation of tournament information ever produced. "It contains details about the Cincinnati tournament that were never published before," said author Phil Smith. "The tournament entered its third century of existence in 2000, but until very recently we had very little information about the years 1899 to 1968, also known as the Pre-Open Era."
One complicating factor in uncovering the details of the Pre-Open era was that the dates of the tournament each year weren't known. And without a tournament date one could spend hours searching newspaper archives with little success.
Enter Frank Phelps of Philadelphia. "Phelps is supposedly the only person in the world with a complete collection of 'tennis annuals'," Smith said.
"These were little books published annually - as the name implies - by Spalding and another sporting goods company, Wright & Ditsons. The annuals detailed the previous year on the U.S. tennis circuit. He graciously provided copies of the pertinent pages from those rare books, and from some other old tennis magazines as well. From those pages, we found the tournament dates and a wealth of information about the Cincinnati tournament. It was a great start, but it wasn't quite enough."
Armed with those dates, Smith and others went to the Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the Fort Wayne, Indiana, library and other libraries to get newspaper articles from the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Cincinnati Post, the Cincinnati Times-Star, the Indianapolis Star, Fort Wayne newspapers, and others.
"Nine months and approximately 2,400 pages of photocopied articles later, we had the book," Smith said. "We now know who won this event, who lost it, who ran it, when it was played, what trophies were awarded, what the winners looked like, why it had different names over the years...we even know when it was interrupted by rain. We know it had connections to the Titanic, to Procter & Gamble, even to the death of a President.
"The format of the book is part narrative, part statistical reference," Smith said. "The first section of the book is a year-by-year account of the tournament, describing players and significant events surrounding each year. After that section, the rest of the book presents information in bullet form, making it easy to pick out the information of interest. You can see who's been seeded No. 1 the most, what finals have been interrupted by rain, who won the mixed doubles title in 1907, who's made the most finals appearances, who's the youngest quarterfinalist, the record and name of every single player who's played here in the Open Era, all the draws of the Open Era, the list of players who've made the Final Eight, and on and on."
The book tells the story of a tournament that has been part of the tennis landscape since the 19th century. Long before the likes of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Pat Rafter played the game, Cincinnatians thrilled to the tennis artistry of such legends as Tony Trabert, Bill Johnston, Bill Tilden, Bill Talbert, Bobby Riggs, Beals Wright and Pancho Segura, to name a few.
The book also has helped the tournament discover its place as the oldest tournament in the nation still played in its original city. Two tournaments are older than Cincinnati - The US Open and San Jose. However, the tournament now known as the US Open, now played in New York, was played in Rhode Island for its first few decades, and the San Jose event was originally played in Monterey, California, which is 75 miles south of San Jose.
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To order your copy of From Club Court to Center Court call the tournament at 513-651-0303, or send an e-mail to info@cincytennis.com, or write to the Western & Southern Financial MASTERS & WOMEN’S OPEN, 250 East Fifth Street, Suite 1310, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45202.
Total cost is $17.95 (including shipping and handling).