Camden Riviere, the head professional at the National Tennis Club here in Newport, RI, defeated Steve Virgona of Melborne, Australia to capture the 2016 U.S. Open Court Tennis Championships Wednesday night at the Racquet Club of Chicago. Riviere fought back after dropping the first set to win the epic four-hour match, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. This is Riviere’s 4th U.S. Open title in a row, 5th overall.
Riviere will play in the Court Tennis World Championships this summer in Newport in hopes of becoming the first American to win the world championship in 40 years.
Court tennis – one of several games sometimes called “the sport of kings” – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis (usually simply called tennis) is derived.
The rules and scoring are similar to those of lawn tennis, which derives from court tennis, but are more complex. Although in both sports game scoring is by fifteens (with the exception of 40, which was shortened from forty-five), in court tennis, six games wins a set, without the need for a two-game buffer as in lawn tennis although some tournaments play up to nine games per set. A match is typically best of three sets, except for the major open tournaments, in which matches are best of five sets for men, and the best of three sets for women.
The Court Tennis World Championships will be held at the National Tennis Club in Newport, RI from May 16th – 21st, 2016.
