300px, White City Tennis Club circa 1923 White City Stadium at the White City Tennis Club was a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

venue in Rushcutters Bay,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The stadium was built in 1922 on the former site of Sydney's White City amusement park as a new venue for the New South Wales Championships (now an international tournament known as the Sydney International). The venue served as host of the tournament until the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre opened for the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

. The club was formed in 1947, and today has 8 synthetic grass courts. The White City tennis complex has fallen into disrepair with the old stadiums and the grass courts which hosted famous matches no longer usable. The Australian Tennis Museum was located at White City from its founding in 1983 until 2005 when it moved out to Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre.

Famous tennis matches and tournaments

Davis Cup

White City was host to some of Australia's

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

championships during their dominant run in the 1950s and 1960s. It hosted the Challenge Round in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

(Australia defeating the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

(USA def. Australia), 1960 (Australia def.

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

(Australia def.

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

), and the final in

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

(Australia def. Italy). The stadium also saw the USA defeat Italy in the Inter-Zonal Final in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

(before losing to Australia in the Challenge Round in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

) and saw the USA defeat Australia in the

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

semifinal. The 1954 final set the record for the largest crowd at a sanctioned tennis match, 25,578. This record held until 2004, when the Davis Cup final at the Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla, a converted football stadium, beat it.

Pat Rafter Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and world No. 6 in doubles. Rafter won eleven ...

defeated Cédric Pioline in a Davis Cup tie after recovering from being two sets down in 1997.

Australian Open

White City hosted the last

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

tournament to be held outside Melbourne, in 1971.

Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall (born 2 November 1934) is an Australian former World number one male tennis player rankings, world No. 1 professional tennis player. Rosewall won 147 singles titles, including 23 majors: a record 15 Major professional te ...

and

Margaret Court Margaret Court (''née'' Smith; born 16 July 1942), also known as Margaret Smith Court, is an Australian former world number 1 tennis player and a Christian minister. Her 24 women's singles major titles and total of 64 major titles (includi ...

were the 1971 Champions.

Sydney International

Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, ; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 209 weeks ( fifth-most of all time) and as the world No. ...

defeated Jennifer Capriati in the final of the Sydney International in 1997.

Redevelopment 2022-2024

White City was purchased by the Maccabi-Hakoah Club in 2010–11. Plans included building a large community centre, including tennis courts, however, redevelopment was slow due to drawn out disputes over the plans. Demolition was completed in December 2022 and 9 new courts (synthetic grass and hard courts) are due to open by the end of 2024.Redevelopment
White City Tennis

Notes

External links

White City Tennis website
{{coord, 33, 52, 46, S, 151, 13, 52, E, display=title Tennis venues in Australia Sports venues in Sydney Paddington, New South Wales Rushcutters Bay, New South Wales 1951 Davis Cup 1954 Davis Cup 1960 Davis Cup 1965 Davis Cup 1977 Davis Cup Sports venues completed in 1922 Sports venues demolished in 2022 1922 establishments in Australia 2022 disestablishments in Australia