Here are 25 Interesting Facts About Tennis.
1-5 Interesting Facts About Tennis
1. South Africa won the 1974 Tennis Davis Cup finals by default as the Indian team had refused to travel to South Africa in protest of the Apartheid regime. – Source
2. Richard Norris Williams survived the Titanic sinking but spent too much time in freezing water and the rescue doctor recommended amputation of both his legs. He refused and proceeded to win his first tennis tournament a few months later and became Wimbledon doubles champion in 1920. – Source
3. Andre Agassi, one of the greatest ever male tennis players (and husband of Steffi Graf, one of the greatest ever female tennis players), wrote in his autobiography that “I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have”. – Source
4. There is a disagreement about what color people say tennis balls are, with 52% saying green, 42% saying yellow and 6% saying “other”. – Source
5. The longest tennis match in history was played at Wimbledon in 2010. It was 11 hours and 5 minutes long and played over 3 days. The final set lasted 8 hours and 11 minutes longer than the previous record. After, both players and the umpire were given a crystal bowl and champagne flutes. – Source
6-10 Interesting Facts About Tennis
6. In his final tennis match, Joe Hunt won the 1943 US Open. He was unable to obtain leave from the Navy in 1944 in order to defend his title and was killed in February 1945, in an airplane crash. – Source
7. Serena and Venus Williams claimed they could beat any male tennis player ranked 200 or below. Karsten Braasch, ranked 203, beat each of them 6-1 and 6-2 respectively. – Source
8. In 1991, World Table Tennis Championships North and South Korea participated as a unified team under the name “Korea” to beat the “unbeatable” Chinese team. – Source
9. The modern polo shirt was designed so the collar would intentionally be popped, preventing the sun from burning tennis players’ necks. – Source
10. Wimbledon employs a bird of prey, Rufus the Hawk, to keep pigeons away from the tennis courts. – Source
11-15 Interesting Facts About Tennis
11. In 1927, 15-year-old tennis player Sidney Wood became the youngest man ever to play Wimbledon. In 1931, aged 19, he became the only person to win Wimbledon by default when his final opponent Frank Shields (Brooke’s grandfather) withdrew with an injury. Sidney Wood died in 2009 at the age of 97. – Source
12. In 1949, at Wimbledon, “Gorgeous Gussie” Moran wore a skirt that exposed her knees, causing Wimbledon officials to complain that she was “bringing vulgarity and sin into tennis.” – Source
13. Tennis athletes runs at least two times more distance than the most active American Football players in each of their respective matches. – Source
14. In 1993, 20-year-old Monica Seles was stabbed on court during a live tennis match in Hamburg. Until then she had already won 8 Grand Slam titles and was tipped to become the most successful female tennis player of all time. She would go on to win just one more Grand Slam title in her career. – Source
15. A study found that grunting in tennis increases ball velocity by 3.8%. – Source
