Angelique Kerber, who won the US Open women’s singles title earlier this week, ended Serena Williams’ 186-week reign. 186 weeks – or 3 years and a little over 7 months is a long time, and that number itself proves the absolute dominance of the American on the women’s tennis circuit.
Williams matched a record set by German tennis legend Steffi Graf, whose record for most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era – 22 – Williams tied at Wimbledon with a title win over Angelique Kerber.
The American lost in the semi-finals of the US Open, where she has earned six titles in the past, for the second year running, having lost out to Italy’s Roberta Vinci last year.
That gave Kerber the World No. 1 ranking and the second Grand Slam title of her career. It is also staggering that Kerber has made the finals of three of four Grand Slams this year, winning two – the first of them the Australian Open in January, where she played and beat Serena Williams for the title.
Kerber’s reign marks the first time since Steffi Graf that a German woman has held the World No. 1 title – but here are some interesting facts from the last time Serena Williams did not hold the title:
Oscar Pistorius murdered Reeva Steenkamp
South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who came to be known as the Blade Runner, was one of the most iconic stories in sport.
In early 2013, however, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, through the door of a bathroom in a house the couple shared in Pretoria, South Africa in the early hours of Valentine’s Day.
He would go on to be charged with, and convicted of, her murder after a lengthy trial.
House of Cards first released
Hollywood icon Kevin Spacey was to star in a then-unreleased Netflix series that followed Spacey as fictional US Presidential candidate Frank Underwood, with Robin Wright playing first lady.
It quickly grew to become one of the most popular series on the platform, and after the fourth season released in early 2016, the show is set to be renewed for a fifth season, that will premiere in 2017.
Gravity was just a concept, not a film
Less Isaac Newton, more George Clooney this time. The Oscar-winning science fiction film Gravity, which features Clooney and Sandra Bullock as astronauts on NASA’s space shuttle, Explorer, and won seven Academy Awards – including for Best Director.
But before then, it was just the concept that keeps planets revolving around the sun, humans to the earth and then some.
Sachin Tendulkar had not yet retired
Although the Little Master, considered by many the greatest cricketer of all time, had already recused himself from the ODI format of the game, he was still playing Test cricket until 2013.
He had reached the milestone of 100 centuries – 51 in Test cricket, and 49 in One-day Internationals, the previous year, and in November 2013, in a Test against the West Indies played at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, hallowed grounds for Tendulkar.
Tendulkar posted a fifty in that innings, but fell just short of a hundred.
But with not a dry eye in the house, Tendulkar gave a farewell speech to the crowds assembled at the Wankhede as he thanked several figures in his 24-year career as he played his final International cricket match.
Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister
Famed economist Manmohan Singh first shot to prominence as one of the best Finance Ministers in India’s history. The now 84-year-old is credited with largely single-handedly liberalizing India’s economy under the leadership of former PM PV Narasimha Rao.
Holding premiership under the then-ruling Congress-led UPA (the United Progressive Alliance), Manmohan Singh had succeeded the BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister. Taking oath in 2004, he would retain the post after the results of the re-election were announced in 2009. Resigning at the end of 2013, Singh served as acting PM until 2014, when the BJP leader Narendra Modi was formally sworn in.
Mr. Modi’s first term runs through to 2018, and he has now become one of the most politically well-known faces worldwide.
La Decima had not yet happened
Iconic Spanish club Real Madrid already had a staggering nine Champions League titles to their credit, the last of which came in 2002. Ever since, the team had been waiting for a tenth, labelled La Decima, without success. At the time, it was French football legend ZInedine Zidane who had scored the winning goal for Madrid against German club Bayern Leverkeusen.
12 years later, in 2014, it was under the leadership of Carlo Ancelotti that the club finally won their tenth title, with a 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid in Lisbon, Portugal.
Malala Yousafzai addressed the United Nations
Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai was only 15 years old when she narrowly survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban. A vocal advocate of equal rights and education for young women, Yousafzai courageously openly attacked Taliban policies on social media and in public, which earned her the ire of the violent extremist group. She was born and grew up in Pakistan’s Swat district, where the Taliban have a large presence.
The group passed its own edict, ‘declaring’ that no girls could attend school – following which they bombed and destroyed a fair number.
The outspoken Yousafzai, whose father Ziauddin is also an educator, spoke openly and freely against the Taliban’s barbarianism, and the group eventually targeted the teenager, attacking her as she took a bus on the way home from school in 2012 – allegedly after having decided together to kill her.
According to eyewitness accounts, the attackers ambushed the bus, threatening to kill everyone if Malala did not reveal herself.
Thankfully, Yousafzai survived the attack – and the following year, in 2013, Malala addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the first time.
She would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
Donald Trump was just a reality TV star ( a very, very rich one)
Property magnate Donald Trump, before 2015, was known primarily for two things – his wealth and excess in showing it off, and the business-themed reality TV show he helmed, The Apprentice.
Although Trump had donated to political campaigns before, he had not been active on the political scene personally.
Things have changed drastically since – the flame-haired billionaire has become somewhat of a phenomenon in his run to the United States presidency. The Republican nominee who is fighting to succeed Barack Obama to the presidency, Trump is inexplicably popular among certain demographics and has become somewhat of a media staple, dominating airwaves and headlines worldwide.
Edward Snowden’s first revelations
Now an iconic figure in world politics, former CIA employee Edward Snowden worked on contract for the United States government. In 2013, Snowden leaked classified data from the NSA, or the USA’s National Security Agency, to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras at British newspaper The Guardian. In the data, it was revealed that the NSA ran several programs on global surveillance in accordance with national security agencies in other countries.
It also said that this was done with the knowledge and assistance of several governments and private companies – including telecommunications giants, which seriously monitored and scrutinized data.
He was formally charged with espionage, and would go on to escape to Moscow, Russia, where he extended his stay that year.
Snowden is now in an undisclosed location in that country, and his leaks opened up a widespread discussion on data surveillance.
But Novak Djokovic was World No. 1 … because some things don’t change
Serbian sensation Novak Djokovic is at the prime of his career and with 12 Grand Slam titles already in his kitty, the Serb looks likely to take many more in the coming years.
The 28-year-old, who went pro in 2003, won his first Grand Slam title five years later at the Australian Open of 2008, and with the exception of 2010, has won at least one a year ever since.
By 2013, Djokovic had just under half the Slams he has today – at 5. His consistency and form gave him the No. 1 rank on the ATP World Tour that year again, after he first held it in 2011, and he held it until nearly the end of 2013, when Spanish ace Rafael Nadal took the title for an eight-month period before Djokovic regained the title.
He has held the title ever since.
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