A file photo shows the athletes and staff at the first national games in Nanjing in 1910. (Photo provided to Xinhua Daily)

The news of Chinese tennis player Zheng Qinwen winning the women's singles gold at the Paris Olympics has gone viral on social media. While people are excited about her unprecedented victory, a review of history reveals that Nanjing has got a significant milestone in the development of Chinese tennis.

The city hosted the country’s first national tennis tournament during the 1910 Nanyang Industrial Exposition, the first government-sponsored international exposition in Chinese history. The tennis event, held from October 18 to 22, was part of the national games, and first of its kind in China to celebrate the exposition.

Recently, student volunteers from Nanhang Jincheng College, including Wu Yihan and Wang Huijie, found the event schedules published on newspapers at Shanghai Library. Wu said the tennis match was held on October 19 and lasted an entire day, with the winner being an athlete from a university in Shanghai.

“Tennis competition was officially included as an event at the games,” said Luan Chuan, a member of the China Writers Association, who has previously researched history about the first national games.

The first national games in 1910 were held at the horse racing venue, close to the present-day campus of Dingjiaqiao Primary School Affiliated to Nanjing University. In 2014, the school erected a monument to commemorate "the site of the first national games of China" at its sportsground.