Tennis is a fantastic game, and one that has been popular for hundreds of years! What was once a leisurely game played by the aristocracy has now become a high octane, adrenaline filled sport watched by millions around the world. With bet365 at FreeBets.com , you can now enjoy some of the best odds and offers whenever you like and wherever you are!
So what is it about tennis that makes it so much fun to bet on, and how much do you really know about it? Let us take a look at some interesting, bizarre, and quirky facts about the sport to find out more!
- It is believed that tennis originated as long ago as the 12th Century in northern France. It was played by monks and called “jeu de paume” and they used to use the flat palm of their hand to bat the ball at each other. Tennis rackets were first introduced several hundred years later in the 16th Century.
- Everyone knows that tennis balls are a rather lovely shade of neon yellow/green, but did you know that up until as recently as 1986, the balls were white? It was only during that year’s Wimbledon that it was changed because the neon characteristic of the balls made them much easier to spot as they were batted backwards and forwards across the net at high speeds.
- Tennis has previously been a rather deadly sport. Poor King Charles VIII of France was unfortunate enough to hit his head on the door of his tennis court in 1498, and died shortly after. Thankfully now, tennis courts do not have doors so this type of tragic accident can be avoided!
- The fastest tennis serve ever delivered by a woman was a staggering 205km per hour, by American superstar tennis player- Venus Williams. She has also ranked as Number 1 in the world for women’s tennis on multiple occasions and is widely regarded as one of the best tennis players in the world.
- The longest tennis match to ever take place, took place at Wimbledon in 2010. The match was between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner and took an extremely epic, THREE DAYS to complete. In contrast, the shortest Grand Slam game to ever take place took just 34 minutes to complete and was played between Steffi Graf and Natalia Zvereva in 1988.
- And in case you had ever wondered, the person who has won the most Grand Slam single titles in history is Margaret Smith Court. She won an impressive 24 different Grand Slam titles during her career!
- Lastly, did you know that Wimbledon has its own resident Harris Hawk called Rufus whose sole job it is to keep the skies above the courts free of pigeons? Well it’s true and Rufus also has over 9000 followers on twitter!
So, there you go- our roundup of some of the most interesting tennis facts out there!
