Ten tantalizing bits of tennis trivia
Columnist
By Kersi Meher-Homji, 16 Jun 2009 Kersi Meher-Homji is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- Pete Sampras, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tennis, wimbleton
With Wimbledon starting on Friday, I’ve selected ten items of interesting tennis trivia for discussion. The first? Roger Federer won the Wimbledon Singles title five times between 2003 and 2007 and is going for his sixth next week.
The record is jointly held by William Renshaw of Great Britain from 1881 – 86 and 1889, and Pete Sampras, from 1993 – 95 and 1997-2000, with seven times each.
2. If Federer wins, it will be his fifteenth grand slam singles victory, going past Sampras’s record of 14. Note, Federer holds the record of most tear drops shed!
Although Fred Perry (GB), Don Budge and Andre Agassi (USA), Australia’s Roy Emerson and Rod Laver, and Federer have won all four Grand Slams (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US), Budge in 1938 and Laver in 1962 and 1969 are the only ones to win all four slams in one season.
4. The longest Wimbledon match lasted 5 hours and 12 minutes and included 112 games. This was in 1969 when ‘Pancho’ Gonzales (USA) beat countryman Charles Pasarell 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9. This record can only be broken if Wimbledon abolishes the tie-break.
5. Going away from Wimbledon, one of the most cliff-hanging marathons was played in Los Angeles in May 1949 when Ted Schroeder and Richard Falkenberg defeated the colourful ‘Pancho’ Gonzales and H Stewart 36-34, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 19-17 in the South California Championships final. The see-saw tussle between the Americans lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes as 135 games were hotly contested. A world record? Not quite.
6. Richard Leach and Richard Dell overcame fellow Americans Tom Mozur and Lenny Schloss 3-6, 49-47, 22-20 at Newport, Rhode Island on 18-19 August, 1967. That means 147 games, not exactly a landslide victory! The 96 game second set is the longest on record in senior tennis, according to Lance Tingay in The Guinness Book of Facts and Feats.
7. Another marathon to remember (or forget?) was a singles match between Roger Taylor (GB) and Wieslaw Gasiorek (Poland). In a King’s Cup tie at Warsaw, Poland, on 5 November 1966, Taylor won 27-29, 31-29, 6-4 after 4 and half hours and 126 games, according to Inside Sport.
8. A marathon was witnessed at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Britain’s FG Lowe took six hours to out-maneuver AJ Zerlendi of Greece in the second round. Rain caused many interruptions before Lowe triumphed 14-12, 8-10, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
9. Perhaps the longest ever match took 6 hours and 23 minutes for completion. This was in the US Indoor Championships at Salisbury, Maryland on 16 February 1968, when Mark Cox and Bobby Wilson (GB) defeated Charles Pasarell and Bob Holmberg (USA) 26-24, 17-19, 30-28. A mere 144 games!
10. What have tennis champions Rafael Nadal, Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters in common? Asteroids have been named after them! To the best of my knowledge, Federer misses out, as do other tennis legends Renshaw, Budge, Frank Sedgman, Perry, Lewis Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Laver, John Newcombe, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Sampras. Why? It’s all in the stars, I presume.
Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.
Do you have what it takes to become a sports writer? Write for the roar
Other Sports articles
- Victoria Azarenka vs Maria Sharapova: Australian Open women’s final live scores, blog (89)
- The sporting fallacy of the Olympic ‘Games’ (46)
- Sonny Bill needs to start boxing full time (46)
- Djokovic vs Nadal was great, but do we need six-hour finals? (36)
- Sonny Bill looking sharp for his first real test (29)
- Sonny Bill wins title in first round (25)
- Nadal vs Djokovic: The match for the ages (20)
- London’s Olympic Games have a long way to come (9)
- New champ Williams looking to next fight (5)
- Aust and GB aim to convert 4ths to bronze
- Young pitcher signs big deal with Red Sox (7)
- World Cup Darts heartbreak in Hamburg (3)
- Mayweather and Pacquiao have shamed boxing (12)
- Will Tom Brady’s legacy be affected by one drop? (19)
- London’s Olympic Games have a long way to come (9)
- World Cup Darts heartbreak in Hamburg (3)
- Mayweather and Pacquiao have shamed boxing (12)
- Will Tom Brady’s legacy be affected by one drop? (19)
- Sonny Bill needs to start boxing full time (46)
- Lachlan Murdoch squashing FTA sport for Fox’s benefit (4)
- Sonny Bill Williams vs Clarence Tillman III: Live updates, blog [video] (182)
- Explore:
- Pete Sampras, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tennis, wimbleton
Sherry said | June 16th 2009 @ 7:08am | Report comment
Great research, Kersi.
Re. Wimbledon, I did a fast check on what Andy Murray has facing him as the winner at Queens on the weekend – since Queens 1970, only seven players have done the double in the same year: McEnroe, Connors, Becker, Edberg, Sampras, Hewitt and Nadal. Tough odds, but Andy’s got the game and he’s probably ready.
Becker, Hewitt and Roddick have the best record at Queens: each was a four-time winner. And Ivan Lendl, who claimed he hated grass and couldn’t play on it, won the tourney twice.
Curiously, Sampras, a great grass courter, won it only twice, and was runner-up twice.
Big servers have won through to the Big W final several times: Curran, Ivanisevic, Krajicek,
Rafter, Philippoussis, Smith, Pioline, although the guys with the groundies have won or made the final, too, like Agassi, Courier, Hewitt, Nalbandian, not to mention Rosewall and Borg. Roger doesn’t have a huge serve but he places it so well.
