Hands instead of racquets!?
During the 12th century, before the use of racquets, tennis players used the palms of their hands to hit the ball. This tradition was called ‘jeu de paume’ meaning ‘game of the palm’. Suffering from swollen, red hands became awfully common until the 16th century when racquets finally came into being.
During a single match, a player on average runs 3 miles
This can often get rather tiring for the players because of the restricted length of the court.
3 day long match?
The longest match till date, was seen during the 2010 Wimbledon between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner with an out of this world, close score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68. The match itself spanned three days and lasted for a total of 11 hours, 5 minutes, finally resulting in a win for Isner.
The 34 minutes long Grand Slam final
In contrast to an almost 12 hour match, this one was merely 34 minutes, despite being a grand slam final. This was achieved by none other than the legendary Steffi Graf in her prime. In the 1988 French Open final, Graf demolished Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in a completely one-sided match that took all of 34 minutes to complete!
The Scottish King’s tale
This one is in fact quite an interesting yet gory tale.
Scotland’s King James the first, loved an early version of tennis that didn't have ball boys. During a game, 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 being king, it took him mere seconds to order an inconvenient sewage drain to be immediately sealed. A few days later, assassins broke into his palace.. 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 intended to flee through, he found the newly sealed grate, and was subsequently caught and murdered. We can assume this was what led to the invention of ball boys and no rash decisions.
Venus and Serena Williams were the first ever set of sisters to win Olympic gold medals in tennis
The William sisters won their first Olympic gold medal in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. They now have several other joint and individual titles to their names including two gold medals from the Olympics at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Maria Sharapova's grunt is louder than an aircraft! Maria Sharapova's on-court grunt or shriek has been recorded at a volume as high as 101 decibels. That is louder than a motorcycle, a lawn mower and small aircraft landing. It is also about the same volume as an ambulance siren, and only five decibels quieter than a lion's roar. And guess what, Sharapova is not even the loudest player! Michelle Larcher de Brito's grunt has been recorded at 109 decibels. Imagine how courageous their opponents must be to face that kind of noise!
Wimbledon-
Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world. It was first played in 1877.
The first woman to play in the Wimbledon tournament wore full length dresses.
Henry "Bunny" Austin was the first player to wear shorts at Wimbledon in 1932.
Every year, 24 tons of strawberries are consumed during Wimbledon.
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