The Serena Quiz

Some things happen quickly. Some things take a little time before they become reality.

The long-overdue Serena Quiz is quite easily the latter.




1. True or False? Serena won in her first appearance in a final at all four slam events.
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2. How many consecutive singles matches did Serena win in WTA Championships/WTA Finals action between 2009-14?

a. 28
b. 24
c. 20
d. 16
e. 12
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3. What was Serena's career singles record vs. Steffi Graf?

a. 2-0
b. 2-1
c. 1-1
d. 1-2
e. 0-2
f. they never played
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4. To which player has Serena lost the most singles finals during her career?

a. Elena Dementieva
b. Venus Williams
c. Maria Sharapova
d. Victoria Azarenka
e. Justine Henin
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5. Three players have singles wins over both Serena and Venus in slam events, but have never been ranked #1 during their careers. How many can you name?
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6. Serena and Venus have faced off fourteen times in grand slam singles competition, making the all-sister match-up the second most common women's match in slam history. Which two women have played more often?

a. Evert & Austin
b. Navratilova & Evert
c. Graf & Sabatini
d. Graf & Sanchez
e. Evert & Mandlikova
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7. Serena swept Olympic Gold in singles and doubles in London in 2012. How many other women have accomplished the feat?

a. 3
b. 2
c. 1
d. 0
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8. Against which player has Serena lost five three-set matches, the most versus any player in her career?

a. Justine Henin
b. Venus Williams
c. Victoria Azarenka
d. Patty Schnyder
e. Jennifer Capriati
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9. Serena has famously been nearly untouchable in 1st Round slam singles matches, going 64-1, with her only loss coming to Virginie Razzano at Roland Garros in 2012. What's Serena's record vs. the French woman in their other career match-ups?

a. 10-0
b. 5-0
c. 3-0
e. 1-0
d. that was their only meeting
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10. True or False? Serena has never lost a match by dropping a 3rd set at love.
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11. Five players have defeated Serena more than once in grand slam match-ups. Pick the five:

a. Venus Williams
b. Maria Sharapova
c. Amelie Mauresmo
d. Jennifer Capriati
e. Kim Clijsters
f. Angelique Kerber
g. Justine Henin
h. Samantha Stosur
i. Garbine Muguruza
j. Lindsay Davenport
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12. Serena has playing thirteen singles matches in her Olympic career, going 11-2 and winning Gold in 2012. She played twelve different women in those matches. Who has she faced twice?

a. Samantha Stosur
b. Alize Cornet
c. Jelena Jankovic
d. Elena Dementieva
e. Ana Ivanovic
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13. Serena has participated in twelve #1-vs.-#2 matches in her career, going 9-1 as the #1-ranked player in the match-up, and 1-1 as the world #2. The same player handed her both of her career losses in such contests. Who's the player?

a. Victoria Azarenka
b. Justine Henin
c. Venus Williams
d. Kim Clijsters
e. Lindsay Davenport
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14. True or False? Serena has never won a tour-level women's doubles title with anyone but her sister Venus.
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15. What was Serena's career doubles record vs. Martina Navratilova?

