ITF

The very first 'open' tournament, in which professional players were allowed to compete alongside amateurs, was the British Hard Court Championships, which started on 22 April 1968 at the West Hants Tennis Club in Bournemouth, a seaside town on Britain's south coast. This was the first of 12 open tournaments for the year sanctioned by the ITF, then known as the ILTF. Fellow pros Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver made it through to the final, with Australia's Rosewall beating his younger countryman 3-6 6-2 6-0 6-3 to pick up the £1,000 winner's cheque. Virginia Wade won the women's title with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Winnie Shaw, but declined to accept her prize money cheque of £300 amid fears at what turning pro still might mean at that stage. Britain's Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) returned to the West Hants Club this April to celebrate 50 years of open tennis. The former British No. 1 Tim Henman took part in the LTA's celebrations alongside players who competed in Bournemouth in 1968, including Sue Mappin, Frances McLennan, John Paish and Mark Cox. There were also exhibition matches featuring past and future stars of British tennis. The players were joined by the ITF's COO Kelly Fairweather, Chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis Club Philip Brook, LTA Deputy President David Rawlinson, and West Hants Tennis Club's Chief Executive Peter Elviss and Chairman Edwin Bessant. "Players of my generation owe a great debt of gratitude to the LTA and those players who 50 years ago ushered in the professional era for our sport – it was a huge game changer for players and tennis across the world," said Henman. Where it all began before 1968, the women also profited from open tennis, although their prize money was vastly below the men's. That discrepancy unleashed the anger that led to the formal birth of the women's tennis movement in 1970, notably the efforts of Gladys Heldman and Billie Jean King which were documented in the early scenes of last year's Hollywood movie The Battle of the Sexes. The players may have begun the process of professionalisation, but the administration of tennis still had a long way to go, and in 1973, the new world of professional players clashed with the old world of amateur organisation. The newly formed Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) threatened to boycott Wimbledon in a dispute that was, in reality, about the players' ability to control their own schedules. The players effectively won, and within 18 months the men's circuit had been restructured with the ILTF, players and tournaments each having a third of the votes. That same year saw the King v Riggs exhibition match in Houston, which had no official significance but King's victory was a major fillip for the nascent women's circuit. Open tennis also forced the ILTF to professionalise itself. The biggest outward sign was the dropping of the 'Lawn' in 1977 to become the ITF, but the revolution overseen by Philippe Chatrier (the ITF's first professional President) and David Gray (a former journalist who became ITF general secretary) went much deeper, and included a new slimline Davis Cup and tennis getting back into the Olympics. To some purists, open tennis killed the sport's soul, but it's hard to see how it could ever have been avoided. There have been developments over the past 50 years that some welcome and others lament, yet perhaps the most remarkable thing is that, despite all the changes, tennis would still seem largely recognisable to a time traveller who left us in 1968 and returned now. ■ Francoise Durr, Ann Jones, Rosie Casals and Billie Jean King, pictured at 1968 Wimbledon, were the National Tennis League's first female pros ITFWorld // SPRING 2018 23 The Bournemouth tournament in 1968 Gathered at the West Hants Club: Philip Brook, John Paish, Sue Mappin, Frances McLennan, Mark Cox and David Rawlinson

• Cover