Fifth International Conference on the History of Tennis
ITHF Casino Theatre, Newport, RI
24 & 26 September, 2025
by Frederika Adam
On the occasion of the men’s 2025 Real Tennis World Championship, the Real Tennis Society held the Fifth International Conference on the History of Tennis in the Casino Theatre at the International Tennis Hall of Fame and kindly supported by theUSCTPF and a special thank you to Ryan Carey for his technical assisantance.
The RTS (founded in 2012 by Frederika Adam) organized four sessions with sixteen presentations over two-days. The line-up included almost every major historian and active contributor to the culture of the sport – media, photography, art and writers – with a mixture of in person, online presentations and two papers in absentia. Collectively the program provided tennis history enthusiasts with a full summary of recent research and activities in the sport. A special thank you to the following speakers for travelling to Newport especially from abroad for the conference: John Shneerson (UK), Tim Edwards (UK), Nigel à Brassard (UK), Ian Harris (UK), Rob Lake (Canada), and Luca Bottazzi (Italy).
This year’s conference was dedicated to Hall of Fame member Gianni Clerici (1930-2022) who was an Italian journalist, man of letters and collector. Clerici used his fame to raise awareness of Italy’s contributions to the history of pallacorda (aka court tennis) with the hope of reviving the sport in Italy as founding patron of Club delle Balette (Italy’s history society for pallacorda).
The Sessions were recorded via Zoom and will be uploaded on the RTS website in due course along with a digital version of the Conference Program.
If you have questions and/or would like a copy of the souvenir Conference Program, contact Frederika Adam frederikaadam@hotmail.com
Real Tennis Society website: www.realtennissociety.com
Presentations for the Fifth International Conference on the History of Tennis:
Wednesday September 24th:
Session I: France and Court Development
1. Richard Travers (Melbourne), Court Tennis in Seventeenth Century Strasbourg
2. & 3. Theirry Bernard-Tambour (Paris) and Serge Vaucelle (University of Toulouse, France), Early Tennis Courts in Europe: From the Diversity of Architecture and Rules to “Standardization”
4. Simon Talbot-Williams (UK), Court Development in the UK and Worldwide 2025-2030
Session II: UK and USA Histories
Session Chair: Matt Mitchell (USA)
5. John Shneerson (UK), Joseph Bickley: The Man who Mondernised Real Tennis
6. James Zug (USA), Was Jay Gould Really a World Champion? The Legendd of the 1914 Articles
Session III: 7. Artists’ Panel for the exhibition The Court: Art in Play at the Newport Art Museum (September 24 – April 26, 2026) Artists on the Panel: Frederika Adam (curator and artist), Robert Manice, Beth Curren, Charles Johnstone and collaborating scribe James Zug.
Friday September 26th:
Session IV: ‘Scotland, Holland & Italy’
David Best (UK), Tennis in Scotland
Alessandro Tosi (University of Pisa, Italy), A Racquet in the Painting: The 17th century
Cees de Bondt (Holland) Caravaggio’s Infamous Tennis Match: The Mystery around a Caravaggist Painting [Paper available on RTS website]
Theo Bollerman (Holland), English Ballgames came from Flanders [Paper available on RTS website]
Session V: ‘Creating History’
Ben Geytenbeek (UK), On the Creation of Realtennisnews.com
Tim Edwards (UK) Official Photographer: more than documenting the sport
Session VI: ‘Tennis Tails: the Long 19th Century’
Nigel à Brassard (UK), Sticke Tennis: Time for a Revival?
Ian Harris (UK), 1875 and All That! MCC, Tennis and Lawn Tennis
Rob Lake (Douglas College, Canada), A Revival of Tennis: Examining the Sport’s early days in Ontario c.1874 onwards
Luca Bottazzi (University of Milan, Italy), The Games of Kings and King of Games