a. 2-0
b. 2-1
c. 1-1
d. 1-2
e. 0-2
f. they never played
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BONUS QUESTION: What is the significance of the dates April 5, 1999 and July 8, 2002 in Serena's career?
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>>>[ 3 PTS. EACH UNLESS NOTED ]<<<
1. True - Williams won in her debut final appearances at all four slams. In the Australian Open, she won the 2003 title (and won her first six finals in Melbourne before losing to Kerber in the '16 final). She claimed the title in Paris is '02 in her first Roland Garros championship match, ultimately winning the first three times she played for the crown until losing to Muguruza in the '16 final. Serena became a Wimbledon champ after playing in her first SW19 final in '02, then won again the next year before falling to Sharapova in the '04 final. And, of course, Williams won in her maiden slam singles final at the U.S. Open in 1999 at age 17. She fell in her second final in New York, though, finishing runner-up to Venus in '01.
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2. d - Serena won a record sixteen straight matches in the tour's season-ending championships from 2009-14. She didn't participate in the event in 2010-11, but went undefeated while winning the title in 2009, '12 and '13 before finally losing to Simona Halep in her second of three round robin matches in the 2014 event. As it turned out, though, Halep's victory in her own final RR match allowed Williams to advance to the semifinals. Eventually, Serena faced off with Halep again in the final, defeating the Romanian to take the title.
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3. c - A then 17-year old Serena went 1-1 in her only two career match-ups vs. Graf, 29, in 1999. Graf won a 2nd Round match, 6-2/3-6/7-5, in Sydney in January, followed by Serena's win over the German in the Indian Wells final in March, 6-3/3-6/7-5. Graf would go on to win her final slam title at Roland Garros that spring, reach the Wimbledon final, then retire on August 13, 1999. In the first slam of the "post-Graf era," Serena won her first career major at the U.S. Open, defeating top-ranked Martina Hingis in the final. Williams' 2016 title at Wimbledon (at age 34) tied her with Graf for the most slam singles titles in the Open era, with both having claimed 22.
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4. d - Azarenka has defeated Serena in more finals (4) than any other player, one more than Venus' three wins. She's lost to the other three players listed -- Dementieva, Sharapova and Henin -- in two finals each during her career. Only Azarenka (2013 - Doha & Cincinnati) and Sharapova (2004 - Wimbledon & WTA Championships) have defeated Williams in multiple finals in the same season.
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5. [3 pts. for each correct answer; total possible: 9 pts.] Ekaterina Makarova, Sloane Stephens and Karolina Pliskova - Makarova defeated Serena in 2012 (AO), then Venus two years later (also in the AO). Stephens upset Serena in Australia in '13, then notched a win over Venus at Roland Garros in '15. Pliskova defeated both sisters at last year's U.S. Open. Interestingly, none of the three players won any of the slams in which they defeated a Williams, and all remain slam-less in their careers. Only Pliskova has reached a major final (at the same Open at which she defeated both sisters). Angelique Kerber had been on this list following her win over Serena in the '16 AO final and victory over Venus in the Wimbledon semis later in the season, but she then rose to #1 (supplanting Serena) following her title run at the U.S. Open (when she def. Pliskova in the final) last summer.
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6. b - All right, this one should have been pretty easy. Navratilova & Evert faced off 22 times in their slam careers, the most in women's slam history. Evert/Mandlikova occurred 13 times, as did Graf/Sanchez. Graf played Sabatini 12 times. Evert & Austin played just four times in slam competition.
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7. b - Two other women have swept the singles/doubles competitions at the same Olympic games: Helen Wills in 1924, and Venus Williams in 2000.
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8. e - Williams lost five three-setters to Jennifer Capriati, more than against any other player. Venus has four three-set wins over Serena, while Justine Henin, Patty Schnyder and Sandrine Testud each won three. Other active singles players with two three-set victories: Victoria Azarenka, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur. Martina Hingis also notched a pair of three-set wins over Serena in her singles career.
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9. d - The 2012 match in Paris is Williams and Razzano's only meeting (so far).
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10. False - Serena has lost two 3rd sets at love in her singles career. The first came against Mary Joe Fernandez in the 3rd Round of Roland Garros in 1999, 3-6/6-1/0-6. The second came against Venus, a 7-5/1-6/0-6 round robin defeat at the 2008 WTA Championships. Serena withdrew from the latter event with a stomach injury after the loss. Incidentally, MJF also withdrew due to injury before her 4th Round match at RG in '99 after defeating Serena one round earlier.
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11. [2 pts. for each correct answer; total possible: 10 pts.] (a)V.Williams, (d)Capriati, (g)Henin, (h)Stosur and (i)Muguruza - Not surprisingly, Venus (w/ 4) has more slam wins over Serena than any other player, and is the only one to defeat her in two major finals (2001 U.S./2008 Wimbledon). Four of Capriati's seven career victories over Serena were in slams, including in their last meeting in the '04 U.S. Open QF. They never met in a slam final. Henin's four wins came four years apart, as she followed up her '03 victory at Roland Garros with three straight slam QF victories in 2007 (RG-WI-US). Stosur won in the '10 RG QF, then defeated Serena to claim her maiden slam singles crown one year later at the U.S. Open. Both of Muguruza's wins have come in Paris, in the 2nd Round in '14 and then the final in '16. All five of Williams' matches vs. the Spaniard have been in majors, with Serena winning three.
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12. b - Williams has gone 2-0 vs. Cornet in the Olympics, defeating her in the 3rd Round in Beijing in 2008, then again in the 2nd Round eight years later in Rio.
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13. a - Victoria Azarenka handed Serena both her losses in #1-vs.-#2 match-ups. Both matches occurred in 2013, with Azarenka defeating Williams in Doha as the #1 ranked player, then again with Serena at #1 in the tour rankings in Cincinnati. Over the next five months, though, top-ranked Serena downed #2 Azarenka in two more #1-vs.-#2 meetings at the U.S. Open later in the '13 season, then again in Brisbane at the start of 2014.
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14. False - Serena has won 23 career women's doubles titles. 22 have come with Venus by her side, but she claimed one additional title with Alexandra Stevenson in Leipzig in 2002.
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15. a - Playing with Venus, Serena was 2-0 in career doubles matches vs. Martina Navratilova. The matches took place over seven years apart, with the sisters winning in the 3rd Round of the '03 Australian Open (def. Kuznetsova/Navratilova 6-2/6-3), then again in the 2000 Wimbledon QF (def. de Swardt/Navratilova 4-6/6-2/6-1). The sisters also advanced via a walkover past Navratilova/Sanchez-Vicario in the '01 Wimbledon 3rd Round. Of additional historical note, Serena actually played doubles WITH Navratilova in one event, in Tokyo in 2002, when Serena was 20, and Navratilova 45. They went 1-1, defeating C.Martinez/Pratt, but losing in the QF to Kuznetsova/Sanchez-Vicario.
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BONUS: [3 pts. for each correct answer; total possible: 6 pts.] - The April '99 date is when Serena made her Top 10 singles debut, while the July '02 date is when she occupied the #1 ranking for the first time in her career.
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50-64 pts. - The elusive Grand Slam season
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40-49 pts. - Serena Slam II at age 33
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33-39 pts. - Serena Slam I at age 21
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24-32 pts. - U.S. Open champion at age 17
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13-23 pts. - Hey, Serena lost to Sharapova a few times in '04. But never again.
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0-12 pts. - Razzano in Paris
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All for now.