American Decades
Tennis
The Open Era.
The year 1968 signaled the beginning of a revolution for those athletes who sought to make a living playing a sport known for its snobbish appeal and starchy white-flannel image. In that year tennis's "open era" began, and professionals could compete with amateurs for the sport's most coveted titles. Tennis was free to enter the new decade unabashedly commercial, casting off its "shamateur" label earned during the previous era in which the game's spokesmen hypocritically held up tennis as pure amateur sport while paying off players under the table.
The "In" Sport.
During the 1970s the tennis revolution took to the streets, as tennis became the "in" sport in the United States and certainly the nation's growth sport. The country's middle class embraced tennis as theirs and spent millions on equipment and clothing. By the end of the decade it was estimated that more than a quarter of the country's...
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1970's Sports
