{"product_id":"tennis-2","title":"Tennis","description":"\u003cb\u003eAnalyzing how tennis turned pro\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n The arrival of the Open era in 1968 was a watershed in the history of tennis--the year that marked its advent as a professionalized sport. Merging wide-angle history with individual stories of players and off-the-court figures, Greg Ruth charts tennis’s evolution into the game we watch today. His vivid account moves from the cloistered world of nineteenth-century lawn tennis through the longtime amateur-professional divide and the battles over commercialization that raged from the 1920s until 1968. From there, Ruth details the post-1968 expansion of the game as it was transformed by bankable superstars, a popular women’s tour, rival governing bodies, and sponsorship money. What emerges is a fascinating history of the economics and politics that made tennis a decisive, if unlikely, force in the creation of modern-day sports entertainment. \u003cp\u003eComprehensive and engaging, \u003ci\u003eTennis\u003c\/i\u003e tells the interlocking stories of the figures and factors that birthed the professional game.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Greg Ruth","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43573185740982,"sku":"9780252052798","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0251\/4980\/0541\/files\/9780252052798_0c39598f-f0f6-4ed6-8d3c-f488e5fb498f.jpg?v=1726056260","url":"https:\/\/combined-academic.myshopify.com\/products\/tennis-2","provider":"Combined Academic Publishers - Mare Nostrum Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}