Serving Some Tennis Facts

A GRAND SLAM isn't just a four-run homer in baseball or a breakfast order at Denny's. It also refers to winning tennis's four major tournaments, two of which are about to start: the French Open (May 25 to June 8) and Wimbledon (June 30 to July 13).

- BY Eric Raskin

The Australian Open took place in January, and the U.S. Open starts in August. Only two men and three women have won all four majors in the same calendar year. Germany's Steffi Graf was the last to do it—in 1988, when she was just 19 years old.

2 WIMBLEDON IS the oldest ongoing tournament, and it's loaded with unique traditions. Players must wear “suitable attire” that is “almost entirely white.” The rules also include this persnickety note: “White does not include cream.” But strawberries and cream are highly encouraged: It's Wimbledon's signature dessert, with about 200,000 servings sold at the All England Club in a typical tournament.

3 PERHAPS THE most beloved employee at Wimbledon is a Harris's hawk named Rufus who is trained to keep pigeons away from the grounds. Rufus even has his own social media accounts: He's @RufusTheHawk and has more than 10,000 followers.

4 TO WIN a tennis game, you must be the first to get 4 points, but you also have to win by 2. And tennis players have a funny way of counting. The first point is called 15. The second is 30. The third is 40. If a game is tied 40-40, that's “deuce,” and the players keep going until one of them wins two points in a row. Then there's “love,” the sport's peculiar way of saying “zero.” Nobody knows the origins of this, but some think it comes from the French l'oeuf, meaning “the egg,” given the resemblance between an egg and the number zero.