1879 Men's Tennis tour

1879 Men's Tennis tour

William Renshaw wins first hardcourt title this year
Details
Duration	2 June – 28 December
Edition	3rd
Tournaments	12 (Amateur) [1]
Categories	Important (1) National (2) State/Regional (4) County (1) Local (3)
Achievements (singles)
Most tournament titles	Vere St. Leger Goold (2)
Most tournament finals	Vere St. Leger Goold (4)
← 1878 1880 →

The 1879 Men's tennis tour ^[2][3] was composed of the third annual pre-open era tour. It now incorporated 12 tournaments staged in Australia and Great Britain and Ireland. The 1879 Wimbledon Championships was won by John Hartley defending champion Patrick Francis Hadow, defending champion could not participate in the Challenge Round. This year saw the inaugural ^[4] Irish Championships that in its early stages of development was considered as important that of the Wimbledon Championships the event was won by Vere St. Leger Goold who defeated in Charles David Barry in the final by Charles David Barry 8-6, 8-6. Important this year was the staging now of three hard court tournaments namely the Dublin University Championships the East Gloucestershire Championships held in Cheltenham Great Britain.^[5] and the first tournament to be held outside of Europe in Australia with the Victorian Championships.

Calendar[]

Notes 1: Challenge Round: the final round of a tournament, in which the winner of a single-elimination phase faces the previous year's champion, who plays only that one match. The challenge round was used in the early history of tennis (from 1877 through 1921),^[6] in some tournaments not all.

Notes 2:Tournaments in italics were events that were staged only once that season

Key[]

January to May[]

No events

June[]

Date	Tournament	Winner	Finalist	Semifinalist	Quarter finalist
9–16 June[12]	Irish Lawn Tennis Championships[13] [14] Dublin, Ireland Grass Singles	Vere St. Leger Goold[15] 8–6, 8–6		1-6,4-6 3-6, 4-6	0-6, 1-6 6-4,1-6, 4-6 1-6, 1-6 walkover
30 June-30 July	Grand National[16] Hendon, London, Great Britain Grass	6-1 6-0 8-6	Lestocq Robert Erskine	?	?

July[]

Date	Tournament	Winner	All comers' finalist	Semifinalist	Quarterfinalist
7–16 July	Wimbledon Championship[17] London, Great Britain Grass Singles	John Hartley walkover	Vere St. Leger Goold 6-2, 6-4, 6-2	Vere St. Leger Goold Bye 2-6, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1	Charles Gilbert Heathcote 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 6-2, 6-5, 6-4 6-2, 6-5, 5-6, 6-3
		Challenge round Patrick Francis Hadow
14-15 July	[18] Stafford, Great Britain Grass	6-4 6-3		?	?
14-15 July	Essex County Cricket Club Tournament[19] , Great Britain Grass Singles	6-4 6-5	Dale Womersley	?	?

August[]

Date	Tournament	Winner	Finalist	Semifinalist	Quarter finalist
? August	Scottish Championships[20] St Andrews, Great Britain Grass	Leslie Balfour-Melville[21] def	?	?	?
15–16 August	Dorchester Tournament [22] Dorchester, England Hard	Montague Hankey 6-5 6-5 6-5	Captain James J. Glascott	Captain James J. Glascott Bye James H. Medlycott,  ?	Captain Bradford 6-4 6-3 James C. Pipon ? ?
22–25 August	Waterford Annual Lawn Tennis Tournament Waterford, Ireland Grass	Vere St. Leger Goold ?	J. M. Brown	Henry Joseph Gallwey ? J. C. Roberts ?	Patrick Joseph Gallwey ? William Joseph Gallwey ? Pierce Barron-Newell ?