Pacho Gonzales had a bazooka serve, and the best first-serve percentage of all time, something like 80%, and he could volley wonderfully and return like a rocket. But he didn’t even get close.
It’s a great championship, and it can be a humbling one.
Brett McKay said | June 16th 2009 @ 9:26am | Report comment
NIce one Kersi – here’s another one for you: Andy Murray is the first British player to carry the enitire hopes of the kingdom since….. Andy Murray last year. And the year before that. And before that, Tim Henman. And also for the previous ten Championships….
Imagine if he actually wins?!?
Chop said | June 16th 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment
Kersi,
Point 4 isn’t 100% correct, as unlikely as it is, there could still be a long match because of the advantage set in the 5th set of mens (3rd set of a ladies) there could still be a scoreline in the relms of 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-7, 31-29 or higher to beat the number of games in a match.
I hope Federer wins the mens tournament, main contenders are Murray, Roddick and Nadal if fit.
As for the ladies, it’s wide open, I’m hoping Sam Stosur can make it as far as she did in the French, with her big serve and volleying skills she could be a threat.
Kersi Meher-Homji said | June 16th 2009 @ 1:35pm | Report comment
Point taken, Chop. Theoretically the final set can go on and on. And on.
I’m surprised to get three positive comments (so far) on this post because for me to write on tennis is like Sonny Bill William wearing boxing gloves!
Spiro Zavos said | June 16th 2009 @ 2:24pm | Report comment
Kersi, Sonny Bill Williams did well with the boxing gloves, although you’ve done better than him with your tennis trivia.
In all the discussion about the greatest tennis players you rarely hear Don Budge mentioned. But he and Rod Laver (the greatest who I saw play his first professional match against Lew Hoad) are the only Grand Slam winners in a single year. Budge presumably only competed in the Australian Open once. From reading about him I believe he was a lanky chap with a terrific backhand. He later played as a professional. That Grand Slam in 1938, though, must be one of the great tennis achievements.
Kersi Meher-Homji said | June 16th 2009 @ 3:39pm | Report comment
Thank you, Spiro. You have been an inspiration to me and to many.
The mystery of Wimbledon is that three of the great players, ‘Pancho’ Gonzales, Ken Rosewall and Ivan Lendl never won the Men’s Singles title. Gonzales missed out because he became a pro before Wimbledon became “Open”.
Another (useless) trivia: The Men’s Singles Wimbledon 1992 final was unique in its 116 year history. For the first time both the finalists’ surnames — Agassi and Ivanisevic — began with vowels. This was the first time since Wimbledon was inaugurated in 1877.
Still awake?
In 1959 Alex Olmeido became the first Wimbledon champ whose first name and surname started with vowels. More significantly, he defeated Rod Laver in straight sets.
Mushi said | June 16th 2009 @ 4:59pm | Report comment
Sherry it is important to note that whilst yes only 8 times has the double been achieved this is still almost 23% (two of the six players did it twice and it wasn’t held during the mid 70’s). That’s a pretty high chance for a grand slam if you’re not called Roger or Pete.
sheek said | June 16th 2009 @ 8:27pm | Report comment
Kersi,
Pancho Gonzales competed in the ‘open’ Wimbledon of 1968 at the age of 40. His previous visit to Wimbledon had been as an amateur in 1949. And at 40 he won that 112 game, 5 set marathon that included a 6-1 set!
Between 1950-67 Gonzales was branded a ‘professional’ & therefore ineligible to compete in the 4 majors annually. If you do the maths, Pancho missed a staggering 72 majors (18 years x 4 majors)!!!
How many of those 72 majors might he have won, including Wimbledon??? Ken Rosewell missed 44 majors (1957-67) & Rod Laver 20 majors (1963-67).
If Roger Federer wins his 15th major by triumphing at Wimbledon, there’s going to millions of rain forests destroyed on the subject. I just hope many people pause long enough to consider what Gonzales, Rosewell, Laver & the other professionals of the 40s, 50s & 60s might have achieved, given the same opportunity?
Rory said | June 17th 2009 @ 11:59am | Report comment
Sherry, as Sheek says, Pancho Gonzales became pro very early and so never really had a chance to win Wimbledon. Jack Kramer coaxed him on to the pro tour before he was fully developed, which was unlike most situations, e.g. Rosewall, Hoad, Laver, where they were signed up for the pro tour after they had won Wimbledon and so had proved their crowd-pulling power. In fact the same went for Tilden, Budge, Vines, Riggs etc in the preceeding decades – they turned pro after they had conquered all in the amatuer ranks. The pro tour, and Jack Kramer, was quite centred on who they could get for star billing. Gonzales floundered on his first couple of years as a pro, losing more often than not to Kramer who was already a veteran at that stage, but developed into an acknowledged all-time great. In his pro career he met and beat many great players, but maintained the only one who he felt he couldn’t beat, even on a good day, was Lew Hoad. Bit of trivia, he was apparently a heavy smoker.
Spiro you are right about Budge on both counts – he tends to be forgotten and he had a fantastic backhand. There are photos to be found of him laying into his single hander, completely airborne. It looks like it would have been an awesome weapon. Apparently these shots always found the mark. Jack Kramer, one of the greats himself, and someone who has seen them all and played against many of them, until recently still firmly rated Budge the greatest ever.
Kersi Meher-Homji said | June 17th 2009 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
Rory,
I bow to your knowledge on tennis. Just one correction.
You say that Rosewall , Hoad, Laver were signed up for the pro tour after they had won Wimbledon. But Rosewall never won Wimbledon singles.