 Jan 18, 2018The Slice – Ep.

6, Previewing the 2018 Rogers Cup

 Jan 10, 2018The Slice, episode 5: Fun Down Under spills off the court

 Jan 01, 2018The Slice – Ep. 4, Kicking off the 2018 season in Australia

ADVERTISEMENT

9 weird facts about tennis

Apr 27, 2015





WRITTEN BY:TENNIS CANADA

Tennis is like that person you know who seems too good to be true, but then you
scratch the surface and wonderful weirdness is revealed. Death by tennis balls? You
got it. Pineapples on trophies? Sure, why not. And that’s just the start.

Enjoy these 9 oddball facts about tennis that make it that much better.

1.Tennis balls can kill

Scotland’s King James I was into playing an early version of tennis that included balls
and racquets but not ball boys, which proved deadly.

James kept losing balls in the sewage drain at the corner of the court he played on at
Blackfriars Monastery. This made him furious and what good is being king if you can’t
wildly decree that an inconvenient sewage drain immediately be sealed?

Like many capricious decisions, this one came back to bite James pretty bad.

A few days later, assassins broke into his place to… assassinate him. The king
attempted to dodge the bad guys by going underneath the floorboards and into the
drainage system with the intention of escaping via the tennis court exit. But instead of a
bunch of tennis balls clogging up the sewer drain he was fleeing through, he found the
newly sealed grate, and was subsequently caught and murdered.
Ball boys weren’t officially introduced as a result, but wheels had to be in motion after
this, right?

2.Pineapples and cream?

Photo: realclearsports.com

There’s a pineapple on top of the Wimbledon trophy. Apparently it represents the

tradition of English sailors putting pineapples on their gateposts when they returned
from a long voyage. Not sure how tennis became associated with long trips at sea, but
this did remind me about the importance of warding off scurvy, so… well done,
pineapple trophy.

3.Tennis balls were originally

white
Yellow balls were first used at Wimbledon in 1986. You know, Wimbledon, where all
the rules get thrown out with reckless abandon! For more, see: Irony, definition of.

4.Two gold medals? No problem

The first person to win Olympic gold in tennis basically just showed up and won.

John Pius Boland was vacationing in Athens during the Olympics and his friend, who
was on the organizing committee, signed him up for singles tennis. Boland won, then
entered the doubles event with the guy he beat in the first round of singles, Friedrich
Traun of Germany, and they won that too. Glad there was no Twitter in 1896 because
holy #humblebrag potential.

5.The match that went 3 days

The longest match on record took place in 2010 at Wimbledon, when John Isner and
Nicolas Mahut went gladiator on the courts in a ridiculously epic 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6
(3), 70-68 win for Isner that spanned three days and lasted 11 hours, 5 minutes.

Just when it was getting good!

6.This took too long, Wimbledon:

Part II

Photo: espn.go.com
It was only in 2007 that prize money for Wimbledon winners became equal for men and
women. Better late than never?

7.34 minutes to success

Photo: espn.go.com

On the total polar opposite spectrum of Isner-Mahut, the shortest Grand Slam final ever
took place in 1988 when Steffi Graf took Natalia Zvereva to the woodshed in a 6-0, 6-0
win to defend her title in just 34 minutes. It takes me 34 minutes to find my keys in the
morning, but good job Graf!

8.No racquets required

Tennis was initially played with your hands. (Please try this and send us video.) It was
called “jeu de paume” (game of the palm) and people’s hands were presumably worn
and red until the 16th century when racquets came into use.

9.Nobody knows where love

came from (Ha. Ha.)
There’s no definitive reason we say “love” for zero in tennis. Some think it comes from
the French expression “l’oeuf” as in “egg” meaning zero. There’s also the chance it
came from the Dutch expression “iets voor lof doen,” which translates to something like
“there’s no stake in the game.”

So basically, choose your own hard-to-pronounce expression and run with it

16 FUN FACTS ABOUT TENNIS

A collection of interesting lawn tennis facts for you:

1. Traditionally, women wore full length dresses while playing for the Wimbledon
tournament.
2. Tennis originated in Great Britain.
3. Arthur Ashe was the first African American to win the US open.
4. In 1986, yellow tennis balls were used at Wimbledon for the first time.
5. 24 tons of strawberries are ordered each year for the championship at Wimbledon.
Wimbledon is also the only major tennis tournament that is still played on grass.
6. The shortest match in the history of tennis was played between Susan M. Tutt and
Marion Bandy. It lasted for about 20 minutes with Susan M. Tutt winning.
7. Boris Becker was the first unseeded player ever to win the Wimbledon in 1985. He was
only 17 years old at the time. He also became the first German and the youngest player to
win the title.
8. In 1917, the US Open was known as the Patriotic Tournament during the World War 1.
9. The French Open happens to be named after the stadium where it takes place. The
stadium is named after Roland Garros who was a World War 1 pilot.
10. The Open era of lawn tennis started in 1968. French Open was the first Grand Slam to go
open.
11. Venus Williams recorded a serve of 205 km/h and became the fastest server in women’s
tennis.
12. Serena and Venus Williams became the first pair of sisters to win the Olympic gold in
tennis.
13. The strings of the tennis racket were made of cow and sheep guts in the past.
14. With 24 Grand Slam titles, Margaret Smith holds a record!
15. The longest match in the history of tennis was played between John Isner and Nicolas
Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010. It lasted for about 11 hours.
16. Henry Austin was the first player ever to wear shorts in 1932 at Wimbledon.