By Zoe McIntosh

TENNIS!Lleyton Hewitt- Ball Boys-

-Sam Stosur

-Tennis Gear

TENNIS HISTORY!

The origination of tennis is not quite known but many experts believe that it was invented during 1873 (then called lawn tennis) by Waltor Clopton

Tennis goes back to nearly 1,000 years ago known to be very popular in the 12th centaury in France. The game had spread across to England during the reign of Henry vii racquets were introduced. The people of England introduced the tennis court but was much narrower than what we use today and they were indoors. A very interesting point is that a rule they could use was that they could rebound off the walls to return to the opponent.

< What they wore.

>how they played it.

THE RULES OF TENNIS!You must always start on the right hand side of the court (the forehand side) and behind the base line in singles and doubles to serve to the opposite side of the court in the ‘servers square.’ The ball must bounce into the square and the opponent can hit the ball back anywhere into the court but must be inside the inner lines. If the receiver can not hit the ball back this is called an ace and you receive a point.

If the ball continues to be hit back and forth, this is called a rally and as soon as someone misses, hits the ball out or hits the ball into the net the rally stops and the person that does not do any of these wins the next point.

base line, serve on the right.

Receive the ball on the right (forehand side)

When serving the ball must land in the opposite side.

Hit the ball inside the inner lanes.

EQUIPMENT USED!Obviously you need a Tennis racquet, but you have to make sure its your size so that you can swing it easily.

You need a normal tennis ball.

Many adults and some kids like to use sweat bands on their head and their wrists to keep the sweat away from your face and so that your hands don’t become slippery.

A breathable top and shorts for males, a dress or skirt and singlet is great for females. Its best to get one that fits firm on you so that its not swaying around whilst your trying to play hard.

Dress for females >

Skirt and singlet for females >

T-shirt and shorts for males. >

< Sazenger tennis ball

Racquet for anyone >

SPONSORS!

As you could imagine there are many sponsors in the Australian tennis. The official sponsors include:

Dove, Heineken, Maxxis, Mount Franklin, Powerade, Virgin Australia & Wilson.

There are also many partners. These include:

Optus, IBM, MLC, Lactose, Melbourne & Medibank.

The adds on TV you will see most of

these supporting the Australian Tennis.

You will most commonly see them during

the Australian Open.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN!

Many people know about the Australian Open, but for those of you that don’t here is some information on it.

The Australian Open is held in Melbourne most years and consists of many people competing against each other in singles and doubles.

In the last Open Novak Djokovic came 1st in the final with Andy Murray coming behind with a close 2nd.

Australian Open first started way back in 1905. Since 1908 The tournament has been played on hard courts at Melbourne Park.

Australian Open is a very popular even in the world with Thousands of people coming each year to come and support their favourite players, friends or family.

...AUSTRALIAN OPEN… CONTINUED…The open hasn’t been held in Melbourne every year, its been held in Melbourne 55 times, Sydney 17 times, Adelaide 14 times, Brisbane 7 times and Perth 3 times.

In the beginning very few foreign players entered this tournament. In the 1920’s, To come from Europe, to Australia, on ship, would take approximately 45 days.

The First tennis players that came on a plane were US Davis Cup players in November 1946.

Even Australians could not travel easily for example, when the tournament was help in Perth, no one from the Easten side of Australia could play.

In Christchurch during 1906, a small field of 10 players, only two Australians attended, the tournament was won by a New Zealander.

As you could imagine there are many different countries that play tennis – just about every country in the world!

WHAT COUNTRIES PLAY TENNIS? Australia

America

China

Japan

Switzerland

New Zealand

Great Brittan

Germany

South Africa

^ Just To Name A Few!

You will find that they usually wear blue hats, blue t-shirts and blue shorts, they may also be navy outfits.

Occasionally they will wear pink – manly done for breast cancer foundations.

Ball boys are people (not only boys) that collect the balls when they are hit out of the court. They must always be on the ball and watching where the ball goes.

BALL BOYS!

What are ball boys? What do they wear?

In blue and on the ball! ^

Sam Stosur!Samantha Stosur was born on the 30th of March 1984 (age – 28) in Brisbane Australia.

BORN?

HEIGHT?Sam is 1.72M

WEIGHT?

She is 68 kg(mostly made up of muscle!

NATIONALITY?Sam was born in

Australia.

SIBLINGS?Sam has 2 brothers – Daniel and Dominic.

