MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - How well do you know the Australian Open? Try this quiz about the year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament:
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1st Round: What was the original name of the tournament when it first was held in 1905?
a.) Australian Open
b.) Australian Championships
c.) The Lawn Tennis Championships of Australia
d.) The Australasian Championships
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2nd Round: Who is the only man to win the Australian Open on grass courts and hard courts?
a.) Jimmy Connors
b.) Rod Laver
c.) Mats Wilander
d.) Boris Becker
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3rd Round: When are tiebreakers contested in the fifth set of men’s matches and third set of women’s matches at Melbourne Park?
a.) 6-all
b.) 7-all
c.) 10-all
d.) 12-all
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4th Round: Which woman holds the record for most consecutive Australian Open titles in the professional era?
a.) Steffi Graf
b.) Martina Hingis
c.) Monica Seles
d.) All of the above
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Quarterfinal: Who was the oldest women’s Grand Slam singles champion in the professional era?
a.) Billie Jean King
b.) Serena Williams
c.) Martina Navratilova
d.) Mary Pierce
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Semifinal: Who was the oldest men’s Grand Slam singles champion in the professional era?
a.) Rod Laver
b.) Ken Rosewall
c.) Roger Federer
d.) Andre Agassi
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Women’s Final: Who was the most recent mother to win a Grand Slam singles title?
a.) Kim Clijsters
b.) Li Na
c.) Chris Evert
d.) Evonne Goolagong Cawley
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Men’s Final: What was the longest - by time - Grand Slam men’s singles final? Bonus: How long did it last?
a.) Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2019
b.) Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2008
c.) Roger Federer beats Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open in 2017
d.) Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open in 2012
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ANSWERS
1st Round. d. The Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia initially hosted a regional championship more than a century ago; the event was held in New Zealand twice. The tournament became known as the Australian Championships in 1927, then the Australian Open in 1969 when professionals were allowed to enter.
2nd Round. c. Like Wimbledon (still today) and the U.S. Open (until the 1970s), the Australian Open began as a grass-court tournament. It switched to grass in 1988, when Wilander won his third title. He already had won the trophy in 1983 and 1984.
3rd Round. a. The Australian Open stuck with traditional timing but chose a unique scoring system when it introduced final-set tiebreakers for the 2019 tournament, opting to play a first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker at 6-all. Each Grand Slam tournament settles decisive sets in its own way: The U.S. Open uses a first-to-seven tiebreaker at 6-all; Wimbledon uses a first-to-seven tiebreaker at 12-all; the French Open doesn’t use a tiebreaker at all.
4th Round. d. Each of those women won the tournament in three consecutive years: Graf from 1988-90, Seles from 1991-93, Hingis from 1997-99. Serena Williams has won the Australian Open a record seven times but never more than twice in a row in 2009-10; she lost in the quarterfinals in 2008 and didn’t enter the field in 2011.
Quarterfinal. b. Williams’ title at Melbourne Park in 2017 at 35 made her the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam singles trophy. Williams also is the second-oldest champion in the professional era, which dates to 1968; she was 34 at Wimbledon in 2016. Since her 2017 victory in Australia, Williams has reached four major finals but is 0-4 in those matches.
Semifinal. b. Rosewall was 37 when he won the 1972 Australian Open for the last of his eight Grand Slam singles titles; he would go on to reach the finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open two years later. Rosewall also holds the distinction as the youngest male champion in Australia, earning the title in 1953 at 18.
Women’s Final. a. Clijsters beat Li Na 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the 2011 Australian Open final. That was Clijsters’ third major championship as a mother, following titles at the 2009 and 2010 U.S. Opens. The only other women to win Grand Slam singles titles as moms were Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Men’s Final. d. Djokovic needed 5 hours, 53 minutes to get past Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 eight years ago at Melbourne Park in a match that ended after 1:30 a.m. Famously, both exhausted players plopped themselves down on chairs during the trophy ceremony.
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Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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