Playing With Euros Trivia Quiz

(Germany)
Steffi Graf's level of success and consistency is extraordinary. A winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, she became the first tennis player, male or female, to win all four Grand Slam titles four times. She joins Margaret Court as the first players to win three Grand Slam titles in a calendar year on five occasions and she became the first tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam - winning all four majors and the Olympic gold medal (in singles) in the same year.

Graf would reach the singles final at Wimbledon on nine occasions, winning seven titles (1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996).

(Great Britain)
Wade is one of the finest female tennis players to come from Great Britain reaching a ranking of number two in the world as a singles player and number one in the doubles. It was both appropriate and a relief for her country when she won the Wimbledon Singles title in 1977. The reason being that Wimbledon was celebrating its centenary that year (appropriate for a Brit to win it), it was Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee and, to mark the occasion, the Queen attended the final for the first time in 15 years.

Wade would win three of the four tennis singles majors, missing out on the French to complete a career Grand Slam. Whilst she was a strong singles player she was even better at doubles, winning three of the majors in that disciple... ironically, Wimbledon was the only one she missed out on. Between her doubles and singles successes at the majors, she was the first British tennis player to secure all four Grand Slam titles in the course of her career.

(Romania)
Halep was destined for big things in the world of tennis. A former junior world number one she would win her first six WTA (Women's Tennis Association) events in the same year (2013), the first female to do so since the great Steffi Graf. She became the first Romania female to be ranked number one in the world and the first to win a Wimbledon singles title, which she did by defeating Serena Williams in 2019. However, she is not the first Romanian female to win a Grand Slam title, that honour went to Virginia Ruzici, who took out the French Open in 1978.

(Spain)
In 1994 Conchita Martinez would become the first Spanish woman to win the Wimbledon singles title. It would prove to be her only victorious attempt at a Grand Slam title. She would also reach the finals of the Australian Open in 1998 and the French Open two years later. She was however, passionate about representing her country and, with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, created a formidable partnership that would take Spain to victory in the Federation Cup on five occasions (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998).

(The Netherlands)
The year 1977 is one that is likely to cause Dutch tennis star Betty Stove, numerous nightmares... for her, it was the year that "could have been" something special. At Wimbledon, she would reach the singles final (her only Grand Slam singles final)... but she would lose to Virginia Wade. She would partner Martina Navratilova and reach the doubles final... they would lose to Helen Goulay and Joanne Russell. But wait, that's not all, she would partner Frew McMillan and reach the mixed doubles final... but would lose to Greer Stevens and Bob Hewitt.

Stove, however, was a powerhouse when it came to doubles play, reaching 14 Grand Slam doubles finals, winning six, and 13 mixed doubles finals, winning four. Three of those wins would be on the grass at Wimbledon.

(France)
Lenglen is considered by many scholars to be the greatest female tennis player of the amateur era. She was the first woman to be ranked number one in the world, holding that honour from 1921 to 1926. During her career she would win eight Grand Slam singles titles, which included six at Wimbledon, five of which were consecutive (1919-20-21-22-23). She would win the singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the inaugural French Open in 1925 and then repeat the feat the following year. Little wonder that the French press called her "La Divine" ("The Goddess").

(Switzerland)
During the 1990s Martina Hingis set a series of "youngest ever" records and, by the age of 22, it was estimated by Forbes magazine, that she had been the world's highest paid female athlete for five consecutive years between 1997 and 2001. She would claim 25 Grand Slam titles. Five of those were in singles, thirteen in women's doubles and seven in mixed doubles.

Her sole success at the Wimbledon singles came in 1997, a year where swept all before her and, only a loss in the final of the French Open to Iva Majoli, prevented her from winning a Grand Slam in the calendar year. She partly made up for that by winning the Grand Slam in the women's doubles the following year.

(Belgium) The stars almost aligned on the career of Justine Henin. She almost achieved everything there is to achieve in the game. For 117 weeks during her career, she was ranked the number one female tennis player in the world. Joining forces with fellow countrywoman Kim Clijsters, she led her country to their first Federation Cup win in 2001.

She won the Women's Singles gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, and she won seven Grand Slam singles titles...four French Opens, two US Opens and the Australian Open.

However, though she reached the final of Wimbledon in 2001 and 2006, she could not take the final step to complete a career Grand Slam.

(Denmark)
The marking of the year alongside Hilde's name was significant. Hilde would make the Wimbledon singles final on two occasions, though she would not be successful. German born, and considered by many to be Germany's second best female tennis player, behind Steffi Graf, she reached her first final in 1931 as a German. She became a Danish citizen by marriage in 1933 and reached her second Wimbledon final in 1937, under the flag of Denmark.

Known for her speed around the court, Sperling's greatest successes in Grand Slams would come in the French Open, a title she would win three times in a row between 1935 and 1937. She can, however, claim one Wimbledon title, winning the mixed doubles with Gottfried von Cramm in 1933.

(Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic)
For a while it appeared that Wimbledon would become Jana Novotna's albatross. To get to the final of the 1993 championship, the 8th seeded Novotna was confronted by the 4th seed Gabriela Sabatini, to whom she'd lost six consecutive times. She stormed through that game. In the semi final she fronted up to the number two seed, Martina Navratilova, who had beaten her on all five occasions they'd met. She brushed her aside. In the final she was confronted by the top seed Steffi Graf. Graf won the first set, but Novotna coolly won a tight second set. In the last set Novotna was holding game point on serve to take a 5-1 lead when... let's not say that she choked, rather that the occasion got to her. She faltered and Graf won the next five games to take the title.

It would be another four years (1997) before Novotna would reach the final at Wimbledon. Here she confronted Martina Hingis where, after winning the first set, she faltered again and Hingis would win the next two and the title. Not to be denied, Novotna's moment would arrive in 1998 when she defeated the French veteran Nathalie Tauzia in straight sets.