PARANTS?

Father- TonyMother- Dianne

SAM’S CAREER! Samantha Stosur was born on the 30th of March 1984 in Brisbane Australia.

When Sam was a young girl she would hit the tennis ball with her older brother non-stop. Soon he realised that she was above average of a player and convinced their parents to start her in tournaments. Their parents (Diane & Tony) soon began to giver her local coaching lessons.

When Sam was 13 she went on her fist over seas trip – to the World Youth Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia, this was her first experience of being a pro.

At the age of 14 she joined the Queensland Academy of sport with Geoff Masters in 2001. When she turned 16 Sam joined the Australian Institute of Sports Tennis program.

Sam has formed a close relationship with Craig Morris through travelling together. Craig has inspired Sam in her career both on and off court, they still remain a close, personal friendship.

SAMANTHA STOSUR!Samantha’s First great achievement came at the Australian Open in 2006 when she reached the fourth round with great results. This took her to her career in 2007.

Whilst Sam was trying hard to make her way to the top in singles she was nearing the top in doubles. February 2006 Sam and her partner Lisa Raymond became world No. 1.

This pair continually went on to do their best and went on wining five titles and made it to the semis at The Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

Wimbledon 2007 Sam’s health was starting to go downhill, just as she was on the up. She fought hard against the pain and fell in the first round of the US Open, she then put an end to her season.

In October doctors finally found her an answer for her pain and they had said she had Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease causes an inflamed rash, headaches, fever and chills, and latter could cause possible arthritis.

HOPMAN CUP!The Hopman Cup is an annual, international, team, indoor, hard-court, tournament held in Perth, Western Australia commencing in early January or late December at times. It is also known as the ITF World Mixed Team Championships.

The championship is named in the honor of Harry Hopman [1906-1985], an Australian Tennis player and coach who took the country to win 15 Davis Cup titles between 1938 and 1969.

This tournament is an important event in the calendar of the International Tennis Federation, but the results of individual player are not calculated in the tennis world rankings.

The competition holds great television coverage in Australia and is important to the lead up of the Australian Open in January.

AUSTRALIAN’S IN TENNIS!

Samantha Stosur

Bernard Tomic

Lleyton Hewitt

Many Australian’s play tennis as it is a very popular and fun sport to play. In Australia we have many famous and competitive players, such as:

There are also many retired players:Margaret Court

Rod Laver

John Newcombe

Todd Woodbridge

Roy Emerson

Paterick Rafter

Paul Hanley

And many, many, many more!!

Paul Hanley

Roy Emerson

John Newcombe

Rod Laver

Margaret Court

Bernard Tomic

Lleyton Hewitt

ROD LAVER!Rod Laver was a famous Australian Tennis player many years ago. He was such a well known player that there is now a tennis arena called “Rod Laver arena”. Rod holds the record for the most singles titles won in the history of tennis, with 200 career titles.

Rodney George Laver was born on the 9th of August, 1938 (now aged 74) in Rockhampton

Australia. His parents were Melba Roffey and Roy Laver. He has won 11 Grand slams in his career.

He is 1.72m standing tall at a good old age and weighing 68Kg and keeping fit.

EVONNE GOOLAGON CAWLEY

Evonne was born on the 31st of July 1951 and is an Australian Former World No. 1. During the 1970’s and early 1980’s she was a leading player, and then wen on and won 14 Grand Slam tittles: seven in singles (four Australian Opens, two Wimbledon and one French Open), six in women's doubles, and one in mixed doubles.

Evonne is a great player as she is indigenous and represents Australia.

SERENA WILLIAMS

Serena Williams was born on September 26th in 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan, began playing tennis in her early years. At three years of age she was doing 2 hour practersics with her father Richard Williams.

In 1995 Serena turned into a pro tennis player along with her sister Venus.

2009 Serena made a a bad decision and was fined and put on a probation for illegally threatening a lines women, but she quickly moved on from this bad remark. Also during 2009 she had come 2nd in the Australian open.

Next in 2012 Serena kicked off the year playing her debut at Brisbane International, however, during her match against Boiana Jovanovski, she had injured her left ankle when sereving late in the second set. As a result of this she was forced to withdraw from the tournament.

Afterwards she participated in the Australian Open where she lost against Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round.

VENUS WILLIAMSVenus Ebony Starr Williams was born on June 17 1980 in Lynwood, America.

Venus is now a professional tennis player and is formal world number 1. Venus is ranked World No. 26 in singles as of April 1, 2013.