September[]

Date	Tournament	Winner	Finalist	Semifinalist	Quarter finalist
3–9 September	South of Ireland Championships[23][24] Limerick, Ireland Grass Singles	6–4, 6–3		[25] Bye 0-6, 6-2, 5-6	1-6, 10-12 6-8, 3-6 Charles R B Heaton-Armstrong 4-6, 8-6, 6-1

October[]

Date	Tournament	Winner	Finalist	Semifinalist	Quarter finalist
7–11 October	East Gloucestershire Championships[26][27] Cheltenham, Great Britain Hard (Asphalt) Singles	William Renshaw 6-4 6-3 5-6 6-4	Vere St. Leger Goold	Ireland Vere St. Leger Goold Bye 6-4 6-1	6-4 6-2 (3-6 6-4 6-2 2 sets to 0
20–23 October	Dublin University Championships[28] Dublin, Ireland Hard (Asphalt)	Henry James Daly ?	Ernest Edward Knox	Charles William O’Hara Mease ? Henry James Daly Bye	Charles William O’Hara Mease Bye Thomas Haines Abrahall ? G.H. Bailey ?

November[]

No events

December[]

Date	Tournament	Winner	Finalist	Semifinalist	Quarter finalist
22–28 December	Victorian Championships[29] Melbourne, Australia Hard (Asphalt)	[30] 2-1 (sets)		|  ?  ?

List of tournament winners[]

Note: Important tournaments in Bold

• Montague Hankey-Dorchester-(1)
• Vere St. Leger Goold-Dublin(Fitzwilliam)-Waterford-(2)
• Henry James Daley-Dublin-(1)
• -Melbourne-(1)
• Edgar Lubbock-Hendon-(1)
• John Hartley -Wimbledon-(1)
• -Limerick-(1)
• Leslie Balfour-Melville-St Andrews-(1)
• William Renshaw-Cheltenham-(1)
• -Stafford-(1)
• Dale Womersley-Knighton-(1)

Rankings[]

Source: The Concise History of Tennis

Karoly Mazak World Rankings for 1879 [31]
#	Player
1	John Hartley (ENG)
2	Vere St. Leger Goold (Ireland)
3	Cecil Parr (GBR)
4	William Renshaw (ENG)
5	(GBR)
6	Edgar Lubbock (GBR)
7	Lestocq Robert Erskine (SCO)
8	Herbert Lawford (SCO)

See also[]

• 1879 in sports

References[]

Sources[]

• A Social History of Tennis in Britain: Lake, Robert J. (2014), Volume 5 of Routledge Research in Sports History. Routledge, UK, ISBN 9781134445578.
• Ayre's Lawn Tennis Almanack And Tournament Guide, 1908 to 1938, A. Wallis Myers.
• British Lawn Tennis and Squash Magazine, 1948 to 1967, British Lawn Tennis Ltd, UK.
• Dunlop Lawn Tennis Almanack And Tournament Guide, G.P. Hughes, 1939 to 1958, Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd, UK
• Lawn tennis and Badminton Magazine, 1906 to 1973, UK.
• Lowe's Lawn Tennis Annuals and Compendia, Lowe, Sir F. Gordon, Eyre & Spottiswoode
• Spalding's Lawn Tennis Annuals from 1885 to 1922, American Sports Pub. Co, USA.
• Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice, Nauright John and Parrish Charles, (2012), ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Cal, US, ISBN 1598843001.
• The Concise History of Tennis, Mazak Karoly, (2010), 6th Edition, 2015.
• Tennis; A Cultural History, Gillmeister Heiner, (1997), Leicester University Press, Leicester, UK.
• The Tennis Book, edited by Michael Bartlett and Bob Gillen, Arbor House, New York, 1981 ISBN 0-87795-344-9
• The World of Tennis Annuals, Barrett John, 1970 to 2001.
• Total Tennis:The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia, by Bud Collins, Sport Classic Books, Toronto, Canada, ISBN 0-9731443-4-3
• Wright & Ditson Officially Adopted Lawn Tennis Guide's 1890 to 1920 Wright & Ditsons Publishers, Boston, Mass, USA.
• http://www.tennisarchives.com/
• https://thetennisbase.com/

External links[]

• http://www.tennisarchives.com/
• https://thetennisbase.com/1879 Season