Women's Tennis Association Trivia

1. The WTA wasn't actually the first professional women's tour in the Open Era. What tour preceded the creation of the WTA?

From Quiz WTA Firsts

Answer: Virginia Slims Circuit

The Virginia Slims Circuit kicked off in September 1970. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) wasn't established until Billie Jean King spearheaded a campaign to unite women's tennis in 1973.

From Quiz Titans of Women's Tennis

Answer: Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly

Maureen Connolly Brinker was the second person to win a Grand Slam, the first being American Don Budge's accomplishment in 1938. Her career was tragically cut short by a horse riding accident in 1954. She died from cancer in 1969 at the tender age of 34.

From Quiz Russian Domination: WTA Tour

Answer: Anna Kournikova

Anna Kournikova was the first Russian woman since Olga Morozova in the 1970s to show consistent successful results on the WTA Tour. In 1997, she reached the Wimbledon semi-finals despite playing on the Wimbledon women's draw for the first time.

From Quiz WTA Grand Slam Champions

Answer: No one

The tournament was originally held in January of every year, but it was moved to December in 1977 for reasons unknown. It was then moved back to January in 1987, so there was no championship held in 1986.

From Quiz WTA Firsts

Answer: Chris Evert

In 1973, Chris Evert had reached the final of the French Open and Wimbledon, and the Semi-finals of the US Open. That meant she was instated as World #1 when computerised rankings began, which took into account the previous 12 months of tournament results. Evonne Goolagong Cawley was the second women to reach #1, first achieving the feat on April 26 1976. Steffi Graf & Serena Williams first attained #1 much later, in 1987 and 2002 respectively.

From Quiz Titans of Women's Tennis

Answer: Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was the top-ranked U.S. women's tennis player in 1957 and 1958 and served as a mentor to the young Arthur Ashe. In the 1960s she became the first African American woman to join the LPGA. Ms. Gibson was inducted into the Professional Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971. She died of cancer in 2003.

From Quiz Russian Domination: WTA Tour

Answer: Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova held the number one ranking for the first time on August 22, 2005. Although it only lasted for a week, it was the first time in the open era that a Russian woman held it.

From Quiz WTA Grand Slam Champions

Answer: 4

Hana, who was born in the Czech Republic, represented Australia for most of her career. She won the Australian Open in 1980 over Turnbull 6-0, 7-5, the Roland Garros title in 1981 over Hanika 6-2, 6-4, the 1985 U.S. Open over Navratilova 7-6, 1-6, 7-6, and the 1987 Australian Open over Navratilova 7-5, 7-6.

From Quiz Titans of Women's Tennis

Answer: Margaret Smith Court

According to "Sports Illustrated", Court could have made their list of the 10 Greatest Female Players Of All Time based on her 1970 season alone. She became the second woman ever to win the Grand Slam, but lost to Riggs in what became known as "The Mother's Day Massacre" (May 1973). Billie Jean King said it was a vital time for women's tennis in terms of pay equality and felt she had to accept Riggs' challenge. She trounced the 55 year old in "The Battle of the Sexes" in the Houston Astrodome in September 1973 on prime time television. After retiring from professional tennis, Margaret Court received a degree in theology and became a Pentacostal minister.

From Quiz Russian Domination: WTA Tour

Answer: Anastasia Myskina

Three Russian women went on to win their first Grand Slam singles titles in 2004. Anastasia Myskina became the first by winning the French Open. She was later in the year followed by Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova who won the Wimbledon and US Open titles, respectively.

From Quiz WTA Grand Slam Champions

Answer: 4-6, 7-6, 6-2

This was a very entertaining match that went back and forth for over two hours. Hingis, who is from Switzerland, actually had multiple match points in the 2nd set tie break before Capriati took it at 9-7. This was Jennifer's third Grand Slam career title. She previously won the 2001 Australian Open over Hingis as well 6-4, 6-3, and the 2001 Roland Garros title over Kim Clijsters of Belgium 1-6, 6-4, 12-10.

From Quiz WTA Firsts

Answer: Boca Raton, Florida, USA

The first year-end tournament was played on clay in Boca Raton. It was won by Chris Evert.

From Quiz The European Clay Tour

Answer: Warsaw

The tournament in Warsaw started out in 1995 as the Warsaw Cup, with Barbara Paulus of Austria winning the first edition, defeating Alexandra Fusai of France in the final. Paulus would go on to win the tournament again in 1997. Other winners of this event include Belgian Justine Henin (winning twice), Kim Clijsters, Conchita Martinez and Venus Williams. In 2002 the name changed to J&S Cup, a name the tournament held until 2007. After the tournament was not held in 2008, it returned again in 2009 as the Warsaw Open. Both the editions of 2009 and 2010 were won by Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru. In 2011 the slot for this tournament in the calendar was given to the tournament in Brussels, apparently due to the fact that the tournament was unable to find sufficient sponsors.

From Quiz Titans of Women's Tennis

Answer: Equal prize money awarded to men and women

The U.S. Open was the only Grand Slam tournament to gave an identical pay-out for both sexes until 2000 when the Australian Open did so. It wasn't until 2007 that the French Open and Wimbledon followed suit. King has received many accolades in her lifetime, including being named by "Life" magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Americans of the 20th century, one of only four athletes and the only female athlete, to make the list. The other sports legends named were Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth.

From Quiz Russian Domination: WTA Tour

Answer: Elena Dementieva

Then 18-year old Elena surprised the world by reaching the 2000 Sydney Olympics Final and winning the silver medal. Eight years later at the Beijing Olympics she reached the Olympic final again, this time winning the gold medal.

