I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence, but the first post of my new blog on the history and legends of the game comes 136 years to the day after the birth of lawn tennis on June 22, 1874.
Although the sport's origins date back as far as 14th-century France, it was on this date in 1874 that members of the All-England Croquet Club began using their facilities to play "lawn tennis," changing their name to the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club later the same year.
Fast-forward 107 years, and the sport was on the front page of every newspaper and made the national evening news, although for a reason its founding fathers would have cringed at.
On June 22, 1981, John McEnroe erupted with perhaps his most infamous rant of all-time, blasting umpire Edward James with his immortal "YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS!" during a first-round Wimbledon win over Tom Gullikson.
While Mac took plenty of heat for the outburst, he backed it up, winning the title two weeks later by ending Bjorn Borg's five-year title streak. The legendary outburst became the title of his autobiography, and his catch phrase in a current series of rental car commercials.

If tennis and soccer are your two biggest national passions, I've got bad news for you.
Never in the 74-year history of the World Cup has one country produced both the global football champion, and either the men's or women's titlist at The All England Lawn Tennis Club.
There have been five near-misses, most recently in 2006 when France's Amelie Mauresmo defeated Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on July 9 in the Women's Singles final. Hours later, France’s soccer team fell to Italy in a 5-3 shootout of the finals of the World Cup after the two teams finished the first 90 minutes tied 1-1.

Eight years earlier, it was the French soccer squad that came up with the championship, while the tennis star fell short.

France hosted the FIFA championships that summer, and the home team came away with its first title ever, routing Brazil 3-0 before a raucous crowd of 80,000.  That same summer, 30-year-old Nathalie Tauziat, the 16^th seed in the women’s draw at Wimbledon stunned second-seeded Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals but fell in the final to the Czech Republic’s Jana Novotna.

Two decades earlier, it was West Germany’s soccer team and men’s star Boris Becker who flirted twice with the best of both worlds. In 1986, an 18-year-old Becker defended his Wimbledon crown by taking down the world’s No. 1-ranked player, Ivan Lendl, in straight sets. West Germany made the World Cup final, but fell to Argentina 3-2 before a staggering 114,600 people in Mexico City.

In 1990, Becker fell to Sweden’s Stefan Edberg in the Wimbledon final in a five-set marathon. That same summer, West Germany notched its third world title by defeating Argentina 1-0 on a late-match penalty kick.

The first time a country made the finals of the Cup in the same year one of its nationals played for the Wimbledon crown came in 1962, when Czechoslovakia fell to Argentina 3-1 in the Cup finals in Chile, and Czech’s Vera Sukova lost to the United States’ Karen Susman in the women’s final. 

Is there a combination of wimbledon champs and World Cup dreamers lurking in England and South Africa this summer?  What coutnry do you think has the chops to produce both champions come July?

Regardless of the challenge, Martina Navratilova has never been just a winner.

She dominates her opponents.

She did it routinely over the span of her 32-year professional career, winning 167 singles and 177 doubles titles, spending 332 weeks at No. 1 and taking 18 Grand Slam singles titles, including nine at Wimbledon.

This past February, Navratilova revealed she had a non-invasive form of breast cancer.

After undergoing a biopsy and lumpectomy, she immediately started radiation therapy. She didn’t let the disease or its treatment run her life, continuing to do commentary for the Tennis Channel on the French Open while undergoing therapy in Paris.

Earlier this week, the legendary player announced herself cancer-free, and turned her focus squarely on her biggest physical target to date  - Mount Kilimanjaro.

With its peak at 19,336 feet (5,895 m), Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain on the African continent. Before she was even diagnosed with cancer, Navratilova, a member of the signed on with the foundation to raise funds for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.

Other celebrity athletes involved on the climb include South African mountaineer Deshun Deysul, German Paralympic cyclist Michael Teuber and British mountaineer Anabelle Bond.

The climb will take place Dec. 3-14.

The mission of the Laureus Foundation is to utilize the power of sport to address social challenges through a global program of sports-related community development activities.

To learn more about the climb or to contribute to the cause, visit Navratilova’s web site.

 

While watching John Isner and Nicholas Mahut finally finish their epic Wimbledon match Thursday morning, I decided to take a look back at the marks they broke, those which before this amazing three-day marathon had defined the very limits of endurance and excellence in the sport.

Perhaps the craziest statistic of all to come out of this once-in-a-lifetime event is that the eight-hour fifth set, finally won by Isner by the ridiculous count of 70-68, lasted longer by itself than any other full match in professional history.

At a total of 11 hours, five minutes, Isner/Mahut destroyed the longest match record set at the 2004 French Open by Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement.

That match, also a first-rounder, was won by Santoro 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 3-6, 16-14 in six hours, 33 minutes.

Dropped to No. 3 on the list is an absolute masterpiece, John McEnroe’s six-hour, 22-minute victory over Sweden’s Mats Wilander in five sets that gave the United States a 3-2 quarterfinal victory in the 1982 Davis Cup. The Americans went on to win their second straight title by defeating France in the final.

