Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Date	8–11 April 1896
Edition	1st
Surface	Red clay
Location	Athens Lawn Tennis Club
Champions
Men's singles
John Boland ( GBR)
Men's doubles
John Boland / Friedrich Traun ( ZZX)
Summer Olympics ·  1900 →

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, two tennis events were contested, both for men. They began on 8 April and continued on 9 April, 10 April, and 11 April. ^[1] 13 or 15 competitors from six nations, including seven Greeks, took part in the tennis competition. Many of the doubles teams were of mixed nationality, including all three medalist pairs. None of the leading players of the time such as Wimbledon champion Harold Mahony, U.S champion Robert Wrenn, William Larned or Wilfred Baddeley participated. To strengthen the field, the organization added sportsmen from other Olympic events, including weightlifter Momčilo Tapavica, hammer thrower George S. Robertson and 800-metres runners Edwin Flack and Friedrich Traun. ^[2]

Schedule

Medal summary

These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given a silver medal and runners-up bronze medals. Athletes coming third received no award.

Events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's singles [3] details	John Boland   Great Britain	Dionysios Kasdaglis   Greece	Konstantinos Paspatis   Greece
			Momčilo Tapavica   Hungary
Men's doubles [4] details	Mixed team (ZZX)   John Boland ( GBR)   Friedrich Traun ( GER)	Greece (GRE) Demetrios Petrokokkinos Dionysios Kasdaglis	Mixed team (ZZX)   Edwin Flack ( AUS)   George Robertson ( GBR)

The silver-medal winning doubles team of Kasdaglis and Petrokokkinos appears in the IOC results database as a Greek team. In this regard:

• Kasdaglis, a Greek national who resided in Alexandria after living in Great Britain for years, is listed as Greek in the IOC database for the singles event, but he is listed as Egyptian or British in some sources.
• Petrokokkinos, who did not win a singles medal, is not identified with any nation in the IOC database, but all sources which state a nationality for Petrokokkinos list him as Greek.

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Mixed team	1	0	1	2
2	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
3	Greece	0	2	1	3
4	Hungary	0	0	1	1
Totals (4 entries)		2	2	3	7

Competitors from Australia and Germany won medals as a part of a mixed team in the doubles event.

Participating nations

A total of 13 tennis players from 6 nations competed at the Athens Games:

•   Australia (1)
•   France (1)
•   Germany (1)
•   Great Britain (2)
•   Greece (7)
•   Hungary (1)

The International Society of Olympic Historians lists only thirteen players; according to them, British players Frank and George Marshall did not participate. Other sources do include the Marshalls, for a total of 15 players.

Notes

References

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at [1])
• Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN  0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at [2])
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN  1-86197-342-X.