From Quiz WTA Grand Slam Champions

Answer: 4

Evert won three out of the four times they played in the final. They first met in 1975, where Chris beat Martina 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. Then again in 1984 with Martina winning 6-3, 6-1. Then Chris won again in 1985 6-3, 6-7, 7-5. Their last meeting went to Chris in 1986, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

From Quiz WTA Firsts

Answer: Bali, Indonesia

Cities hosted the 'Tour of Champions' in three-year stints. Bali hosted from 2009-2011, and then Sofia took over from 2012-2014. It was replaced by the WTA Elite Trophy (which has different qualifying criteria) in 2015.

From Quiz Titans of Women's Tennis

Answer: Two-handed backhand

According to chrisevert.net her first coach, dad Jimmy Evert, taught young Chris the two-handed shot as a temporary compensation "because she was too small and weak to swing the backhand with one hand. I had hoped she would change." She didn't, but tennis did. Now, more than 70% of professional players use a two-handed backhand. Evert has achieved many tennis firsts including the first professional player to win 1000 matches, first to win 125 consecutive matches on clay, first to have a winning percentage of .900. In 1995 she joined Rod Laver (1981), John Newcombe (1986), and Virginia Wade (1989) as a unanimous inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

From Quiz Russian Domination: WTA Tour

Answer: 2004

It was April of 2004, Myskina was number five, Dementieva number six, and Petrova was number nine.

From Quiz WTA Grand Slam Champions

Answer: Wimbledon '99

Graf, who is from Germany, lost to Lindsay Davenport 6-4, 7-5. After Graf won the 1999 Roland Garros title, and made it to the Wimbledon final the next month, she felt that it was time for her to leave tennis. She retired that same month and has not played competitive tennis since. Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles over the course of her career.

From Quiz WTA Firsts

Answer: Justine Henin

In May 2008, Justine Henin lost a match to Dinara Safina in Berlin and shortly thereafter announced her retirement from the sport - even though she was ranked World #1 at the time and a favourite to defend her French Open title in a couple of weeks' time. Not only that, she requested the WTA to remove her from the rankings rather than letting her points slowly drop off over the next 12 months.

From Quiz Titans of Women's Tennis

Answer: Czechoslovakia

Martina has been called the dominant force of women's tennis in the 20th century. Among her too numerous to name achievements is winning her final Grand Slam title at the age of 49 (2006 U.S Open Mixed Doubles with partner Bob Bryan). Following her retirement from tennis she became The Ambassador of Fitness for AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). The rivalry of Navratilova and Chris Evert has been called by "Forbes" magazine the best in sports history. "The duo played 80 times in sixteen years... Ali and Frazier met just three times. McEnroe and Borg? Fourteen times. Federer and Nadal? Twenty times. Much is made these days of the chumminess of Federer and Nadal. But those two have never shared a bagel as they waited to play for the US Open title...Chrissie and Martina's friendship has endured and even blossomed since their playing days."

From Quiz Russian Domination: WTA Tour

Answer: 4

Russia won the Fed Cup in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008.

From Quiz WTA Grand Slam Champions

Answer: Serena Williams and Venus Williams

Serena defeated Venus 7-6, 6-3, to win her first ever Wimbledon title. It was also Serena's first Wimbledon final. This was the third consecutive time Venus advanced to the final, winning in 2000 over Davenport 6-3, 7-6, and 2001 over Justine Henin of Belgium 6-1, 3-6, 6-0.

From Quiz WTA Firsts

Answer: January 2011

On 31 January 2011, the Top 10 in the WTA Rankings looked like this: 1) Caroline Wozniacki (DENMARK) 2) Kim Clijsters (BELGIUM) 3) Vera Zvonareva (RUSSIA) 4) Francesca Schiavone (ITALY) 5) Samantha Stosur (AUSTRALIA) 6) Venus Williams (USA) 7) Li, Na (CHINA) 8) Jelena Jankovic (SERBIA) 9) Victoria Azarenka (BELARUS) 10) Agnieszka Radwanska (POLAND)

From Quiz The European Clay Tour

Answer: Estoril

The tournament in Estoril started as men's event in 1990. In 1998 the first women's event was held here at the same venue, then part of the ITF Tour. It became a tournament on the WTA Tour a year later. The first ITF edition was won by Austrian Barbara Schwartz, the first WTA Tour edition had Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik as the winner. They defeated Romanian Raluca Sandu and Hungarian Rita Kuti-Kis respectively. Over the years the tournament had very different winners. In 2002 and 2003 Spanish Magui Serna became the first to win the tournament twice in a row. Chinese Na Li (or Li Na as some people prefer to write it) made the final in 2005 and 2006, losing both times. She would later go on to win Roland Garros however in 2011.

From Quiz Titans of Women's Tennis

Answer: Monica Seles

Though her physical injuries healed after several weeks, the psychological damage was not so quick to subside. Seles did not return to professional tennis for almost two years. Her game never recovered and she left the professional circuit after just a few more years.

From Quiz Russian Domination: WTA Tour

Answer: Dinara Safina

Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin, and Jelena Jankovic all held the number one ranking in 2008. Dinara Safina was able to beat them all while they were holding the number one position.

From Quiz WTA Grand Slam Champions

Answer: 1

Hingis' only U.S. Open win was in 1997, a 6-0, 6-4 win over Venus Williams. Hingis was in the finals of the 1998 U.S. Open where she lost to Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-5, and she was in the 1999 finals where she lost to Serena Williams 6-3, 7-6.

From Quiz WTA Firsts

Answer: Manuela & Katerina Maleeva

Although all of these pairs won doubles titles together, the Maleeva sisters were first with a tournament win in Indianapolis in July 1985. Their younger sister Magdalena was also a top WTA player.

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