Tennis

[kas]

I hadn't even noticed that the Wimbledon tournament of this year had started - tennis has sort of slipped out of my sports radar since my teens.

But last evening my wife alerted me to the frankly mindboggling marathon match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/8757259.stm

We ended up watching the end of the fifth set on netstream (or not end: they interrupted it and will continue today).
What football? Here was the real sports thriller.

[Philellinas]

Meticulous research carried out by someone with too much time on their hands (no names, no pack-drill) has revealed that of the 128 entrants in the women's singles at Wimbledon 28 had a surname ending in -ova. There were also 3 "honorary" -ovas ending in -eva one of whom, Vera Zvonareva, is appearing in the final tomorrow. You are thus statistically quite likely to win the championship if you have the right surname. I hope I haven't over-egged the pudding in bringing these astounding findings to your attention.

[Con Murphy]

Meticulous research carried out by someone with too much time on their hands (no names, no pack-drill) has revealed that of the 128 entrants in the women's singles at Wimbledon 28 had a surname ending in -ova. There were also 3 "honorary" -ovas ending in -eva one of whom, Vera Zvonareva, is appearing in the final tomorrow. You are thus statistically quite likely to win the championship if you have the right surname.

That surname being "Williams", natch.

-ova/-eva is an almost universal suffix for feminine surnames in Russia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, isn't it? Therefore I think your research is telling us a slightly different story, Phil.

[uiwangmike]

Trivia corner: Serena Williams' birthplace was immortalised in song by Lefty Frizzell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI_xCH6wkO8
Venus was born in California.

[uiwangmike]

A quiz:
The girl from Saginaw is currently ranked World No. 1, as you might expect. Who's No. 2? No conferring, but she's not another Williams, nor is she an -ova or even an -eva.

[Philellinas]

I would guess that the second-ranking player in the world is not British or even honorary British. Is she an Eva, by any chance? This is my wild-card entry.

[uiwangmike]

No, and she's not a plucky Belgian. Maybe you can phone a friend.

[uiwangmike]

Meticulous research carried out by someone with too much time on their hands (no names, no pack-drill) has revealed that of the 128 entrants in the women's singles at Wimbledon 28 had a surname ending in -ova.

The -ovas are even winning at the Commonwealth Games.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/commonw ... 077071.stm

[Philellinas]

A quiz:
The girl from Saginaw is currently ranked World No. 1, as you might expect. Who's No. 2? No conferring, but she's not another Williams, nor is she an -ova or even an -eva.

I can now reveal exclusively, Mike, that the woman who was No. 2 in the world has now worked her way to the top of the grassy pole. No more clues, I'm afraid.