Awesome Tennis Facts You May Not Know About

1. The first tennis versions weren't as elegant as today because people hit the ball with their palms. Can you imagine the pain and the colors of the palm after one match? No wonder people decided to use racquets.

2. The moment the racquet became a mandatory part of tennis it was important to use the right string materials. One of the things used in the past was a net made from animal gut.

3. Tennis courts didn't always look like they do today. Today's rectangular court was introduced in 1875. Before that, the court was smaller and actually in the shape of the hourglass.

4. The grass was a part of a tennis court for hundreds of years, but it is not very popular today. New modern materials like carpet and specialized rubber have kicked the grass from most courts. Wimbledon is one of the last tournament played on the grass.

5. The first modern tennis ball was actually white, and that was good when TVs were black and white. With the first colorized TVs, people had trouble finding the ball on the screen so the white ball was changed to a brighter color. Three colors which were taken into consideration were yellow, orange and bright pink.

6. When you look at the Wimbledon trophy you will notice that it is made with care and so many details. But, did you notice the pineapple on the trophy?
Nobody actually knows why there is a pineapple on the trophy, but there are theories. One of them is that the fruit was so rare in the past (especially in England) that one who had pineapple was considered rich and powerful. Due to that, it symbolizes wealth.

7. The title of the fastest serve ever recorded goes to Aussie Sam Groth, who struck the ball with 163.4 mph speed. The serve record is "unofficial," though, having occurred in a challenger event. John Isner holds the official record at 157.2 mph. Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, on another hand, hit the ball with an amazing 131 mph speed and holds the same record for women.

8. The oldest tennis players are still pretty impressive at tennis. In 2017, the oldest active players were Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui, who is 46 years old, and Japan’s Kimiko Date, who announced her retirement a few weeks before turning 47.

9. Tennis matches usually last for hours, but the longest match ever held was long even for the tennis criteria. The match lasted for three and a half days, to be exact; 3 days, 11 hours and 5 minutes. The rivals were John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, with the winner of the marathon being Isner by a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68 score.

10. What kind of list would it be if we didn't mention one of the shortest matches along with the longest? The shortest grand slam final in the modern era lasted for 34 minutes, with Steffi Graf defeating Natalia Zvereva 6-0/6-0 to win the 1988 French Open.


Author's bio:
Mark Cop is a soccer player and a fierce foosball player who loves to write about foosball on his blog. There he shares his knowledge by writing about foosball, foosball tables and maintenance. If you want to learn more about foosball make sure that you check out his blog the Foosball Zone.

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