The 1912 Olympic Games began with the covered court tennis events, similar to 1908, when the London Olympics began with racquets, followed by the covered court tennis competition. The covered court tennis at Stockholm began on 5 May at 1:15 PM (1315), and ended one week later, on 12 May, with the prizes being given at 5:00 PM (1700) later that day.

The covered court events had a reasonable international representation but this was not true of the lawn tennis competitions. The reason for this was that the Olympic lawn tennis schedule was in complete conflict with the 1912 Wimbledon Championships, which ran from 24 June through 8 July. The Olympic Lawn Tennis Championships were held from 28 June through 5 July.

At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden eight tennis events were contested divided over two tournaments; an indoor covered courts tournament, played on wood, held from May 5 until May 12 and an outdoor hard court tournament, played on clay, held from June 28 until July 5.

Tennis on covered courts was agreed initially for the 1912 Games, with competitions run for gentlemen's singles and doubles, ladies' singles and mixed doubles. The outdoor tournament was confirmed once the Östermalm Athletic Grounds were completed in late 1911, with the plans modified to have both indoor and outdoor tournaments.

Six countries sent players for the covered court competitions, with representatives from Sweden, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Australasia and Bohemia appearing. Included in this lineup was Australasia's only competitor, the New Zealander Anthony Wilding, who was also the reigning Wimbledon gentlemen's champion. The indoor knockout competition started on 5 May, and continued as expected until the semi final round where Wilding was beaten by Britain's Charles P. Dixon. The British player met Frenchman André Gobert in the final, but Gobert was victorious over the Englishman in straight sets. Wilding took the bronze medal in a playoff against another British player, Arthur Lowe.

The outdoors tennis competition saw seventy players enter from twelve nations. However, Great Britain did not enter any competitors as the dates of the outdoor competition clashed with the 1912 Wimbledon Championships despite attempts by the British authorities to convince the Olympic organizing committee to change the dates. Other noted tennis players including Anthony Wilding, André Gobert and Arthur Gore refused to compete at the Olympics and instead attended Wimbledon. The gold and silver medals in the gentlemen's singles ended up being decided between two South Africans, with Charles Winslow and Harold Kitson playing each other. Winslow won the match and the gold medal, 7–5, 4–6, 10–8, 8–6. The duo also competed as a pair in the gentlemen's doubles and took the gold medal, beating the Austrians Felix Pipes and Arthur Zborzil. Marguerite Broquedis of France defeated Dorothea Koring of Germany in the ladies' singles for the gold medal. In the mixed double Koring teamed up with Heinrich Schomburgk to win the gold, the duo defeating Sigrid Fick and Gunnar Setterwall of Sweden in the final.

With most of the top British and Commonwealth players absent, playing at Wimbledon, this tournament was not of the top rank. The top player in the world in 1912 was New Zealand’s Anthony “Tony” Wilding. Wilding was Wimbledon champion in 1910 and 1911, and won again in 1912, during the Olympic championship, and won his fourth consecutive Wimbledon championship in 1913. The only American who competed at Stockholm, Roosevelt Pell, was not of the top rank, his best finish ever at the United States’ championships coming in 1915, when he lost in the semi-finals.

In Wildings absence, the Olympic men’s singles final came down to two South Africans, Charles Winslow and Harry Kitson. Kitson had the better career record, winning the South African championship in 1905, 1908, 1911, and 1913, while Winslow would win that title only once, in 1914. But at Stockholm, Winslow held on to defeat Kitson and win the Olympic gold medal in four sets.

The two South African finalists from the singles competition, Charles Winslow and Harry Kitson, teamed to win the doubles event. Since the retirement of Britain’s Doherty brothers (Laurie and Reggie), there was no dominant doubles team in international tennis. The other men’s doubles champions in 1912 were as follows: Wimbledon - Roper Barrett and Charles Dixon; French - Max Décugis and André Germot; United States - Thomas Bundy and Malcolm McLoughlin; and Australian - James Parke and Charles Dixon (GBR/IRL).

The 1912 Olympic Games began at 1315 on 5 May when Sweden’s Carl Kempe hit his first serve in his match with Jaroslav Hainz of Bohemia. The covered court competition had a much stronger field than the lawn tennis event which would occur almost two months later. The covered court event was not hampered by the concurrent competition at Wimbledon, which greatly weakened the lawn tennis events. In fact, the Stockholm covered court singles could claim one of the top international fields to date in men’s tennis. Although Tony Wilding was considered the top player in the world (see his record under lawn tennis men’s singles), he was defeated in the semi-finals by the British player, Charles Dixon. Dixon was favored in the final, but fell in straight sets to André Gobert of France. Gobert was the top French player in 1912, having replaced Max Décugis. Gobert was French singles champion in 1911 and 1920 and won the indoor French title in 1911-13 and again in 1920.

The British teams of Dixon/Beamish and Gore/Barrett were favored as all had played on winning teams at Wimbledon. The 1911 Wimbledon champions were André Gobert and Max Décugis, while Decugis and Maurice Germot had won the French title in 1911-1914. But with Decugis not present in Stockholm, the Olympic indoor champion, André Gobert, teamed with Germot to upset the British team of Dixon and Beamish in the semi-final. Gobert and Germot teamed again to win the 1913 French indoor title.

The field was very weak, due to the absence of the British and American players. The gold medalists, Dorothea “Dora” Köring and Heinrich Schomburgk, also won the German mixed championship in 1912 and 1913.