Imported to Dinard in 1875 and played by the elites of the Belle Époque, tennis became a national passion in the 1920s. The press, radio, and cinematographic newsreels magnify the exploits of Suzanne Lenglen and the Musketeers. During the 1950s and 1960s, French tennis seemed to be falling asleep, but new clubs were already appearing. The conversion of the middle classes to the practice of tennis then accelerated, reaching its peak with the victory of Yannick Noah at Roland-Garros in 1983, and France in the Davis Cup in 1991. One of the first sports federations to become independent in 1920, the lawn-tennis federation was for a long time content to legislate and organize competitions at the regional and national level. But, with the transition to the Open era (1968), the French Tennis Federation (FFT) created a unique model for the development of its sport by drawing on the profits generated by the Roland-Garros tournament it owns. Clubs that are more than a hundred years old, old federal magazines and bulletins, the pedagogies of the master-teachers of yesteryear and the coaches of today, federal politics, the trajectories of its fourteen presidents, heritage and sponsors, exchanges beyond borders, here is an invitation to revisit 150 years of France's history with a racket in hand.
Crognier et al. (Wed,) studied this question.