World Hard Court Championships was an annual major

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

tournament sanctioned by the International Lawn Tennis Federation and held from 1912 to 1923. It was principally held in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, on

clay court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament. T ...

s of the

Stade Français Stade Français Paris Rugby () is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French clubs of the modern era. The ...

in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud, with one exception when they were held at the Royal Leopold Club in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium, in 1922. The name of the event referred to its venues that were surfaced with clay, which at the time was customarily transcribed as "hard court" in English. It was open to all international amateur players from all nationalities, unlike the

French Championships The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

, which were open only to tennis players who were members of clubs in France through 1924; because of this the World Hard Court Championships is sometimes considered as the proper precursor to the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

. The French Championships were also held at a different venue at the time, the Racing Club de France, Paris. At an annual general meeting held on 16 March 1923 in Paris, France the International Lawn Tennis Federation issued the ‘Rules of Tennis’ that were adopted with public effect on 1 January 1924. The United States became an affiliated member of the International Lawn Tennis Federation. The World Championship title was also dropped at this meeting and a new category of Official Championship was created for events in Great Britain, France, USA and Australia – today’s Grand Slam events. The World Hard Court Championships tournament was then disbanded by the International Lawn Tennis Federation. The World Hard Court Championships was not played in 1924, when Paris hosted the Olympic Games and its tennis tournament, also held on clay courts, took the place of the championship. In 1925 the French Championships opened to international competitors for the first time, with the event held alternately between the Stade Français (1925, 1927), which was the site of the World Hard Court Championships, and the Racing Club de France (1926), which was the site of the previous French Championship. From 1928, the French Championships moved to Stade Roland Garros. Anthony Wilding was the only male multiple champion in the singles event, winning the title in 1913 and 1914, while Suzanne Lenglen won the women's singles title four times (1914, 1921–23).