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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.