Tennis is one of the world’s most popular games and when played professionally there are numerous exciting tournaments that see millions of spectators watching the players on court. But tennis can be played by anyone just for fun, with only one other player, on club tennis courts, or on a make shift court at home. Anyone who can hold a racket can play tennis. There are even tennis tournaments for people in wheelchairs! One of the biggest tennis tournaments in New Zealand that attracts some of the world’s biggest pros is the ASB Classic and this event is a highlight on the sporting calendar.
The first staging of the ASB Classic tennis championship was held in 1985, and is now recognized as the current pre Australian Open tournament of the year, and takes place in early January. The Australian Open is the first of the big four Grand Slams, which constitutes the major tennis tournaments of each year.
Sponsorship by the ASB Bank
The ASB Classic Tennis tournament is the Auckland Open, sponsored by the ASB Bank of New Zealand, owned by the Commonwealth Bank. This tournament is a joint ATP World Tour and WTA Tour tennis event, played on hard outdoor courts. The 2016 ASB Classic tennis event was the 31st edition of the Women’s event, and the 40th edition of the men’s event. The winner of the men’s event was Roberto Bautista Agut, who won when his opponent in the final withdrew as a result of illness. The temperature on court was 38 degrees, and after the traditional Maori welcome, Jack Sock decided that he should heed his doctor’s advice and withdraw. The women’s champion was Sloane Stephens of the USA, also not the first seed.
The ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland was built in the early 1920s, in Stanley Street, when it was little more than a piece of waste ground. For thirty years it was then the home to hard fought local tennis matches in Auckland, but in 1956 the first permanent international tournament, the Auckland Championship. Between 1979 and 1989 it was a tournament of the Grand Prix tennis Circuit.
Betting on Tennis Offers a Variety of Wagers
Betting on any tennis match, including the ASB Classic tennis tournament, can offer several types of bets. When getting involved in online sports betting, the basic wager placed is of course the winner or loser of any specific match, but big payout can be won for predicting the scores of each set, or which player will hit the most double faults, or whose balls will land out of court the most number of times.
Tennis is believed to have begun in France in the twelfth century, where a game called Tenez was played with players hitting the ball with the palms of their hands. There are also several references to King Henry VIII of England being very fond of playing this game in his youth. Tennis has certainly come a long way since then, in fact, at the present count there are over seventeen million tennis players in the USA alone!
