Welcome to the third annual genius/joker quiz.
We’ve decided to give a few hints this year – and one is that the same answer is valid for two different questions.
The answers will be revealed in next week’s Tebbutt Tuesday in an interactive (widget) format.
1 – Which men’s pro has ranked as high as No. 5, played 55 Grand Slam tournaments and made the quarter-finals seven times – but has never reached a Slam semifinal?
2 – Do all WTA players have to wear the WTA patch on their top – or are there exceptions?
3 – Maxim Afinogenov, a former Buffalo Sabres hockey player, and current Montreal Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, have a tennis connection. What is it?
4 – Seated in the crowd watching Milos Raonic in Miami this year was a former world No. 8 who ended his career with a 3-3 head-to-head record against Roger Federer. Who is he?
5 – Elena Vesnina of Russia was the defending doubles champion at the US Open this year but only won one match in her title defense. Who was her partner?
6 – Which former Grand Slam champion was originally booked on ill-fated Pan Am flight 103, which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988?
7 – Arnaud Clément (Australian Open), Patrick Rafter (French Open), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Wimbledon) and Juan Carlos Ferrero (US Open) share a common distinction at those four Grand Slam events. What is it?
8 – Who is this current men’s player pictured from behind?
9 – In what year did tennis introduce drug-testing?
10 – Name the player with the longest surname in international junior competition or in the professional ranks who has beaten Milos Raonic? [Hint – the name contains more than 14 letters.]
11 – Only one of the so-called Big Four players, when he plays, wears a watch and also has a dampener in his racquet. Who is he?
12 – Daniel Nestor has won the vast majority of his 88 career doubles titles with either Mark Knowles (40) or Nenad Zimonjic (27). Who’s next on the list of players who have won the most tournaments with Nestor?
13 – During his long career, Andre Agassi was twice disqualified from matches, with the final straw being obscene language on both occasions. Who were the two players Agassi (leading in both matches) was disqualified against? [Hint – one was a Canadian.]
14 – Who does this arm, photographed at the 2015 US Open, belong to? [Hint – she was nominated in one of the five categories in the year-end 2015 WTA awards.]
15 – The late brilliant American author David Foster Wallace wrote the following about a player: “Who himself has the blond bland looks of a professional golfer, and is reputed to be the single dullest man on the ATP Tour and possibly in the whole world, a man whose hobby is purported to be “staring at walls” and whose quietness is not the quietness of restraint but of blankness, the verbal equivalent of a dead channel.” Which multiple Grand Slam champion was Foster Wallace referring to?
16 – Can either or both players decline to call the coin toss at the net before a match begins?
17 – This pair above reached the quarter-finals of the 1983 French Open mixed doubles – who are they?
18 – Who had the best combined singles and doubles ranking (when the two are added together) at the end of the 2015 men’s season?
19 – How many Australians are there in this group gathered around Andy Murray on the Aorangi practice courts at Wimbledon the day before the tournament started last June. Name him or her or them. [Hint – four in picture have played in a Wimbledon singles semifinal.]
20 – She is one of only three women’s players (with Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis) to win two Grand Slam junior titles by age 14. [Hint – an active player, this woman ranks in the Top 100.]
21 – Who does not fit, for the purposes of this tennis quiz, in the following group – Gavin Rossdale, Justin Timberlake, Will Arnett or Justin Bieber?
22 – Which professional player is NOT in this picture – Rohan Bopanna, Rafael Nadal, Somdev Devvarman or Yuki Bambri?
23 – Which of the following retired or active players does not fit in this group – Iveta Benesova, Nicole Vaidisova, Kateryna Bondarenko or Jarmila Gajdosova?
24 – What is the most common given or first name among the Top 100 players on the men’s tour. [Hint – there are two tied at three.]
25 – There are four players with the most common first name in the WTA Top 100. But there’s a catch – one player has a double-barreled name and depending on which one is counted, that tips the scales to one name or the other. Who is that player?
