By Chris Oddo

Photo Credit: AFP/Wimbledon

(June 19, 2012)—John Isner and Nicolas Mahut commandeered whole sections of the Wimbledon record books after their eleven hour, five minute marathon that garnered national attention in 2010. But don’t think for a second that Isner-Mahut was the only strange or remarkable phenomenon to ever occur at SW 19. Here’s a list of 12 other obscure facts, ranging from the absurd to the ornithological, that we found worthy of mention.

1. Naked Ambition:

The Facts: In 1996, immediately before the men’s final between Richard Krajicek and MaliVai Washington, a female streaker ran across the court. Two male streakers have graced Wimbledon’s Centre Court as well: Bejeweled hooligans darted across the grass in 2002 during the Nalbandian-Hewitt final, and in 2006, during the second set of a Maria Sharapova-Elena Dementieva match.  

Thoughts: The guy in 2002 is lucky that Nalbandian didn't bloody his shins for interrupting his match.

2. Shortest Final:

The Facts: Suzanne Lenglen defeated F.I. Mallory of USA 6-2, 6-0 in 23 minutes in the 1922 final.  

Thoughts: That's so short that I doubt Lenglen even had time to catch a buzz from the brandy she used to drink during matches.

3. For the Birds:

The Facts: In 1990, a pied wagtail (also known as a bird) disturbed play in three matches over a three-day period: Boris Becker vs. Brad Gilbert (QF), Stephanie Graf vs. Zina Garrison (SF) and Ivan Lendl vs. Stefan Edberg (SF).

Thoughts: My guess is that Brad Gilbert released the bird into the crowd in the hopes that it would drive the tempestuous Becker nuts.

4. Serving Double:

The Facts: M.H. de Amorim of Brazil double faulted seventeen consecutive times in the first set of a three set loss to L.B.E. Thung of the Netherlands, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the second round in 1957.

Thoughts: Wow, and we thought Sharapova's service yips were legendary? This is just obscene!

5. Serving Bullets:

The Facts: Pete Sampras won 118 consecutive service games from his third-round match (second set) in 2000 to his second round match (fourth set) in 2001.

Thoughts: Watching Sampras on Grass in 2000-2001 was like watching grass grow. In fact, that's what most of his opponents ended up doing.

6. Short and Sweet:

The Facts: The shortest man to ever play Wimbledon was Felicisimo Ampon of the Philippines, who stood 4’11”. Ampon made the last 32 of the men’s singles draw on three occasions. He is one and a half inches taller than the shortest woman to play, who was the 4 foot, 9 ½ inch C.G. Hoahing of Great Britain (1937-1938, 1946-1961).

Thoughts: I'd like to see Ampon play against David Ferrer, just so Ferrer could feel tall for once.

7. Climbing to Higher Ground:

The Facts: Pat Cash of Australia was the first player in Wimbledon history to scale the terraces of the player’s boxes to embrace his supporters in 1987.

Thoughts: Why didn’t John McEnroe think of that?  

8. For Tennis and for Love:

The Facts: The 1968 mixed doubles event had 13 married couples competing.

Thoughts: Rumor has it that all but the champions slept in separate beds in the ensuing weeks.

9. They Didn't Have ESPN Back Then?

The Facts: The Championships were first televised by the BBC in 1937, with Bunny Austin participating in the first televised match against George Lyttleton Rogers. The very first color television broadcast in Great Britain was in 1967, when BBC2 broadcast a match between Cliff Drysdale and Roger Taylor.

Thoughts: Wow, there must have been a lot of complaining on Twitter prior to1937 about the lack of coverage.

10. Wimbledon Has Balls:

The Facts: Approximately 15,000 tennis balls are used on average during the fortnight, with another 7,860 balls used for qualifying and another 24,000 used for practice.

Thoughts: As I said, Wimbledon has balls...

11. Most points in a tiebreak, final and match:

The Facts: Most points in a tiebreak of any match: Bjorn Borg d. P.J. Lall (India) 6-3, 6-4, 9-8 (20-18) 1973. Most points in a tiebreak played in a final: Borg d. John McEnroe 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (16-18) 8-6 1980.

Thoughts: We all knew that Borg and McEnroe played what is considered one of the most epic tiebreakers of all-time, but who knew that Borg had played an even longer breaker seven years prior?

12. Winning a Title from Match Points Down:

The Facts: The last men’s singles player to win a Wimbledon title after being match points down did it 52 years ago in the quarterfinal round. The player was Neal Fraser of Australia, the year was 1960, and his unfortunate victim was Butch Bucholz of the U.S. Fraser fought off five match points in the fourth set (one at 4-5, two at 5-6 and two at 13-14) before Bucholz was forced to retire due to injury at 15-15 in the fourth.

Serena Williams and her sister Venus are the last two women to accomplish the feat. Venus did it in 2005, Serena in 2009.

Thoughts: Not sure why Bucholz retired, but I'm guessing it had something to do with heartbreak.