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Why are tennis balls changed so frequently?

 

Modern tennis balls consist of an inner rubber core, filled with pressurised air, and a outer cover, made of wool or nylon, which is bound to the core by means of a heated press. According to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), when a tennis ball is dropped, vertically, onto a smooth, granite block from a height of 100”, or 8’4”, it should rebound to a height between 53” and 58”.

However, after a period of serious play – typically about three hours – the cover of a tennis ball may become fluffed up, so that the ball does not fly through the air as fast as a new one, and the ball may lose internal pressure, so that it does not bounce as high. Obviously, both these factors can adversely affect the control and accuracy of a tennis player, so tennis balls are routinely changed after every seven and nine games, alternately, throughout the course of a tennis match. The first ball change takes place after just seven games to allow for the warm-up. High humidity increases the moisture content of a tennis ball, and hence its mass, and high temperature can cause the ball to bounce higher, so ‘new’ balls are stored in a courtside refrigerator, maintained at a constant 68°F, or 20°C, to keep them in optimal condition.

What’s the record winning margin in an international rugby match?

The record for the widest winning margin in an international rugby match is held jointly by Argentina and Japan; interesting the record was set by Argentina on May 1, 2002 and equalled by Japan just over two months later.

In their match, against Paraguay, at the Mendoza Rugby Club in western Argentina, Los Pumas ran up a score of 152 points, including 24 tries, without reply; left wing Facundo Soler, right wing Jose Nunez Piossek and lock Pedro Sporleder all scored four tries apiece. Not to be outdone, in their match, against Chinese Taipai, at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo, the Cherry Blossoms scored 155 points, including 23 tries, with just a solitary penalty in reply; left wing Daisuke Ohata, who later became the leading tryscorer in international rugby, scored eight tries.

Coincidentally, Japan were on the receiving end when New Zealand recorded the widest winning margin in the history of the Rugby World Cup, in South Africa in 1995; the All Blacks ran in a record 21 tries en route to a 145-17 victory.

For the record, in club rugby, the widest winning margin was achieved, under peculiar circumstances, in a match between Royal Kituro and Soignies in the top division of the Belgian league in 2015. After the referee was delayed, by over an hour, the most of the Soignies players departed, along with their coach, assuming the match had been cancelled. However, the match did go ahead and, in protest, the remaining Soignies players allowed the opposition to score, unhindered, throughout the match. Royal Kituro eventually scored 356 points, including 56 tries, against a lone drop goal, to win by a margin of 353 points.

What, exactly, is the ‘Drake Curse’?

The so-called ‘Drake Curse’ is a series of unfortunate, but hardly supernatural, coincidences that are associated with the Canadian rapper Aubrey Drake Graham, otherwise known by the mononym ‘Drake’. Since he rose to prominence as a recording artist in 2009, Drake has posed for photographs with, and/or endorsed, some of the top athletes in the world and, more often than not, they have subsequently suffered misfortune of one form or another.

Of course, Drake isn’t really ‘cursed’ or ‘jinxed’ but, for anyone remotely superstitious, his uncanny ability to put the mockers on heavily favoured, elite sportsmen and women is definitely cause for concern. In April, 2019 alone, Drake was pictured alongside footballers including Jadon Sancho of Borussia Dortmund, Pierre-Emerick Aubmeyang of Arsenal and Sergio Aguero of Manchester City, who all suffered major reversals of fortune almost as soon as the pictures were uploaded to social media.

The latest high-profile ‘victim’ of the Drake Curse was former unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who posted a photograph of himself and the Toronto rapper on Instagram shortly before his shock defeat by virtually unknown Mexican Andy Ruiz Jr. at Madison Square Garden on June 1, 2019. In what Joshua billed as the ‘bout to beat the curse’, Ruiz Jr., who weighed in at a seemingly overweight 268 pounds and could be backed at 25/1 beforehand, won by technical knockout in the seventh round, creating the biggest heavyweight boxing upset since James ‘Buster’ Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990.

What is the lowest score ever recorded in Golf?

The lowest score ever recorded in competitive golf, as recognised by Guinness World Records, is 55, achieved by Australian professional Rhein Gibson at River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma on May 12, 2012. The 26-year-old had already set the course record of 60 the previous week but, starting from the tenth tee, recorded six birdies and two eagles for an outward nine of 26, followed by six birdies for an inward nine of 29, and a total of 55, 16 strokes fewer than the number supposedly required to complete the 6,850-yard course. Originally from New South Wales, but educated at Oklahoma Christian University, where he was a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-American, Gibson was twelfth on the money list for the developmental Golfweek National Pro Tour, but had a world ranking of 1,444.

Several other rounds of 55 have been documented, such as that recorded by American professional Homero Blancas in the Premier Invitational at Longview, Texas in 1962, but are not recognised by Guinness World Records because the course was deemed too short or the round deemed non-competitive. By contrast, Gibson conquered a full-sized 18-hole course with what his playing partner Eric Fox called ‘an almost perfect round of golf’.

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