Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's singles

Men's singles tennis at the Games of the I Olympiad
Singles final in 1896 Olympic tennis
Venue	Neo Phaliron Velodrome Athens Lawn Tennis Club
Dates	April 8, 1896 (first round) April 9, 1896 (quarterfinals) April 10, 1896 (semifinals) April 11, 1896 (final)
Competitors	13 from 6 nations
Medalists
John Pius Boland  Great Britain Dionysios Kasdaglis  Greece Momčilo Tapavica  Hungary Konstantinos Paspatis  Greece
1900 →

The men's singles was one of two tennis events on the Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The fifteen entrants were seeded into a single-elimination tournament, with thirteen competing. They represented six nations.^[1]

Background

This was the first appearance of the men's singles tennis. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics where tennis has been on the program: from 1896 to 1924 and then from 1988 to the current program. Demonstration events were held in 1968 and 1984.

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.^[2][3]

Competition format

Under ancient Greek single-elimination tournament rules, there were no brackets as under modern single-elimination rules; instead, all participants in a round were paired off with one bye if a round had an odd number of participants left. This format could result in a semifinals round with only three competitors, as happened in both the 1896 wrestling and doubles tennis events, which started with five wrestlers/pairs: the first round had two matches, with one wrestler/pair having a bye, and the second round had only one match, with another wrestler/pair having a bye (a modern tournament would have had one match in the first round with three byes, leading to two semifinals).

The organizers avoided this problem in the singles tennis by dividing the players into four groups, with each group playing a single elimination tournament and the winner of each group advancing to the semifinals.^[3]

No bronze medal match was held; both semifinal losers are now considered bronze medal winners (the current medal system was not used at the time).

Schedule

Draw

Key

Finals

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

First round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

K Akratopoulos (GRE)

Bye

K Akratopoulos (GRE)

D Kasdaglis (GRE)

Dionysios Kasdaglis (GRE)

J. Defert (FRA)

D Kasdaglis (GRE)

M Tapavica (HUN)

Momčilo Tapavica (HUN)

Dimitris Frangopoulos (GRE)

M Tapavica (HUN)

Bye

George Marshall (GBR)

—

—

—

Frank Marshall (GBR)

—

—

—

D Kasdaglis (GRE)

3

1

JP Boland (GBR)

6

6

Evangelos Rallis (GRE)

Demetrios Petrokokkinos (GRE)

E Rallis (GRE)

JP Boland (GBR)

John Boland (GBR)

6

2

6

Friedrich Traun (GER)

0

6

2

JP Boland (GBR)

K Paspatis (GRE)

Konstantinos Paspatis (GRE)

George Robertson (GBR)

K Paspatis (GRE)

A Akratopoulos (GRE)

Aristidis Akratopoulos (GRE)

Edwin Flack (AUS)

Results summary

Rank	Player	Nation	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
	John Pius Boland	Great Britain	Traun (GER) W 6–0, 2–6, 6–2	Rallis (GRE) W	Paspatis (GRE) W	Kasdaglis (GRE) W 6–3, 6–1
	Dionysios Kasdaglis	Greece	Defert (FRA) W	K Akratopoulos (GRE) W	Tapavica (HUN) W	Boland (GBR) L 6–3, 6–1
	Konstantinos Paspatis	Greece	Robertson (GBR) W	A Akratopoulos (GRE) W	Boland (GBR) L	Did not advance
	Momčilo Tapavica	Hungary	Frangopoulos (GRE) W	G Marshall (GBR) W	Kasdaglis (GRE) L	Did not advance
5	Aristidis Akratopoulos	Greece	Flack (AUS) W	Paspatis (GRE) L	did not advance
	Konstantinos Akratopoulos	Greece	Bye	Kasdaglis (GRE) L	did not advance
	Evangelos Rallis	Greece	Petrokokkinos (GRE) W	Boland (GBR) L	did not advance
8	J. Defert	France	Kasdaglis (GRE) L	did not advance
	Edwin Flack	Australia	A Akratopoulos (GRE) L	did not advance
	Dimitris Frangopoulos	Greece	Tapavica (HUN) L	did not advance
	George S. Robertson	Great Britain	Paspatis (GRE) L	did not advance
	Friedrich Traun	Germany	Boland (GBR) L 6–0, 2–6, 6–2	did not advance
	Demetrios Petrokokkinos	Greece	Rallis (GRE) L	did not advance
—	Frank Marshall	Great Britain	G Marshall (GBR) L DNS	did not advance
	George Marshall	Great Britain	F Marshall (GBR) L DNS	did not advance

References

• 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 [1])
• 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 [2])
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.
• ITF, 2008 Olympic Tennis Event Media Guide

This page was last edited on 20 January 2024, at 09:28