Interesting Tennis facts

Rafael Nadal

• Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages.
• Tennis is a sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt past a net into the opponent's court.
• Billie Jean King was the first player in the Open era to win back-to-back US Opens (1971-1972).
• The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs.
• Yellow tennis balls were used at Wimbledon for the first time in 1986.
• The rules of tennis have not changed much since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1960 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and then the adoption of the tie-break in the 1970s.
  
  
• The first woman to win the US Open was Virginia Wade. She defeated Billie Jean King 6-4, 6-4.
• Tennis enjoys millions of recreational players and is also a hugely popular worldwide spectator sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the "Majors"): the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
• There were only five people to win The Grand Slam. Winning The Grand Slam means winning all four Grand Slams (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the United States Open) in the same year. The people to accomplish this feat were: Don Budge in 1938, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969, Margaret Court in 1970, and Steffi Graf in 1988.
• The first man to win the US Open was Arthur Ashe. He defeated Tom Okker 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in 1968.
• The first US National Championships for women were held in 1887 at the Philadelphia (PA) Cricket Club.