Did you know that the inaugural French Open in 1891 was played on grass? The winner was an H. Briggs, a British man who lived in Paris. It was his one and only grand slam and that was the only French Open played on grass. (Women didn’t compete in the singles tournament until 1897).
Spoiler alert: it’s not Ligue 1
Where does your team place in the all-time list?
Andy Murray played a major role in changing British tennis. Here are some of the numbers behind that legacy.
Dedication, dedication, dedication, that’s what you need!
Useless snooker fact of the day: Matthew Stevens has only ever lost in the first round of the Masters or won it. His first round appearances were in 1996, 2001–2007, and 2012–2013 and his sole victory was in 2000.
The Baltimore Ravens beating the Houston Texans by 25-9 was the first time that scoreline had been seen in the NFL. John D. Cook looked at all possible pairs of scores and all the actual pairs of scores. Interesting maths!
‘To accomplish something like this in my career is something that I’m going to remember forever.’
The Pudding has created CRUTCH (Championship Revisions Utilizing Top Competitor Health), a new metric for asterisking NBA champions, where injured and inactive opponents from each round add to the asterisk tally.
Imagine Bart Simpson writing “correlation does not imply causation” a hundred times on a chalkboard.
“Football has experienced a statistical revolution in the past decade but, despite the breadth of information at their fingertips, this changing picture is still yet to influence how fans view the game as a whole.” (via)
Will Norway top the medal table once again or can China improve their tally from 2018 at their home games?
Did you know that Tokyo is the first city to host the Paralympic Games twice?