The Drive Club Open Tournament and informally known as the Fulham Hard Courts was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played at the Drive Club, Fulham, London, originally on hard cement courts, or sometimes clay courts and ran until 1928. In 1931 the Drive Club was closed.

History

The Drive Club Tournament was founded in 1908 and were played on the Drive Mansions tennis courts at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. They consisted of cement (concrete) courts, the first hard courts in London. The drive club also had clay courts constructed that had to resurfaced in 1926 with en tout cas red clay. In 1931 the drive club closed over the years the courts and grounds were not maintained, and eventually became abandoned. The land was sold to developers in the 1970s.Drive Mansions Notable winners of the men's singles championship title included

Charles Percy Dixon Charles Percy Dixon (7 February 1873 – 29 April 1939) was a male tennis player from Great Britain. He was a four-time Olympic medallist and led a successful British team to victory in the Davis Cup. Biography Dixon was born on 7 February 18 ...

(1908-1910) and

Gordon Lowe Sir Francis Gordon Lowe, 2nd Baronet (21 June 1884 – 17 May 1972) was a British male tennis player. Lowe is best remembered for winning the Australasian Championships in 1915 (where he beat champion Horace Rice in the final). and for winni ...

(1920-1922). Former women's singles winners included

Dorothy Holman Edith Dorothy Holman (18 July 1883 – 15 June 1968) was a British tennis player and three time ILTF world champion twice in singles winning the World Covered Court Championships in 1919, and the World Hard Court Championships in 1920 and once in ...

, (1912, 1920, 1922–1923), Geraldine Ramsey Beamish (1924-1925),

Kitty McKane Kathleen "Kitty" McKane Godfree (née McKane; 7 May 1896 – 19 June 1992) was a British tennis and badminton player and the second most decorated female British Olympian, joint with Katherine Grainger. According to A. Wallis Myers of ''The Da ...

(1924), Phyllis Howkins Covell (1925) and Phyllis Mudford (1928). Additionally

Molla Bjurstedt Anna Margrethe "Molla" Bjurstedt Mallory ( Bjurstedt; 6 March 1884 – 22 November 1959) was a former Norwegian-American world no 2 ranked tennis player. She won a record eight singles titles at the U.S. National Championships. She was the first ...

was a losing finalist in 1909.

References

{{Reflist, 2

Sources

* Fry, Charles Burgess (1910). "Lawn Tennis on Hard Courts". Fry's Magazine: The Illustrated Monthly of Sport, Travel and Outdoor Life. London: G. Newnes, Limited. * "History: The early days". drivemansions.co.uk. London, England. The Drive Mansions Ltd. * The Municipal Journal and Public Works Engineer (1926), En Tout Cas: Hard Lawn Tennis Court. London. Volume 35, Issue 1749. p. 1282 * The Sportsman (25 September 1912). The Drive Club Open Tournament at Fulham. London, England. Defunct tennis tournaments in the United Kingdom Clay court tennis tournaments Hard court tennis tournaments