Tennis is one of the oldest sports games in the world. A seemingly simple game of ball and racket has long since become a multi-billion dollar industry.
Not surprisingly, the sport is accompanied by interesting events and records, and the number of tennis fans at 22Bet proves that. Interesting facts can “fuel” interest in the game. And not all of them are connected with sports records.
The Shortest and the Tallest Tennis Players
It is believed that the “perfect” height of a professional tennis player ranges from 180-187 centimeters. But some athletes have disproved scientific calculations. For example, the shortest participant of the elite ATP Tour: Olivier Rochus is 168 cm. The Belgian athlete has won two ATP singles tournaments.
The title of the tallest tennis player is held by Croatian Ivo Karlovic. His height of 211 centimeters and powerful serve allowed him to win eight ATP tournaments and win the Davis Cup in 2005.
Longest Tennis Match
Nicolas Mayou and John Isner played tennis for the longest match in history, lasting 11 hours and 5 minutes. The record was set at Wimbledon in 2010. The game lasted two days, so the athletes were still able to rest.
Considering that the previous record for the length of a match was 6 hours and 33 minutes, Mayu and Isner will be record holders for a long time to come.
A Clean Win Without Losing Points
When a player wins without losing a single point, it is referred to as a “golden set”. Such wins are not uncommon at low-ranked tournaments with lax judging. But at Wimbledon the “golden set” was played only by tennis player Yaroslava Shvedova. The athlete “beautifully” beat Sarah Heroni in 2012.
But among men, the only “gold set” at the highest level tournament of World Championship Tennis was played by Bill Scanlon in 1983.
Most Broken Racquets
The pivotal tool of lawn tennis is not cheap, and judges give fines for breaking it. But it did not stop the Cypriot athlete Marcos Baghdatis, and at the 2012 Australian Open tennis tournament he broke four rackets in one game.
The record for the season is held by Marat Safin: 48 rackets were broken in 1999 at official tournaments alone.
Longest Winning Streak
Martina Navratilova has set many records that neither women nor men can still break. Specifically, the tennis player has won 74 consecutive individual matches. The athlete has also made it to the top final championships of the world’s strongest tennis players 14 times in a row.
Another absolute record of Navratilova: 167 career titles. By comparison, the well-known Serena Williams has only 72 titles.
A Hawk on the Wimbledon Staff
Tennis fans know the situations when the course of the game was changed by an ordinary pigeon that flew onto the court. That’s why there’s a hawk on the Wimbledon host staff. In 2018, in honor of its 15 years of success, a bird named Rufus was given the official position of “repellent.”
The hawk’s job is to fly around the courts early in the morning before tournaments and hunt birds.
Youngest and Oldest Wimbledon Winners
It takes years to turn pro and compete in an elite tennis tournament. But German Boris Becker disproved the theory and won Wimbledon at 17. The record has not been broken since 1985.
But the “oldest” Wimbledon winner, Roger Federer, was almost 36 years old at the time of the match in 2017.
Wimbledon Winners Don’t Get Real Trophies
It turns out that Wimbledon winners only hold the cups and plates at the time of the awards. After that, under the terms of the contract, the originals of the valuable awards are given to the All England Club Museum.
The athletes, on the other hand, take home copies.
Tennis Balls Turned Yellow to Please TV Viewers
Before 1972 there were no strict rules regarding the color of tennis balls. But after the first tournaments were televised, it became clear that bright fluorescent yellow balls were best seen by viewers.
Wimbledon organizers, on the other hand, used white balls until 1985.
Record for Medals at the Olympics
Tennis is an Olympic sport. Olympic record holders are not necessarily Gold Slam winners. But that’s not the case for Venus Williams.
The tennis player from the United States has not only won world-famous tournaments, but has won as many as 4 gold medals at the Olympics in 2000, 2008, and 2012. The record for men: 3 gold medals held by Reginald Dougherty since 1908!
Tennis Players Have Their Professional Disease
Even a person who has never played tennis may develop an ulnar tendon inflammation. But it is tennis players who are most often diagnosed with the disease.
Because of this, the unofficial name of the disease “tennis player’s elbow” is used in most countries of the world.
