Novak Djokovic Wins US Open For Record-Equalling 24th Grand Slam Title
The 36- year-old tennis star from Serbia, Novak Djokovic won the US Open final by defeating Danil Medvedev. He has become the first player to win 24 Grand Slams in the Open Era, which began in 1968. He has won three of the four Grand Slam titles in 2023, becoming the first man to achieve this feat on four occasions. In winning 24 grand slam titles, Djokovic now equals Australian Margaret Court’s record.
American teenager Coco Gauff has won the US Open tournament for the first time. The 19-year-old beat Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka in a nail-biting final. This win makes her the youngest American to win a major tennis championship since 1999. Cori Gauff, who’s nicknamed “Coco”, made headlines when in 2019 she became the youngest player (at 15 years and 122 days) to qualify for the main Wimbledon draw since the professional era began in 1968. The US Open is her first major title win.
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Word Check
A Grand Slam is a very prestigious tennis tournament. There are four Grand Slam tournaments that take place every year – The US Open, Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.
The Open Era is the current era of professional tennis. It began in 1968 when the Grand Slam tournaments allowed professional players to compete with amateurs, ending the division that had persisted since the dawn of the sport in the 19th century.
Did You Know?
Tennis balls are very hard to recycle and they’re causing a problem for the Earth. Nearly all of the 330 million balls made worldwide each year eventually get wasted, with most ending up in landfill. Tennis balls can take more than 400 years to decompose. Grand Slam events go through nearly 100,000 balls over the course of the tournament and the tennis industry is scrambling for a solution.
Wimbledon is one of the four Grand Slams, the world’s top tennis competitions. The US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open are the other three. Although Wimbledon is the name of the venue where the competition is held in south-west London, its official name is The Championships. The All England Club in London, where the Championships are still held today, hosted the inaugural event in 1877.
With the exception of Wimbledon, all other major tournaments are played on clay or acrylic courts.
There are five main events at Wimbledon, with prizes for the overall winners:
Women’s singles
Men’s singles
Women’s doubles
Men’s doubles
Mixed doubles
Players have the option of participating in singles games, where they compete one against one, or doubles games, where they compete two against two. With the exception of mixed doubles, when a man and a woman can team up against another man and a woman, players typically can only play against individuals of their own gender.
Wimbledon Women’s Single Title
Czech player Markéta Vondroušová created history by defeating sixth seed Ons Jabeur to become the first unseeded woman in the Open Era to win Wimbledon Women’s Single Title. She is ranked 42nd in the world. Before playing at Wimbledon this year, Markéta Vondroušová had won only four grass court matches in her career. She is known to play her best on clay courts.
Wimbledon Men’s Single Title
20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz defeated legendary Novak Djokovic in an epic final to win the Wimbledon Men’s Single Title for the first time ever. Alcaraz won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open last year.
Wimbledon Women’s Doubles Winners
Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic won their second Wimbledon doubles title as a pairing by defeating Elise Mertens of Belgium and Storm Hunter of Australia.
Wimbledon Men’s Doubles Winners
Britain’s Neal Skupski and Dutch Wesley Koolhof, won the Wimbledon Men’s Doubles. Neal Skupski has become the first Briton to win the mixed and men’s doubles titles at Wimbledon since 1926. This was his third doubles title in a row at Wimbledon, having won the mixed doubles in 2021 and 2022.
Wheelchair Doubles
Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won their fifth Wimbledon men’s wheelchair doubles title together, beating Japan’s Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda.
Understanding the Difference Between a Seeded and Unseeded Player
The top players in the tournament are known as seeded players. The concept is that the best players shouldn’t have to face each other until the later stages of the competition in order to guarantee that the victor is the best player overall. Players 1 and 2 are placed in separate parts of the draw to avoid meeting before the final, while the top 8 seeds can reach the quarterfinals and the top 4 can play in the semi-finals (if they make it that far). However, an unseeded player could face any other player at any time of the competition, thus they may have to play some of the greatest players right away. This makes it more difficult for them to get to the competition’s final stages.
Interesting Facts About Wimbledon:
Players can only wear white to participate in the Wimbledon. When tennis was played at social gatherings in the 1800s, that is when people first started wearing white to the tournament. In order to avoid sweat stains on coloured clothing, which were at the time seen as “improper” and “unattractive,” players wore white. As a result, it was included in the tournament’s official dress code as of that point.
Did you know that Wimbledon is also popularly called SW19? The location of Wimbledon Championships is in the Battersea district and the postcode for Wimbledon is 19. Hence the Wimbledon Championships are also known as SW19.
The longest Wimbledon match was between American John Isner and French Nicolas Mahut. Over the course of three days, it lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes.
A staggering 54,250 tennis balls are utilised during Wimbledon! To make sure they are in top condition, they are changed every seven to nine games. They are stored in a refrigerator to keep them fresh!
Every morning during the tournament, a Harris hawk called Rufus is set free and circles the sky above Wimbledon grounds to scare away the local pigeons.
Strawberries and Cream is a popular tradition at Wimbledon. It is estimated that 191,930 portions are served during the tournament.
