You Cannot Be Serious Too Trivia Quiz

Answer: Australia

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club held the inaugural Wimbledon championship in 1877, as part of a fundraising drive to pay for the repair of the equipment that the club needed to maintain its now famous grass courts. There was only one event held, the men's (or "Gentlemen's") singles, and it was won by a man named Spencer Gore.

After 30 years of British domination of the tournament, an Australian named Norman Brookes won the 1907 edition, two years after he had become its first non-British runner-up. He was knighted in 1939 and the trophy awarded to the winner of the men's singles event at the Australian Open - which he won in 1911 - is named in his honour.

The incorrect options are other countries who had Wimbledon men's singles winners in the early years of the tournament. New Zealander Anthony Wilding won it from 1910-1913; Americans Bill Tilden and Bill Johnston won it in 1920-21 and 1923 respectively; and Frenchmen Jean Borotra, René Lacoste and Henri Cochet all won it in the late 1920s.

Answer: Stan Smith

The reason for the absence of Australia's star players in 1972 was a dispute between the World Championship Tennis (WCT) tour, to which many top professional players had signed up, and the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) that controlled the Grand Slam events, including Wimbledon. As a result, all WCT players, including the Australian players John Newcombe, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson and Fred Stolle, were banned from competing at Wimbledon. Although the ban was lifted for the 1973 event it took until 1987 for Australia (in the form of Pat Cash) to register a fifth Open Era victory in the Wimbledon men's singles event.

Stan Smith ended 1972 as the number one player in the world, so clearly his Wimbledon victory was the result of his talent, not just the absence of some of his main competitors. It was his second Grand Slam title following his victory at the US Open in 1971. Smith actually had more success as a doubles player, winning four US Opens and one Australian Open with his partner, Robert Lutz.

Of the incorrect options, Jimmy Connors won his first Wimbledon in 1974, Arthur Ashe took his only title in 1975 and Chuck McKinley became the last American winner of the Amateur Era when he won it in 1963.

Answer: Bjorn Borg

Bjorn Borg won the Wimbledon singles title for five consecutive years from 1976 to 1980. However, he never managed to repeat his amazing feat of winning every set he played in any of his subsequent victories at Wimbledon (although he did manage it twice at the French Open in 1978 and 1980). In fact, it remained a unique achievement at the tournament until a certain Roger Federer emulated it in 2017.

Borg's unlucky opponents in 1976 were (in order from the first round to the final): Britain's David Lloyd; Marty Riessen of the USA; Australia's Colin Dibley; Brian Gottfried of the USA; Guillermo Vilas of Argentina; Roscoe Tanner of the USA; and Romania's Ilie Nãstase. Vilas and Tanner were also among his defeated opponents at the 1978 French Open.

Raúl Ramírez was the other defeated semi-finalist that year.

Answer: Lleyton Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt won the 2002 Wimbledon men's singles title, his second and final Grand Slam singles victory. He'd won the US Open in 2001 and reached the final of his home event, the Australian Open, in 2005. His other Grand Slam victory came in the men's doubles at the US Open in 2000 alongside Max Mirnyi. Although Hewitt continued competing until his retirement from the sport in 2016, his ranking dropped away after 2005 and he reached only one singles Grand Slam quarter final (Wimbledon 2009) in the last 10 years of his career.

Hewitt's opponent in the first round of Wimbledon in 2003 was the big-serving Ivo Karlovic. He was making his debut in the main draw of the men's singles event and went on to reach the third round before being ousted from the competition by the aforementioned Max Mirnyi.

Pat Rafter, David Nalbandian and Mark Philippoussis were the runners-up in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively.

Answer: Richard Krajicek

Richard Krajicek won his only Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 1996 following his defeat of Pete Sampras at the quarter-final stage, Jason Stoltenberg in the semi-finals and MaliVai "Mal" Washington in the final. In doing so he became the first Dutch player of either sex to lift the famous Wimbledon trophy. In the initial draw for the event, Krajicek was not even a seeded player, he only got given that credit after the seventh seed, Thomas Muster, withdrew before the start of the first round.

The 1996 Wimbledon title was the highlight of Krajicek's career as he failed to even make the final of any other Grand Slam events. His next best results were two semi-final appearances - at the Australian Open in 1992 and the French Open the following year. By contrast "Pistol Pete" Sampras set a record of seven Wimbledon men's singles title victories in the Open Era (which lasted until Roger Federer won his eighth title in 2017), as well as five US Open and two Australian Open titles.

Todd Martin was the other defeated semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1996.

