Amateurism in tennis

Amateurism in tennis was the principle that players should compete without receiving direct payment, shaping the sport’s rules and institutions before the Open Era began in 1968.

Gentleman amateur: A social ideal of an independent gentleman who pursued sport without needing payment or treating it as work. Tennis amateurism inherited this class-bound ideal of unpaid competition.
Amateur status: An eligibility classification that permits participation in sport only under specified conditions on compensation and conduct. Tennis bodies used this classification to decide who could enter sanctioned competitions.
Grand Slam tournaments: The four most prestigious annual tennis tournaments: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open. Their pre-1968 restrictions made amateur eligibility a condition of entry.
Professionalism in tennis: The system in which tennis players compete for payment and pursue the sport as a career. It directly opposed the unpaid eligibility principle governing amateur tennis.
Lawn tennis: The nineteenth-century form of tennis played on grass, from which modern tennis developed. Its clubs and governing bodies established the conventions that made amateur status central.
Shamateurism: The practice of concealing payment to an athlete who is officially classified as an amateur. It exposed the gap between tennis’s unpaid ideal and the financial support players actually received.
Tennis professionals: Tennis players who competed for payment, often on professional tours outside the major amateur championships. The amateur system excluded these players from its principal tournaments.
Open tennis: Tennis competition in which amateurs and professionals may enter the same events. The 1968 decision to permit open competition replaced the amateur-only model.
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club: The London club that has hosted the Wimbledon Championships since 1877. Wimbledon’s governing club enforced amateur rules at the sport’s most influential tournament.
Prize money: Money awarded to competitors for performance in a competition. Direct tournament payments were prohibited for amateurs before the Open Era.

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