Back when my parents were playing on the tennis circuit and in tournaments such as Wimbledon, it was the Amateur Era. Players were not allowed to be professionals and to participate in the big four: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.Some of the players had sponsors, but many of them, such as my parents, had to have jobs to get them through their time playing tennis.
Around 1968, they started allowing professionals to participate in the tennis circuit and money was involved for everyone. This is the Open Era of tennis. Now players started sitting down on the changeovers because television got involved because they were trying to bring in money. Back in the Amateur Era, players used to just stand because they just wiped off with the towel took a quick drink and moved on to the other side of the court.
The Open Era is still with us because players are making money, in fact a lot of money! But we have moved into a different era with all this technology. I really think they should start calling it The Open/Techno Era of tennis. The way that artificial intelligence and computers are being used in the players' training and in the making of their rackets and their tennis shoes and with Hawkeye being able to call lines, as well as humans, it needs to be identified as a new era.
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