# data[].attributes.body
The modern game of tennis is played by millions in clubs and on public courts.

Its period of most rapid growth as both a participant and a spectator sport began in the late 1960s, when the major championships were opened to professionals as well as amateurs, and continued in the 1970s.

When television broadcasts of the expanding professional tournament circuits and the rise of some notable players and rivalries broadened the appeal of the game.

# data[].attributes.body
Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873

There has been much dispute over the invention of modern tennis, but the officially recognized centennial of the game in 1973 commemorated its introduction.

He published the first book of rules that year and took out a patent on his game in 1874, although historians have concluded that similar games were played earlier and that the first tennis club was established by the Englishman Harry Gem and several associates in Leamington in 1872.

# data[].attributes.body
Mary Outerbridge of New York has been credited with bringing a set of rackets and balls to her brother, a director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. But research has shown that William Appleton of Nahant, Massachusetts, may have owned the first lawn tennis set and that his friends James Dwight and Fred R. Sears popularized the game.

# data[].attributes.body
Tennis in the 1880s was dominated by the remarkable twin brothers William and Ernest Renshaw.

William won the Wimbledon singles championship seven times, on three occasions defeating his brother in the final. Ernest was victorious once, and in partnership they won the doubles championship, first played at Oxford in 1879, seven times.

In the 1890s public interest began to wane. The Wimbledon Championships showed a financial loss in 1894 and 1895; the All England Club committee turned back to croquet to revive its flagging fortunes.

The popularity of Wimbledon and tennis were reestablished by two more brothers: Reginald and Laurie Doherty. Reginald won the Wimbledon singles from 1897 to 1900. Laurie won from 1902 to 1906, took the U.S. championship in 1903, and won a gold medal in the Olympic Games in 1900.

# data[].attributes.body
The first international team competition was the Davis Cup, officially called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy, which was donated by U.S. doubles champion Dwight Davis in 1900.

Only Great Britain challenged the first year; it was defeated by the United States, Davis himself playing on the victorious team. There was no challenge in 1901, but in 1902 a strong British team that included the Doherty brothers went to America.

The United States retained the trophy, but the following year the Doherty brothers helped Britain win the cup, which it retained the next three years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The Doherty reign ended in 1906, but tennis was by then firmly established. The new star was Norman Brookes, the first in a long line of Australian champions. 

# data[].attributes.body
He won at Wimbledon in 1907 and again on his next visit, in 1914. He and his doubles partner, Tony Wilding of New Zealand, wrested the Davis Cup from Great Britain in 1907 and held it until 1911, arousing enduring public interest in Australia and New Zealand.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
As tennis began to establish its popularity, there was a need for professionals to coach and to organize, but, unlike real tennis, there were no competitions. 

# data[].attributes.body
In 1967 a British proposal for a limited schedule of open tournaments was voted down by the international federation, but the British LTA refused to accept the verdict. In December 1967, despite the threat of expulsion from the ILTF, the LTA voted to abolish the distinction between amateurs and pros in their tournaments.

This revolutionary step forced an emergency meeting of the ILTF in March 1968 in which 12 open tournaments were approved. The era of open professionalism in tennis dawned in 1968.