Wimbledon 2009: Men's Singles Trivia Quiz

Answer: Marat Safin

Jesse Levine would emerge victorious from this encounter with Marat Safin. Levine took the match by three sets to one (6-2, 3-6, 7-6, and 6-4), resulting in Safin, the 14th seed, crashing out in the opening round. This first round exit is contrasted well by his performance in Wimbledon a year earlier.

In the 2008 competition, Marat Safin managed to reach the semi-finals. Novak Djokovic, Janko Tipsarevic, and Viktor Troicki were all Serbian professional tennis players.

Answer: 1

For any fan of British tennis, that 20% success rate is a cause for concern. Out of five British male entrants to Wimbledon in 2009, just one could win their first round match. The winning British entrant was the third seed, Andy Murray.

Answer: Juan Carlos Ferrero

Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain came into the 2009 tournament with a rank of 70. As many of the commentators and pundits pointed out before the competition started, that relatively low rank was deceptive. Such comments were well justified as Juan Carlos Ferrero was the world number one at the end of 2003.

This coincided with his impressive victory at Roland Garros as well as reaching the final of the US Open. Juan Martin del Potro, Gaston Gaudio and David Nalbandian were all professional tennis players from Argentina.

Answer: Roger Federer

Stanislas Wawrinka had a German father, Polish, and Czech ancestors and a Swiss mother. Wawrinka was brought up in Switzerland where he learned how to play tennis. Being one of the best tennis players in Switzerland he was paired with compatriot Roger Federer in order to compete in the Beijing Olympics. Well, you can't really ask for a better doubles partner than one of the all time greats, Roger Federer.

They went on to win the tournament, beating the Swedish partnership of Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson in a four set final.

Answer: Lleyton Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt, after his success at Wimbledon in 2002 and at the US Open in 2001, was going through a difficult patch in his game. With seven years elapsing since his last major championship, Hewitt showed glimpses of his former self as he worked his way to the quarterfinals.

The Australian took Andy Roddick to the fifth and final set where Roddick threw himself over the finishing line, winning by six games to four. The eight countries represented in the quarterfinals were Australia, Croatia, Germany, Great Britain, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA.

Answer: Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic lost to Tommy Haas (24th seed) of Germany in a four set match. By looking at Djokovic's statistics it could be suggested Wimbledon was a particularly significant tournament for him in 2009. In 2008, Djokovic won the Australian Open and got to the semi-finals at both Roland Garros and the US Open.

In 2009, the form of Djokovic dropped reaching the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and crashing out in round three in France. Thus for Novak Djokovic to maintain the standard he showed throughout 2008, a good performance was needed at Wimbledon.

Answer: No

Federer's win over Haas was very clinical and lasted just 122 minutes. The final result was a win for Federer in straight sets, 7-6, 7-5, and 6-3. The main reason for Federer's success in this match was the astonishingly high percentage of points won on his own first serve. When the Swiss legend managed to get his first serve in, which he did 75% of the time, he won 89% of the points.

Answer: Yes

If you excuse me using the worn out cliche, you really could cut the tension with a knife at the turn of the fifth set. After the 2008 final, where Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer by three sets to two, there was a general feeling that the 2009 final could never live up to the drama, entertainment, and competitiveness of the previous year. Boy, how that assumption was wrong.

The scores for the first two sets were (Federer-Roddick) 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, and 3-6. For Roddick, even getting to the final set was a massive achievement. Roddick managed to win two sets against Federer, a man in such tremendous form that before meeting Roddick had only lost one set all tournament.

Answer: False

Unfortunately for Mr. Roddick he fell short and you could tell how upset he was about the loss after the match. Nobody would blame him for being upset as he had opportunities to take the championship. Most notably in the second set where he threw away a plethora of set points before losing the tiebreaker and therefore the set to Federer by six games to seven. If Roddick had taken the second set he would have had a two sets to love lead and thus be in command of the match.

The final set lasted 95 minutes and consisted of thirty games (16-14). Unlike at the US Open where they play a fifth set tiebreak, final sets at Wimbledon will continue until somebody has a two game lead over their opponent.

Therefore, after four hours and sixteen minutes of match play, Federer took the final set, the match and the championship.

This was Federer's sixth Wimbledon singles title, a feat matched by very few people indeed.

Answer: Andy Murray v Stanislas Wawrinka

The first match to be played in its entirety under the roof at Wimbledon's Centre Court was a fourth round fixture between Britain's Andy Murray and Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka. The match went on late into the night which is a very rare occurrence at Wimbledon. Matches at the Australian Open and the US Open are well known for going on all night but for a match to continue beyond 22:00 at Wimbledon is noteworthy.

The match concluded, with a victory for Murray, at roughly 22:30 and this was viable due to the floodlights built into the roof.