16-20 Interesting Facts About Tennis
16. In tennis, winning two sets to love (IE, 6-0, 6-0) is called a “double bagel”. – Source
17. King James I of Scotland was trapped in a drain and killed because it was blocked to prevent the loss of tennis balls. – Source
18. A French man drugged 27 of his children’s tennis rivals between 2000-2003 to help them win. His youngest victim was 11 years old. He was arrested for manslaughter after a man died in a car accident due to his poisoning, and was given an 8-year sentence. – Source
19. At the U.S. Open and other U.S.-based tennis tournaments, the men and women play with different balls; the men play with the slower, heavy-duty felt while the women play with the faster, regular-duty felt. – Source
20. Female tennis player Esther Vergeer went on a decade long winning streak in wheelchair singles ended only by her retirement. Her streak lasted 470 matches and brought her 7 Paralympic gold medals and 21 grand slam singles titles. – Source
21-25 Interesting Facts About Tennis
21. Dorothy “Dodo” Cheney, the first American woman to win an Australian Open singles title in 1938, retired from competitive tennis in 2012 at the age of 95, having won a record 394 US national titles. Asked why she had continued to play for 70+ years, she replied, “Because I love winning.” – Source
22. The famous Tennis rivalry between John McEnroe and Björn Borg ended in 1981 when McEnroe beat him in the US Open final to claim his 3rd consecutive title. Borg left the stadium without a word and flew home to Sweden, quitting competitive tennis that day. He was 25-years-old. – Source
23. Richard Nixon was indirectly involved in the creation of professional women’s tennis. After he banned cigarette ads from radio and television in 1970, Virginia Slims needed another way to reach young women smokers so they helped create and sponsor the first women-only tennis tournaments. – Source
24. Kaley Cuoco was once a nationally ranked amateur tennis player. She started at the age of 3 and gave it up at 16. – Source
25. Tennis player Stan Smith earns royalty, even after 40 years, for his shoe deal with Adidas. – Source
