What surface is the Wimbledon tournament played on?
Answer : Grass
Wimbledon, in London, is the only Grand Slam still played on grass; the old name lawn tennis comes from the lawn the game was first played on.
Questions and answers: Tennis
Revise Tennis: here is a selection of questions of every level, with the answer and an explanation. To test yourself without seeing the answers, play the quizzes.
Play the Tennis quizzesVery easy
How many Grand Slam tournaments are there each year?
Answer : 4
The four Grand Slam tournaments are the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, played in that order through the season.
What surface is Roland-Garros played on?
Answer : Clay
Roland-Garros is the only Grand Slam played on clay, a slow surface that favours long rallies and physically enduring players.
In which city is Roland-Garros played?
Answer : Paris
Roland-Garros is played in Paris, at Porte d'Auteuil, in a stadium built in 1928 so that France could defend the Davis Cup against the Americans.
What is a score of zero called in tennis?
Answer : Love
Zero is called love in tennis; the origin of the word is debated, some seeing the French l'œuf (egg) because of the shape of a zero.
What is Roger Federer's nationality?
Answer : Swiss
Roger Federer is Swiss, born in Basel in 1981; he won 20 Grand Slam singles titles before retiring in 2022.
What colour are tennis balls used in competition?
Answer : Yellow
Competition balls have been optic yellow since the 1970s because that colour shows up better on television; Wimbledon only adopted it in 1986.
What is the name of Serena Williams's sister, also a tennis player?
Answer : Venus
Venus Williams, Serena's older sister, won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five of them at Wimbledon, and the two sisters also dominated doubles together.
Easy
After 15 and 30, what is the next score in tennis?
Answer : 40
After 15 and 30 comes 40, not 45; the origin is unclear, one theory being that forty-five was shortened to forty in speech.
In which city is the US Open played?
Answer : New York
The US Open is played at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York, on hard courts, in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis stadium in the world.
Which player won 14 singles titles at Roland-Garros?
Answer : Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal won Roland-Garros 14 times between 2005 and 2022 without ever losing a final there; Federer won it only once, in 2009, and Borg six times.
What colour of clothing is required at Wimbledon?
Answer : White
Wimbledon requires an almost entirely white dress code, a tradition from Victorian times when white hid sweat stains better.
What is Novak Djokovic's nationality?
Answer : Serbian
Novak Djokovic, born in Belgrade in 1987, is Serbian; he is among the most successful players in history, with more than twenty Grand Slam titles.
What is a 40-40 score called?
Answer : Deuce
At 40-40 a player must win by two points to take the game; deuce is thought to come from the French à deux, meaning two points are still needed.
What is Steffi Graf's nationality?
Answer : German
Steffi Graf, a German born in Mannheim, won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, including all four in 1988; she married Andre Agassi in 2001.
How many sets must a man win to take a Grand Slam match (best of five)?
Answer : 3
Men's Grand Slam matches are best of five sets, so three sets win the match; women play best of three.
Medium
Which player won the calendar-year Grand Slam in 1969?
Answer : Rod Laver
Rod Laver completed the calendar-year Grand Slam in 1969, winning all four majors in one year, having already done it in 1962 as an amateur.
How many consecutive Wimbledon singles titles did Björn Borg win (1976-1980)?
Answer : 5
Björn Borg won five Wimbledon titles in a row from 1976 to 1980; John McEnroe beat him in the 1981 final, ending the streak.
In which year did Steffi Graf achieve the Golden Slam (all four majors plus Olympic gold)?
Answer : 1988
In 1988 Steffi Graf won all four majors and then Olympic gold in Seoul, the Golden Slam, which remains unique in singles.
How many Wimbledon singles titles did Pete Sampras win?
Answer : 7
Pete Sampras won seven Wimbledon titles (1993-1995 and 1997-2000), powered by a formidable serve-and-volley game.
How many Grand Slam singles titles did Margaret Court win?
Answer : 24
Margaret Court, an Australian, won 24 Grand Slam singles titles, a women's record, several of them before the Open Era; Serena Williams has 23.