Answer: Goran Ivanisevic

Goran Ivanisevic needed a wildcard to enter Wimbledon in 2001 due to the fact that he had dropped to 125th in the world rankings following a shoulder injury. Entry rules meant that only the top 104 players got a guaranteed place in the draw; lower-ranked players needed to get one of the wildcard positions or win their place by competing at the three-round qualifying tournament held in advance of the main event. Ivanisevic was a three-time Wimbledon finalist (1992, 1994 and 1998) prior to the start of the 2001 tournament, so he had clearly demonstrated his credentials in the past - one of the main criteria for being granted a wildcard.

However, given that Ivanisevic was responsible for ousting the home favourite, Tim Henman, from the competition at the semi-final stage, many British people were likely somewhat put out that he had been let into the competition in the first place!

The incorrect options are all other notable wildcard entrants to the Wimbledon men's singles competition. Mark Philippoussis reached the fourth round in 2002, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made it to the same stage in 2007 and Juan Carlos Ferrero got as far as the quarter finals in 2009.

Answer: John Isner and Nicolas Mahut

One of the 64 first-round matches at Wimbledon in 2010 pitted the big-serving American John Isner against the veteran French serve-and-volley specialist Nicolas Mahut. It turned out that there was very little to choose between them: Isner won the first set, Mahut the second and then they each took a set on the tie-break to bring about the deciding fifth set - which, critically, was not subject to a tie break at Wimbledon. Two days later the match finished with Isner snatching victory by 70 games to 68. The final set alone lasted almost as many games as the eventual champion Rafael Nadal played over the first four rounds of the competition!

The other opponents mentioned as incorrect options were involved in lengthy five-set matches during the 2010 Wimbledon tournament, but all fell well short of the length of the Isner-Mahut match. Querrey beat Malisse 9-7 in the final set in their third-round match; Tsonga defeated Dolgopolov 10-8 in the final set of their second-round match; and de Bakker beat Giraldo in the second-longest first-round match of the tournament - their contest finished 16-14 in the final set.

Answer: Boris Becker

Boris Becker won the first of his three Wimbledon men's singles titles in 1985 at the age of just 17. As well as becoming the first unseeded player to win the title, he was also the first German man to win it and he set a new record for the youngest winner (which was broken by Michael Chang four years later). In 1985, Wimbledon only named 16 seeds; if Becker's win had taken place after 2001 when the seedings were expanded to the top 32 players, then he would probably have been seeded 20th, as that was his world ranking at the time.

Becker's defeated opponent in the 1985 final was the eighth seed, Kevin Curren. His other Wimbledon victories came in 1986 and 1989 and he also won the US Open in 1989 and the Australian Open twice (in 1991 and 1996).

Chris Lewis, Cédric Pioline and Mark Philippoussis were all unseeded when they reached the Wimbledon final in 1983, 1997 and 2003 respectively.

Answer: Roger Federer

Sadly for Andy Roddick, the scoring system in tennis means that it isn't always the player who wins the most individual games who ends up winning the match (although that is usually the case). The final scoreline of the 2009 Wimbledon men's singles final ended up at 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14 in Federer's favour. Two of Federer's count of 38 games were tie-breakers, while Roddick won 39 full games. This match was the first time that this sort of statistical anomaly had occurred since the start of the Open Era at Wimbledon in 1968.

At a total of 77 games completed over 4 hours and 17 mins, the 2009 match between Federer and Roddick set a new record for the longest Wimbledon men's singles final in terms of total games played. However, it fell 32 minutes short of breaking the record for the longest final in terms of time - that record had been set the previous year and also involved Federer, although his opponent (and the victor) on that occasion was Rafael Nadal.

Novak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon title in 2011 and Andy Murray ended Britain's long wait for a champion in 2013.

Answer: John McEnroe

In 1977, a young and virtually unknown player by the name of John McEnroe entered the Wimbledon men's singles event for the first time, having won his place in it at the pre-event qualifying competition. On his way through the draw he picked off a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist in the first round (Ismail El Shafei), a former Wimbledon semi-finalist in the fourth round (Sandy Mayer) and the 12th seed, Phil Dent, in the quarter-finals. He came unstuck against the top seed Jimmy Connors in the semi-final, but had still surpassed the achievements of all the previous qualifiers.

Needless to say, after that performance McEnroe was no longer an unknown and he went on to achieve fame both for his amazing displays of skill on court and his blazing rows with various umpires. He won Wimbledon three times (in 1981, 1983 and 1984), the US Open four times (1979-1981 and 1984) and claimed a total of 10 Grand Slam doubles titles. He also became noted for his use of the phrase "You cannot be serious"!

The incorrect options were three other qualifiers who took part in the men's singles competition at Wimbledon in 1977. Chris Kachel and Douglas Palm made it to the second round, while Eliot Teltscher reached the third round.