The International University Sports Federation’s World University Games began in 1959. Currently, the federation has 165 member nations and gives an opportunity to student athletes between 17 to 25 years of age to participate in various sports.
The Summer Games of the World University Games that are also referred as Summer Universiade featured the sport of tennis in its inaugural edition. Between 1959 to 1978, a total of 18 editions of Summer Universiade were held, and tennis featured in eight of them. From 1979 till its latest edition in 2023, tennis has featured in every edition except in the 1989 games.
A total of seven events are held which includes men’s, and women’s singles, doubles, classification, and mixed doubles events. In its latest edition, 124 athletes from 28 different nations participated in the tennis events.
All matches are played in a best of three sets format. A team or player needs to win six games to secure a set. If the set score reaches six games apiece, then a tiebreak of seven points decides the winner of the set. In doubles, if a third set is enforced, then a set tiebreak is played, where the pair who is first to win ten points with a difference of two is declared the winner.
Japan’s total tally of 60 medals in tennis is the highest as of 2023. However, only 23% of its medals are gold (14). Based on the gold medal counts, Chinese Taipei has a solid count of 27 out of its total tally of 59 medals. Soviet Union and South Korea are the next best with 18 and 17 gold medals respectively.
Li Na, Virginia Ruzici, Nikola Pilic, Fred McNair, Olga Morozova, Larisa Savchenko, Tomáš Šmíd, Ion Țiriac, Rika Hiraki are some notable slam champions who also secured a podium finish at the World University Games.