On February 25th 2002 Venus became world No.1 for the first time. Venus is the first African American women to achieve this during the Open Era.

Her titles consist of: 7 singles, 13 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. Venus’ 7 Grand Slam titles places her with four other women for 12th place on the all-time list. Also her 5 Wimbledon singles tie her with two other women for 8th place on the all-time list.

As you probably guess Venus is the sister of Serena, which I have just previously talked about. The sisters are 1 year aprt in age, so this makes it tough when versing each other.

MY TENNIS!

I have been playing tennis now for approximately 2 years now. I played over at West but recently just got moved over to Treloar Park in East Tamworth. I loved playing tennis because it was great meeting new people as none of my friends play. I have not played for a few weeks now as I originally hurt my ankle, I then went back once and then haven't gone back since as I hurt my ankle again! I don’t think I will go back as I am finding it a lot easier to have Friday afternoons off. (I still believe it’s a great sport thought!)

WIMBLEDON! The Wimbledon tennis tournament is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and also one of the most popular in the world.

It has been help at the AII England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. This tournament is one of the four major grand slam tournaments in the world. The others being the Australian Open, French Open and US Open.

Wimbledon is the only major one that is still played on grass (the games original surface).

The Wimbledon is a tournament that takes place of a period of 2 weeks in late June and early July as a Mens division and a Womens division.

ROGER FEDERER!

Roger was born on August 8, 1981, he was among the Top 3 junior tennis players in Switzerland by the age of 11!

1998 was when Roger was turned into a pro tennis player.

In 2004 he won the Australian Open, U.S Open and the ATP Masters, he also moved up a spot from world number 2 to world number 1.

Federer was the first Swiss man to come through and win a grand slam title. In 2012 he became a seven-time Wimbledon champion, tying with Pete Sampras for the world No. 1 ranking record of 286 weeks.

FRENCH OPEN!

The French Open (also known as the Roland garros) is a major tournament held over two weeks, between late May and early June in Paris France, at the Stade Roland Garros.

The French Open is the only tournament that is played on hard clay courts, clay slows down the ball and also makes the ball bounce much higher compared to grass courts or hard courts.

This can be a disadvantage of big servers and volleyers. This makes it harder to serve based players to dominate on the surface.

TECHNICAL WORDS!Volley- A volley is a hit when right up close to the net. Players usually smash the ball down to a space of where there is no player.

Let- A let is a serve when the ball skims across the top of the net and goes in. This then means that you get either one more serve or two more. If it was your first serve and you do a let, that means you get two more, but if its your second serve you get one more.

Ace- An ace is when you serve the ball that hard that it goes in and the opponent doesn’t even get a chance to hit it.

<volley<let

THE DAVIS CUP!The Davis Cup was first contested in 1899, it is the premier international team event in mens tennis. From 1905 till 1919, Australia competed as an Australasian team. During this time we claimed six titles (1907, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1914, 1919).

This is a very poplar tournament held all over the world. Many plyers from different countries attend.

“THE WOODIES”American players, Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde have one the most Grand Slam Titles in mens doubles pairing. They are the most successful in tennis history.

The have been a team together for 12 years but re now retired.

There nickname comes from both of their last names – as you have probably already figured!

BIBLIOGRAPHY!• http://www.tennis.com.au/play-tennis/how-to-play/

rules

• http://www.tennis.com.au/play-tennis/how-to-play/glossary/a-h

• http://www.australianopen.com/index.html

• http://bostinno.com/2013/01/27/2013-australian-open-winner-djokovic-makes-history-with-aussie-open-win-over-murray-video-highlights/#ss__289310_289265_0__ss

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Open

• http://www.bernardtomic.com/

• http://library.thinkquest.org/10615/frames/tennis/history.html

• http://www.livestrong.com/article/233725-tennis-history-for-kids/#ixzz2Mtjfwvis

• http://library.thinkquest.org/10615/frames/tennis/history.html

• http://www.tennistips.org/tennis-rules.html

http://www.samstosur.com/about-sam/http://www.tennis.com.au/player-profiles/lleyton-hewitthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopman_Cup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Williamshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_sistershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Championships,_Wimbledonhttp://www.biography.com/people/roger-federer-13612203?page=1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Openhttp://www.tennis.com.au/tournaments/davis-cup/history

http://www.tennis.com.au/player-profiles/mark-woodforde