The hard court world championships ( English World Hard Court Championships ) were a tennis tournament that was held from 1912 to 1923 in Paris - with the exception of 1922 in Brussels .
A mixed game at the 1913 World Hard Court Championships
The organization of the first world championships on hard court was largely due to the American Duane Williams . He contacted representatives of the French sports association UFSPA in 1911, and it was agreed that the first international tournament would be held in Paris in June of the following year. The French championships were then reserved for members of local tennis clubs.
Duane was also a driving force behind the founding of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in 1913. There, the establishment of two more world championships was decided: the Turf World Championships ( Wimbledon Championships ) and the World Indoor Championships . The American tennis association USNLTA did not want to accept that this would make its US championships a second-rate tournament and therefore refused to join the ITF. Duane himself saw neither the first hosting of the tournament nor the founding of the ITF; he died in April 1912 when the Titanic sank .
In the period that followed, the hard court world championships - with an interruption due to the First World War - were held in the Stade Français in Paris . In 1922, the tournament venue moved to the Royal Léopold Club shortly after Brussels . The following year, when the USA joined the ITF, the system of three world championships was dropped. Instead, the championships of England, France, Australia and the USA were elevated to the rank of top championships. The hard court world championships went on in 1925 in the international French championships .
Hard Court World Championships
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Otto Froitzheim
Anthony Wilding
André Gobert
Ludwig von Salm
Bill Tilden
Jean Washer
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Manuel de Gomar
Dorothy Holman
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Charles Winslow Harold Kitson
Nicolae Mișu Cecil Blackbeard
Umberto De Morpurgo Leonce Aslangul