Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's doubles

The men's doubles was one of two tennis events on the tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The six pairs that entered were seeded into a single elimination tournament. Only five actually competed, hailing from four nations but entering as a pair of Greek teams and three mixed teams. It was the only event in the 1896 Summer Olympics that had mixed teams (the other two non-individual events, in gymnastics, featured only non-mixed teams).

Men's doubles tennis
at the Games of the I Olympiad
Doubles final in 1896 Olympic tennis
VenueNeo Phaliron Velodrome
Athens Lawn Tennis Club
DatesApril 8 (quarterfinals)
April 9 (semifinals)
April 11 (final)
Competitors5 teams (10 players) from 4 nations
Medalists
John Boland and Friedrich Traun
 Mixed team
Dionysios Kasdaglis and Demetrios Petrokokkinos
 Mixed team
Edwin Flack and George S. Robertson
 Mixed team
Tennis at the
1896 Summer Olympics
Singlesmen
Doublesmen

The doubles team of Kasdaglis and Petrokokkinos appears in the IOC results database as a mixed team. Kasdaglis is listed as Greek in the database for the singles event. Petrokokkinos, not having won a singles medal, is not identified with any nation in the IOC database; however, all sources which do give a nationality for Petrokokkinos give it as Greek. Kasdaglis, a Greek national residing in Alexandria after years in Great Britain, is listed as Egyptian or as British in some sources.

Background

This was the first appearance of the men's doubles tennis. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics where tennis has been on the program: from 1896 to 1924 and then from 1988 to the current program. A demonstration event was held in 1968.

None of the leading players of the time, such as Wimbledon champion Harold Mahony, U.S champion Robert Wrenn, William Larned or Wilfred Baddeley, participated.[1][2]

Competition format

Under ancient Greek single-elimination tournament rules, there were no brackets as under modern single-elimination rules; instead, all participants in a round were paired off with one bye if a round had an odd number of participants left. This format could result in a semifinals round with only 3 competitors (as happened in both the 1896 wrestling and doubles tennis events, which started with 5 wrestlers/pairs: the first round had two matches, with one wrestler/pair having a bye, and the second round had only one match, with another wrestler/pair having a bye; a modern tournament would have had one match in the first round with three byes, leading to two semifinals). The organizers avoided this problem in the singles tennis by dividing the players into four groups, with each group playing a single elimination tournament and the winner of each group advancing to the semifinals.[2]

Schedule

The competition took placed over 4 days, with one day of rest before the final.

Date Time Round
Gregorian Julian
Wednesday, 8 April 1896Wednesday, 27 March 1896Quarterfinals
Thursday, 9 April 1896Thursday, 28 March 1896 
9:00		Quarterfinals, continued
Semifinal
Saturday, 11 April 1896Saturday, 30 March 189614:00Final

Draw

Key

Draw

The International Society of Olympic Historians gives only five teams; according to them Frank and George Marshall did not participate. The score of the final is not certain; Le Velo is the only 1896 source to give a score and provides 5–7, 6–4, 6–1. Boland's journal has 5–7, 6–3, 6–3.[2]

Quarterfinals Semifinals Final (Gold medal match)
 Aristidis Akratopoulos (GRE)
 Konstantinos Akratopoulos (GRE)
 John Boland (GBR)
 Friedrich Traun (GER) 		 John Boland (GBR)
 Friedrich Traun (GER)
Bye
 John Boland (GBR)
 Friedrich Traun (GER) 		5 6 6
 Edwin Flack (AUS)
 George Robertson (GBR) 		 Dionysios Kasdaglis (GRE)
 Demetrios Petrokokkinos (GRE) 		7 4 1
 Frank Marshall (GBR)
 George Marshall (GBR) 		w/o  Edwin Flack (AUS)
 George S. Robertson (GBR)
 Dionysios Kasdaglis (GRE)
 Demetrios Petrokokkinos (GRE) 		 Dionysios Kasdaglis (GRE)
 Demetrios Petrokokkinos (GRE)
 Konstantinos Paspatis (GRE)
 Evangelos Rallis (GRE)

Results summary
RankPlayersNationQuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal
John Boland
Friedrich Traun		  Mixed team  A Akratopoulos (GRE)
 K Akratopoulos (GRE)
W		 Bye  D Kasdaglis (GRE)
 D Petrokokkinos (GRE)
W 5–7, 6–4, 6–1
Dionysios Kasdaglis
Demetrios Petrokokkinos		  Mixed team  K Paspatis (GRE)
 E Rallis (GRE)
W		  E Flack (AUS)
 G Robertson (GBR) W		  J Boland (GBR)
 F Traun (GER)
L 5–7, 6–4, 6–1
Edwin Flack
George S. Robertson		  Mixed team  F Marshall (GBR)
 G Marshall (GBR)
W w/o		  D Kasdaglis (GRE)
 D Petrokokkinos (GRE)
L		 Bye
4 Aristidis Akratopoulos
Konstantinos Akratopoulos		  Greece  J Boland (GBR)
 F Traun (GER)
L		 Did not advance
Konstantinos Paspatis
Evangelos Rallis		  Greece  D Kasdaglis (GRE)
 D Petrokokkinos (GRE)
L		 Did not advance
— Frank Marshall
George Marshall		  Great Britain  E Flack (AUS)
 G Robertson (GBR)
L w/o		 Did not advance
  1. "Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics". Olympedia. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  2. "Doubles, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
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