Proud of the history of your city!PHOTOS ARE FROM PRIBOJ WHERE AUSTROUNGARIANS PLAYED TENNIS MATCHES.
In addition to Palić, where numerous sports competitions of Austro-Hungarian countries were held at the end of the 19th century, including tennis, this game has a long tradition in the south of Serbia. There, the balls started bouncing with only two or three years of delay compared to Wimbledon. The first tournament in the suburbs of London was played in 1877, and in Priboj in 1880.
Immediately after the Berlin Congress, Austro-Hungarian officers formed garrisons in Priboj, Prijepolje and Pljevlja. On the large field "Zelenac" in Priboj, they built apartments for officers, four barracks, a post office, bakeries and sports fields. They started to build a tennis court in 1879, and finished it the following year, in precise dimensions, as stated in the "Larus" encyclopedia, as well as the one at Wimbledon. Pribojci got a playground twelve years before the people of Belgrade, who started playing tennis at Kalemegdan.
Tournaments in Priboj were reflected until 1929, after the departure of Austro-Hungarian officers came Yugoslav engineers and technicians who worked on the construction of the railway. After the First World War, the barracks were demolished, restaurants and craft shops were opened. Priboj was no longer a town but a town where balls were held, civilization entered, but the tennis court disappeared, over which the railway crossed instead of the network.
Every new tennis season starts in Australia, but few know that this sport originated in ancient Egypt, although both the Greeks and Romans gave their contribution. Initially, tennis was played only by hand, without rackets. In the early stages of tennis, wooden sticks were also used.
It is believed that the word racket originated from the Egyptian word "rahat" which means palm. In Europe, he first conquered an aristocracy that loved to pass a ball of hair, wool, dough and wood wrapped in a cloth over a wire with its palm, so that the tennis game spread quickly despite the bans of the Pope and Louis IV.
Over time, a mesh glove was invented, which later became the racket. Just when it was thought that tennis was running out, rubber balls came on the scene, so that fact, along with clay and concrete courts, gave a great impetus to this sport, which has become increasingly popular since the end of the 19th century.
Changes also took place in dressing. The first sports shoes were tennis shoes, and they were made in 1860. But, if the players from that time saw how Venus Williams or Maria Sharapova dress today, they would probably think that they have wandered to another planet.
Ladies wore floor-length dresses in the second half of the 19th century, and the white fashion of Wimbledon did not appear immediately in 1884 for a very practical reason, namely, sweat is not noticed on white equipment.
Flannel and even fur materials were a normal occurrence at tennis tournaments. Wimbledon winner in 1905, May Sutton, caused a real scandal when she appeared on the field in her father's shirt, during which she "dared" to roll up her sleeves and expose her arms to above the elbows.
Hats disappeared from the field until 1914, and with them tight petticoats, as well as corsets. Great changes in dress were made by the Americans, above all tennis player Benny Austin, who shocked the public in 1933 when he went out on the field in shorts at Wimbledon. Until then, men wore long, white pants.
Fascinated by the knowledge about the "domestic" roots of the sport in which Novak Djokovic became famous, in 2013 he decided to give Priboj a field. His foundation invested 25,000 euros, and a year later, Serbian tennis returned to the coast of Lima.
At the beginning of this year, Priboj and Rudo, within the Second Call for Cross-Border Cooperation "Serbia - BiH 2014 - 2020", initiated activities within the project "White Sport and Cultural Heritage of Polimlje from the end of the 19th century in the function of development of Priboj and Rudo municipalities".
Great article