How many points are needed to win a standard tie-break (with a two-point margin)?
Answer : 7
In a standard tie-break, played at 6-6 in games, the first to 7 points wins if two clear points ahead; otherwise play continues.
Which team competition is the women's counterpart of the Davis Cup?
Answer : The Billie Jean King Cup
The Billie Jean King Cup, created in 1963 as the Fed Cup, was renamed in 2020 in honour of the American legend; the Ryder Cup is a golf event.
Who won the men's US Open in 1968, the first Open Era edition?
Answer : Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe, then an amateur and a US Army officer, won the 1968 US Open; he was the first Black man to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Hard
Who is the Roland-Garros stadium named after?
Answer : A French aviator
The stadium is named after Roland Garros, a pioneering aviator who crossed the Mediterranean by air in 1913 and was killed in action in 1918.
Which of these players was one of the French Four Musketeers?
Answer : Jean Borotra
Borotra, Brugnon, Cochet and Lacoste, the Four Musketeers, dominated world tennis and won six straight Davis Cups from 1927 to 1932.
What surface was the Australian Open played on before 1988?
Answer : Grass
The Australian Open was played on grass until 1987 and switched to hard courts in 1988 when it moved to Flinders Park, now Melbourne Park.
What was the final-set score of the 2010 Isner-Mahut match at Wimbledon?
Answer : 70-68
The 2010 Isner-Mahut match lasted 11 hours 5 minutes over three days; with no final-set tie-break back then, the fifth set ended 70-68.
In which year did Maria Sharapova win Wimbledon at age 17?
Answer : 2004
Maria Sharapova beat Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final at 17, becoming one of the youngest champions in the tournament's history.
How many Roland-Garros singles titles did Chris Evert win?
Answer : 7
Chris Evert won Roland-Garros seven times between 1974 and 1986, a women's record, and also strung together 125 straight wins on clay.
Which tournament did Andre Agassi win in 1999 to complete his career Grand Slam?
Answer : The French Open
Andre Agassi beat Andrei Medvedev in five sets in the 1999 French Open final, becoming the fifth player in history to complete the career Grand Slam.
How many Wimbledon singles titles did Martina Navratilova win?
Answer : 9
Martina Navratilova won nine Wimbledon titles, six of them in a row from 1982 to 1987, a record among women.
Expert
In which year were the first Wimbledon Championships held?
Answer : 1877
The first Wimbledon Championships took place in 1877 at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, with Spencer Gore as the first champion.
How many Wimbledon singles titles did Suzanne Lenglen win?
Answer : 6
Suzanne Lenglen, nicknamed La Divine, won Wimbledon six times (1919-1923 and 1925) and lost very few matches in her career.
In which year did Fred Perry win his last Wimbledon, the last British men's title before 2013?
Answer : 1936
Fred Perry won Wimbledon in 1934, 1935 and 1936; it took 77 years and Andy Murray in 2013 for a British man to triumph again.
Which player achieved the first calendar-year Grand Slam in history, in 1938?
Answer : Don Budge
In 1938 Don Budge won the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US titles, becoming the first player to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam.
Which woman was the first to win the calendar-year Grand Slam, in 1953?
Answer : Maureen Connolly
Maureen Connolly, nicknamed Little Mo, completed the Grand Slam in 1953 at 18; a horse-riding accident in 1954 ended her career.
In which year did Ken Rosewall win the Australian Open aged 37?
Answer : 1972
Ken Rosewall, born in 1934, won the 1972 Australian Open at 37, one of the oldest men ever to win a Grand Slam singles title.
What name did Major Wingfield give to his game patented in 1874, ancestor of modern tennis?
Answer : Sphairistike
Major Walter Wingfield patented an outdoor game in 1874 called Sphairistike, Greek for playing ball, soon renamed lawn tennis.
Which team did the USA face in the very first Davis Cup in 1900?
Answer : The British Isles
The first Davis Cup, in Boston in 1900, saw the United States beat the British Isles 3-0; it is named after the American Dwight Davis, who donated it.