It would be hard to imagine now but major tennis was played at Newport right up until the 1970’s. The lawn tennis courts at the Newport Athletic Club hosted the Welsh Tennis Championships on numerous occasions before it came to an end in 1974. To be precise it was held there in 1892, 1897-99, 1900, 1910-1914, 1920-39 and 1946-1974. The last men’s winner was Armistead Neely of the United States but winners included Ken Rosewall (1970-71) and John Newcombe (1967). In the women’s competition winners included Virginia Wade (1971), Margaret Court (1969) and Evonne Goolagong (1970).
According to the history of Newport Athletic Club 1875-1925 lawn tennis featured at the site in 1879 with a tennis committee founded in 1881. By 1902 it states up to twelve lawn tennis courts were in use.
The Athletic Club at Rodney Parade also played host to a famous match June 7-9 1906. Newport’s prestige as a Lawn Tennis venue led to is selection for the semi final of the Davis Cup, known as the International Tennis Challenge. After the withdrawal of France and Austria the winners of the contest between Australasia and America would go on to play the British Isles at Wimbledon in the final. A competition that the British Isles subsequently won 5-0.
The two teams playing in Newport comprised some of the finest players of the day. New Zealander AF Wilding was considered to be a superstar of the game (he went on to win three Davis Cups, won Wimbledon four times and the Australian Open twice). He had played at Newport before, going down to Sydney Smith of Britain in the 1904 Welsh final whilst a student at Cambridge University. His partner for Australasia was Leslie Poidevin, a first class cricketer from New South Wales, currently playing for Lancashire.
The United States team comprised Raymond Little, a top ranked US player for much of his career and Holcombe Ward who had won the US championship in 1904. The USA team was victorious.