 

Five years later, McEnroe missed breaking his own record by one minute, when he and Boris Becker went six hours, 21 minutes in the 1987 Davis Cup.

The 19-year-old Becker emerged victorious courtesy 4-6, 15-13, 8-10, 6-2, 6-2.

When the dust cleared on Thursday morning, Isner held the new all-time record for aces in a match with 112, with Mahut right behind him, finishing the match with 103.

Both players blew away the previous mark of 78, set by Ivo Karlovic in the 2009 Davis Cup. That match took five hours, 59 minutes, the sixth-longest match in history.

Before Wednesday, Karlovic held the top three spots for single-match ace totals, but all three had come in losses, including the previous Wimbledon high of 51, which he set in a 2005 defeat.

Karlovic still holds the record for being the tallest player to ever compete professionally, standing six-feet, 10-inches tall.

 

Wimbledon’s 2010 edition isn’t a full five days old, and the World Cup doesn’t start the elimination round until Saturday, but the likelihood of one country producing champions from both events is fading.

Through Friday’s early action at Wimbledon, only six of the 14 countries that emerged from group play still had a player alive in singles competition.

The swan dives of Italy and France in group play left Germany and the United States with the most players left in Wimbledon and a team alive in the Cup.

The U.S. is an odds-on favorite to produce the women’s champ (Serena or Venus Williams), but the American soccer squad is a 33-1 long shot to win the title.

Germany is 10-1 to win, but of the six German players still alive at Wimbledon, four are unseeded. Men’s No. 29 Phillipp Kohlschreiber will battle fifth-seeded Andy Roddick today, and No. 33 Philipp Petzschner must take on second-seeded Rafael Nadal tomorrow.

On paper, Spain has the best shot of producing a winner from both events. The Spanish bring Nadal, David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez to the table, along with one of the pre-tournament favorites to win the World Cup.

The Spanish side takes on Chile Friday. Wins by Spain and Switzerland would put the two teams in a three-way tie with Chile at six points.

The Swiss winning the World Cup would be a shocker on par with native son Roger Federer not reaching the finals of men’s singles.

Brazil is more intriguing, pairing the most successful side in World Cup history with Thomaz Bellucci, who went four rounds deep at the French.

And then there’s England. The British haven’t celebrated a Wimbledon champion since Virginia Wade in 1977, and have been without a male champion since 1936.

England’s soccer squad hasn’t taken the world championship since 1966. They start the elimination stage Sunday against nemesis Germany, while fourth-seeded Andy Murray carries the weight of the country’s tennis fanatics on his shoulders.

UPDATE: Moments ago, Spain defeated Chile 2-1 and Switzerland tied Honduras 0-0 meaning Spain and Chile advance to the elimination stage.
 

Keep up to date with all the latest updates from Wimbledon at Tennisnow.com.

As a fan of most sports, I thrive on knowledge and discussion of all sorts of records, especially those for longevity.
As a sportswriter, I covered a 19-inning playoff softball game that not surprisingly ended 1-0.
As a baseball fan, I saw the Astros and Padres play a 17-inning game that was the front-end of a doubleheader. We stayed for the second game, and got to see 26 innings of baseball for $4.
Jeez, I miss 1990s prices. But I digress.
The 11-hour, 5-minute match between Nicholas Mahut and John Isner which ended Thursday morning is officially the second-longest professional sporting event in world history.
The longest? A 1939 cricket match between England and South Africa that somehow took eight days to finish, spanning 43 hours and 16 minutes. I know less about cricket than just about any subject I can think of, but the sports I do follow have never seen anything like Isner-Mahut.
Of America’s “Big Three” team sports, only baseball can hold a candle to the grueling length that was exhibited Tuesday through Thursday at Wimbledon.
In 1981, the Triple A squads from Pawtucket and Rochester teamed up for a 33-inning game that lasted eight hours, 25 minutes. Pawtucket scratched out a 2-1 win.
The longest Major League game took place in May of 1984, when the White Sox and Brewers went 25 innings in eight hours, six minutes.
College baseball’s longest game also took 25 innings before Texas beat Boston College 3-2 in 2009. The game was tied 2-2 from the sixth inning on, and lasted just short of seven hours.
North America’s other big sports all feature a clock, so the impact of their length can’t compare to the marathons of tennis and baseball.
In the 1936 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Maroons spent two hours, 56 minutes on the ice (typical game length is 60 minutes) before Detroit eked out a 1-0 win.
The longest NBA game took six overtimes, the longest college game seven.
NCAA Division I football, which has only used overtime rules in the past 15 years, has seen two seven overtime games to date, both involving the Arkansas Razorbacks.
On Christmas Day, 1971, the NFL experienced its longest game as Miami beat Kansas City 27-24 in a double overtime affair. Instead of a typical 60 minutes of play, the Chiefs and Dolphins spent 82 minutes, 40 seconds on the turf, almost the equivalent of a “third half.”
What sporting event’s longevity record is the most impressive to you? Log in and enter your comments below!

