September 2007
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Tennis was one of just seven sports contested at the Games of the I Olympiad, the first iteration of the Modern Olympics, held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, and provided 13 of the Games' 241 participating athletes; the tennis competition comprised a men's singles and a men's doubles event played across four days on grass surfaces at the Athens Lawn Tennis Club and Neo Phaliron Velodrome. Irish solicitor John Pius Boland was entered in the men's singles event by a friend whom he visited in Athens during the Games, and representing Great Britain he overcame Greek Dionysios Kasdaglis in the final (pictured) to earn the Olympic championship and a silver medal; the International Olympic Committee subsequently awarded medals in the current gold-silver-bronze arrangement retroactively to those achieving podium places at the Games. In his first round singles match, Boland defeated German Friedrich Traun, who entered the tennis tournament after being eliminated in the 800-meter run in the athletics competition, and the two reached the doubles final, conceding one set but finally claiming first place ahead of Kasdaglis, the singles runner-up, and Greek-Egyptian Demetrios Petrokokkinos.