How nicely have you learnt the U.S. Open? How nicely have you learnt tennis? Try this AP quiz in regards to the event that begins Monday in New York:
Last yr’s U.S. Open was the final event of Serena Williams‘ taking part in profession. Soon after, Roger Federer introduced his retirement. This U.S. Open closes the 2023 Grand Slam season and marks the top of the primary full yr during which neither Williams nor Federer received a match at any main since when? (Bonus: In which yr, and at which event, did every make a Grand Slam debut?)
a.) 1999
b.) 1998
c.) 1997
d.) 1996
The U.S. Tennis Association is marking the fiftieth anniversary of when the U.S. Open turned the primary Grand Slam event to supply equal prize cash to the ladies’s and males’s singles champions, paying $25,000 to each Margaret Court and John Newcombe. (This yr’s champions every will obtain $3 million.) The 1972 males’s champion, Ilie Nastase, additionally bought $25,000. What did the 1972 girls’s champion, Billie Jean King, make? (Bonus: When did the opposite majors pay the singles champions the identical quantity?)
a.) $7,500
b.) $10,000
c.) $15,000
d.) $20,000
Aryna Sabalenka (on the Australian Open in January) and Marketa Vondrousova (at Wimbledon in July) every collected her first Grand Slam title in 2023. Both had been 24 on the time. Who was the oldest first-time winner of a serious singles championship in girls’s tennis? (Bonus: How previous was she, which event did she win and whom did she beat within the remaining?)
a.) Ann Jones
b.) Flavia Pennetta
c.) Francesca Schiavone
d.) Marion Bartoli
Carlos Alcaraz was 19 when he received the U.S. Open final yr, making him the event’s first teenage males’s champion since Pete Sampras in 1990. Alcaraz’s Wimbledon trophy in July made him, at 20, the fifth man within the Open period (which started in 1968) to win a number of Grand Slam titles earlier than his twenty first birthday. Who holds the lads’s report for many main championships earlier than turning 21? (Bonus: How many did he win by that age – and total?)
a.) Mats Wilander
b.) Rafael Nadal
c.) Boris Becker
d.) Bjorn Borg
Novak Djokovic returns to the U.S. Open after lacking the event a yr in the past, when he was not allowed to fly into the United States as a result of he’s not vaccinated towards COVID-19. He has received 23 Grand Slam singles trophies, tied with Serena Williams for essentially the most by anybody within the Open period of tennis. He’s additionally tied with Roger Federer with 46 Slam semifinals reached. At which of the most important tournaments has Djokovic received the fewest quarterfinals? (Bonus: How many semifinals has he reached at every?)
a.) U.S. Open
b.) Wimbledon
c.) French Open
d.) Australian Open
The U.S. Open was the primary Grand Slam event to make use of final-set tiebreakers, including them in 1970 (now all 4 majors use them). How many U.S. Open males’s finals have been determined by a fifth-set tiebreaker? (Bonus: Name the years and the champions.)
a.) 5
b.) 3
c.) 1
d.) Zero
How many ladies have received the U.S. Open of their event debut? (Bonus: Name the gamers and the years.)
a.) 2
b.) 4
c.) 6
d.) 8
1st Round. c. That was the final yr that neither Williams, who completed with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, or Federer, who completed with 20, participated in any of the majors. Her Slam debut got here on the 1998 Australian Open, the place she reached the second spherical earlier than dropping to her sister, Venus. She received a number of matches at majors each subsequent season till 2023. Federer‘s first majors got here in 1999, when he misplaced within the first spherical on the French Open and Wimbledon; he would win a minimum of one Slam title yearly from 2003-10, together with a streak of 23 consecutive semifinal appearances.
2nd Round. b. King led the push for equal pay. The Australian Open quickly paid men and women the identical in 1984, then stopped in 1996, earlier than resuming for good in 2001. The French Open paid its champions the identical in 2006, and paid men and women equally all through the event the following yr. Wimbledon provided equal pay in 2007.
third Round. b. Pennetta was 33 when she defeated Roberta Vinci 7-6 (4), 6-2 on the 2015 U.S. Open, then declared she would quickly retire. Jones was 30 when she received Wimbledon in 1969. Schiavone was 29 when she received the 2010 French Open; Bartoli was 28 when she received Wimbledon in 2013.
4th Round. a. Wilander received 4 of his seven Grand Slam titles earlier than he turned 21: the French Open in 1982 and 1985, and the Australian Open in 1983 and 1984. By that age, Borg had received three, and Nadal and Becker two apiece.
Quarterfinals. d. While Djokovic has received his highest variety of Slam trophies on the Australian Open, 10, he has reached the semifinals there 10 instances, the least for him at any main (he’s a mixed 20-0 in semifinals and finals at Melbourne Park.) Djokovic has been to the semifinals 12 instances apiece on the different majors: Wimbledon (seven titles), the French Open (three) and the U.S. Open (three).
Semifinals. c. Dominic Thiem’s 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory over Alexander Zverev on the 2020 U.S. Open – held with out spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic – is the one males’s remaining determined by a fifth-set tiebreaker within the greater than half-century of that match-settling setup in New York. Thiem additionally turned the primary man since 1949 to win the event’s title after dropping the ultimate’s first two units.
Final. a. It had by no means occurred till 2019, when Bianca Andreescu did it at age 19 by beating Serena Williams within the remaining. It occurred once more two years later in 2021, when Emma Raducanu did it at age 18 by beating Leylah Fernandez. Andreescu did it in her fourth main total; Raducanu in her second.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis author since 2002.
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