It was stunning to see to the news that Jennifer Capriati had been taken to the hospital for an apparent overdose, and nearly as stunning to realize it's been 20 years since she made her splash into the world of professional tennis.
Capriati took the American sports scene by storm when she appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in March of 1990, fresh off reaching the finals at Boca Raton in her tour debut before losing to Gabriela Sabatini, doing so at the age 13 years, 11 months .
Her star loomed even larger in the years to come, starting with a quarterfinal victory over Navratilova - then the defending champion - at Wimbledon in 1991, and winning the Olympica gold medal at the Barcelona games in 1992, defeating #1 seeded Steffi Graf in the final.




To think of a 14-year-old doing such things against the best players in the world is staggering, even in today's future-driven sports market where every magazine, advertiser and network is constantly digging for who's "Next."
Imagine Capriati was a full four years younger than LeBron James when he won the NBA's Rookiee of the Year title. She was six years younger than Magic Johnson when he won his first NBA title, and more than two years younger than Mary Lou Retton when she won the gold medal in gymnastics in the 1984 Olympics.
It's not just the age factor, either. It's the isolation. James was in the spotlight, but only as much as you can be playing in Cleveland. Johnson was in the NBA Finals, but he played alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was very much in his prime.
Like so many young stars before her, Capriati fell off the map for a while. Not playing competitively for 15 months in the mid 1990s before resuracfing at No. 103 in the rankings in mid-1996. She would finish the year at No. 24.
As she grew from precocious teen to young woman, her game caught back up with her body and she soared to new heights in 2001, winning both the Australian and the French, and reaching the No. 1 ranking in the world for the first time in her career.  She added another Australian title in 2002. An ongoing shoulder injury forced her to quit playing in 2005, but she has not ruled out a comeback.

Now that the buzz has died down a bit over Nicholas Mahut and John Isner’s 11-hour marathon match, the pair have to do something to keep the good times rolling, especially since each is now watching Wimbledon from his own couch.
My idea?
In honor of Isner’s appearance Monday night reading David Letterman’s Top 10 List (CBS / 11:35 p.m. Eastern), I humbly present my own list – the Top 3 products Isner and Mahut should try to reach endorsement deals with to keep the walking around money flowing long after the interview requests stop coming.

Drum roll, please?

3) Any high-end jewelry chain  – Diamonds are forever, just like the fifth set.

2) Energizer – Like the battery, the match just kept going and going and going. The spot could win a CLIO Award (the Emmys for commercials), if it ends with Isner decapitating the annoying pink bunny with an 135-mile per hour serve.

1) Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – Isner is snacking on peanut butter, Mahut on chocolate as they walk to the court to do some light volleying. A collision ensues, neither can admit it was their fault, and they spend the next 138 games arguing over “Your peanut butter got in my chocolate!” “No, your chocolate fell in my peanut butter!”

Before there was Billie Jean, Chris, Martina or Steffi, there was Suzanne Lenglen.
Eighty-nine years ago today, Lenglen completed another dominate performance at Wimbledon, cruising to a 6-2, 6-0 victory in the final over Elizabeth Ryan.
It was her third of five consecutive singles titles at Wimbledon, and one of six she would take home in a remarkable playing career that never saw her lose at the All England Club.
She also won the doubles title in each of the same years (1919-1923, 1925) and took home the mixed doubles championship in 1920, 1922 and 1925.
As staggering as her dominance was, Lenglen’s tale is a tragic one, both for how short her life was, and how sadly she was forced to leave the tournament she dominated so thoroughly.
As a girl, she was a ballerina and started playing tennis under her father’s relentless tutelage.
She came to Wimbledon for the first time in 1919, and despite never having played on grass before, won the crown by disposing of defending champion and seven-time Wimbledon champ Dorothea Lambert Chambers.
Chambers was 40 years old at the first meeting, Lenglen half that. Lenglen won a marathon 10-8, 4-6, 9-7 match. The two met again in an earlier round the following year, and Lenglen thrashed Chambers 6-3, 6-0. Lenglen was known as “The Goddess of Tennis” over her rule, not because of particularly attractive looks, but because her ballet abilities and lighter, more flexible clothing allowed her to exhibit grace rarely seen on the court.
The only time she did not win Wimbledon was in 1924, when she missed the entire season due to illness, a harbinger of things to come.
In 1926, Lenglen played against Helen Willis at Cannes. Lenglen emerged with a 6-3, 8-6 win, the only time she would face Willis, who went on to win Wimbledon eight times, the US Championships seven times and the French Championships four times.





At Wimbledon that same year, Lenglen was not informed of her starting time in the third round, and was even less aware that Queen Mary had decided to attend her match. When she showed up an hour late for the match,
Lenglen was booed for insulting the crown, and chose to withdraw from the tournament. She would never play at Wimbledon again, opting to turn professional.
Unlike Chambers, her first Wimbledon championship opponent, Lenglen would not have the fortune of playing into her 40s. She died of leukemia in 1938 at age 39.
Although she is gone, Lenglen is definitely not forgotten. In 1994, Roland Garros Stadium, home of the French Open, debuted a secondary court, known as the Suzanne Lenglen Court. The stadium holds just over 10,000 spectactors, and a statue of Lenglen stands out front.