Singles, Men

This tournament was essentially a single-elimination event, although the Greek organizers split the 15-person draw into four “groups”, A, B, G, and D (α, β, γ, δ), with the winner of each group advancing to the semi-finals. The groups were played by a single-elimination system. The reason for four groups was to guarantee four semi-finalists, a situation which did not occur in wrestling nor in the men’s doubles. A player who withdrew would then affect only the matches within the group. According to the ancient Greek system for elimination tournaments, a new draw was made for each round with all the remaining participants. If there was an odd number remaining someone would receive a bye.

Most of the results of the early matches are not known. John Pius Boland was a student at Christ’s College, Oxford in 1894 when he invited a Greek friend, Konstantinos Manos to speak at the Oxford Union. Manos invited Boland to spend the 1896 Easter holiday in Greece during the Olympics. Boland then entered the tennis tournament, although he was not a well-known tournament player. Boland, an Irishman, later became a member of the British parliament for South Kerry from 1900 to 1918.