ATP Trivia Time!

[El Dude]

TRIVIA TIME!

QUESTION 1: It will come as no surprise that Roger Federer is the last player born in 1981 or earlier to win an ATP title. Yet who is the second to last (born in '81 or before)? Hint: this player won their last title the same year as Federer's last.

QUESTION 2: Who is the last player born in the 1970s to win an ATP title?

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

TRIVIA TIME!

QUESTION 1: It will come as no surprise that Roger Federer is the last player born in 1981 or earlier to win an ATP title. Yet who is the second to last (born in '81 or before)? Hint: this player won their last title the same year as Federer's last.

QUESTION 2: Who is the last player born in the 1970s to win an ATP title?

I will guess Q 2
Pete Sampras ( my hubby will be proud of me if I guessed right lol )

Q1 I will guess again Hewitt

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

1. I'm going to guess it was Feliciano Lopez. He's the only one to play in the 40s, so he must have won a random event somewhere in 2019.

2. Tommy Haas in 2013.

 

[don_fabio]

TRIVIA TIME!

QUESTION 1: It will come as no surprise that Roger Federer is the last player born in 1981 or earlier to win an ATP title. Yet who is the second to last (born in '81 or before)? Hint: this player won their last title the same year as Federer's last.

Could be Feliciano Lopez, think he won Queens 2019.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Could be Feliciano Lopez, think he won Queens 2019.

I was also thinking Lopez, then I switched lol!

 

[El Dude]

Feliciano Lopez is correct! And yes, he won Queen's in 2019, just a few months before Roger's last title in Basel.

#2 is most definitely NOT Pete Sampras, who was born in 1971 and won his last title (USO) in 2002...Come on, Mags!

It isn't Tommy Haas, either - but close. I actually believe he's SECOND to last to win a title, among 1970s babies.

 

[El Dude]

I'll throw in a third related question:

Last player OLDER than Roger to win a title. It is a different player than any mentioned so far.

So we have:

1. Feliciano Lopez
2. NOT Sampras or Haas
3. NOT Hewitt, Haas, or Sampras

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Feliciano Lopez is correct! And yes, he won Queen's in 2019, just a few months before Roger's last title in Basel.

#2 is most definitely NOT Pete Sampras, who was born in 1971 and won his last title (USO) in 2002...Come on, Mags!

It isn't Tommy Haas, either - but close. I actually believe he's SECOND to last to win a title, among 1970s babies.

LOL! I just a very bad guesser sorry Pete Sampras

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Okay one last guess
Gael Monfils!

 

[Moxie]

Okay one last guess
Gael Monfils!

He's too young, I think. I can't think of who is close to Tommy Haas in age and won a late title.

 

[Moxie]

Could it be Ivo Karlovic?

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

He's too young, I think. I can't think of who is close to Tommy Haas in age and won a late title.

Probably too young, I am not a good guesser.I cant also think who is close to Haas in age and won a late title

 

[Moxie]

Probably too young, I am not a good guesser.I cant also think who is close to Haas in age and won a late title

@El Dude has an advantage...he tends to think of players in groups of decades that they were born in, or researches it often enough, and I don't think the rest of us do.

 

[El Dude]

Could it be Ivo Karlovic?

Moxie's got #2! Ivo was born in 1979 and won his last tournament at Los Cabos in 2016.

 

[Moxie]

Moxie's got #2! Ivo was born in 1979 and won his last tournament at Los Cabos in 2016.

OMG, that came from the depths of my lizard brain!

 

[El Dude]

There's still one question left: last player older than Roger to win a title. It isn't Ivo, Hewitt, or anyone else mentioned in this thread (or probably on this board in a few years).

HINT: His last title was in 2017.

EDIT: The last time this player was mentioned on this forum was last year in a historical post I made. Before that, it was 2019 - also by me. You have to go back to 2018 for someone else to have mentioned him.

 

[Moxie]

Moxie's got #2! Ivo was born in 1979 and won his last tournament at Los Cabos in 2016.

To be clear, I didn't remember that he'd done this, I only remembered he'd played into his 40s. It was a total guess. And I'm out of guesses now. Someone else is going to have to come up with #3. I can't dig deeper than Ivo Karlovic.

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

It must have been the king of the Ecuador Open, Victor Estrella Burgos.

 

[El Dude]

It must have been the king of the Ecuador Open, Victor Estrella Burgos.

BINGO! What a story, that guy. Born in 1980, a full year older than Roger, he didn't play in Slams until 2008 and didn't make it past qualies until 2014, at age 33-34. Never made it past the 3R of a Slam, but won the Ecuador Open three years in a row, 2015-17 at age 34-36. I could be wrong, but I thin that 2015 title was the oldest first title in ATP history. Could be wrong, though.

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

BINGO! What a story, that guy. Born in 1980, a full year older than Roger, he didn't play in Slams until 2008 and didn't make it past qualies until 2014, at age 33-34. Never made it past the 3R of a Slam, but won the Ecuador Open three years in a row, 2015-17 at age 34-36. I could be wrong, but I thin that 2015 title was the oldest first title in ATP history. Could be wrong, though.

If only Rafa did something like that and cherry picked by entering Bastad every year from 2006 to 2023 (instead of entering Wimbledon, especially in the years after 2010, when he didn't win), he could have broken the Jimmy Connors record for most ATP titles, lol.