The Grand Slam tournaments, also called majors, are the four most important annual tennis events. They offer the most ranking points, prize money, public and media attention, the greatest strength and size of field, and greater number of "best of" sets for men, which is 5. The Grand Slam itinerary consists of the Australian Open in mid January, the French Open from around late May to early June, Wimbledon in June–July, and the US Open in August–September. Each tournament is played over a two-week period. The Australian and United States tournaments are played on hard courts, the French on clay, and Wimbledon on grass. Wimbledon is the oldest, founded in 1877, followed by the US in 1881, the French in 1891, and the Australian in 1905. However the French Championships was not considered a major before 1924–25, when all four became designated Grand Slam tournaments. Skipping majors—especially the Australian Open because of the remoteness, the inconvenient dates and the low prize money—was not unusual before 1982.
The West Coast Conference (WCC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated in NCAA Division I consisting of ten member schools across the states of California, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
2005 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was a French tennis player. She was one of tennis's biggest stars in the 1920s, building her popularity on her status as the youngest major champion in tennis history as well as her elegant style of play and exuberant personality. Often playing in front of sell-out crowds and appearing on the front pages of newspapers for her biggest matches, she is recognized as the first female athlete to become a global sport celebrity. Lenglen was ranked No. 1 in the world from the start of the rankings in 1921 through 1926, winning 8 Grand Slam singles titles and 21 in total. She also won 10 World Championship titles across all disciplines. Dissatisfied by her lack of income, she forfeited her amateur status and became the first leading amateur to turn professional. Lenglen was ranked as the greatest women's tennis player from the amateur era in the 100 Greatest of All Time series.
College basketball in the United States is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA), the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA). Each of these various organizations are subdivided into from one to three divisions based on the number and level of scholarships that may be provided to the athletes.
2006 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
The Curse of Billy Penn (1987–2008) was a curse used to explain the failure of major professional sports teams based in Philadelphia to win championships since the March 1987 construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper, which exceeded the height of William Penn's statue atop Philadelphia City Hall. For decades prior to the construction of One Liberty Place, there had been a "gentlemen's agreement” in place ensuring that no building in Philadelphia would be approved that rose above the William Penn statue on City Hall.
Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is ranked No. 2 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), has been ranked No. 1 in the ATP rankings for 209 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. Nadal has won 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles, tied for the most in history with Roger Federer. His 13 French Open titles in particular are a record at any tournament. Nadal's dominance on clay is also highlighted by 60 of his 86 ATP singles titles coming on this surface, including 25 of his 35 ATP Masters 1000 titles, and his 81 consecutive wins on clay is the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era.
In sports, a dynasty is a team or individual that dominates their sport or league for an extended length of time. Some leagues maintain official lists of dynasties, often as part of a hall of fame, but in many cases, whether a team or individual has achieved a dynasty is subjective. This can result in frequent topic of debate among sports fans due to lack of consensus and agreement in the many different variables and criteria that fans may use to define a sports dynasty. Merriam-Webster describes a dynasty as a "sports franchise which has a prolonged run of successful seasons". Within the same sport, or even the same league, dynasties may be concurrent with each other.
An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other at the professional, collegiate, or high school level. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conferences often, but not always, include teams from a common geographic region.
A perfect season is a sports season including any requisite playoff portion, in which a team remains and finishes undefeated and untied. The feat is extremely rare at the professional level of any team sport, and has occurred more commonly at the collegiate and scholastic levels in the United States. A perfect regular season is a season excluding any playoffs, where a team remains undefeated and untied; it is less rare than a complete perfect season but still exceptional.
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the single elimination, the best-of- series, the total points series more commonly known as on aggregate, and the round-robin tournament.
A wild card is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that fails to qualify in the normal way, for example by having a high ranking or winning a qualifying stage. In some events, wild cards are chosen freely by the organizers. Other events have fixed rules. Some North American professional sports leagues compare the records of teams which did not qualify directly by winning a division or conference.
The UST Growling Tigers are the college athletic teams representing the University of Santo Tomas in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. They hold the most number of UAAP Overall Championships with 44 Seniors' Overall Championships and 21 Juniors' Overall Championships.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been home to many teams and events in professional, semi-professional, amateur, college, and high-school sports. Sports are a huge part of the culture of the city and the Greater Philadelphia area. Philadelphia sports fans are considered to be some of the most knowledgeable fans in sports, and are known for their extreme passion for all of their teams. Philadelphia fans, particularly Eagles fans, are also known for their reputation of being the "Meanest Fans in America".
The Denver Pioneers are the sports teams of the University of Denver (DU). They play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Denver is a member of The Summit League for men's and women's basketball, swimming and diving, men's and women's soccer, tennis and golf for both men and women, plus women's volleyball. Other DU teams play in various conferences in the sports that are not sponsored by The Summit. The men's ice hockey team is a charter member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which formed in 2011 with play beginning in 2013. The lacrosse teams for men and women are members of the Big East Conference; the men began Big East play in the 2013–14 school year, while the women left the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) after the 2016 lacrosse season. Men's and women's skiing compete in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, while the women's gymnastics team became an affiliate of the Big 12 Conference starting with the 2015–16 season.
Indianapolis is the home to 11 professional sports teams. The city is also home to three National Collegiate Athletic Association collegiate teams. Two teams from the four major American leagues, the Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Pacers, are located in Indianapolis.
The Ateneo–La Salle rivalry is a historied rivalry between two of the top elite universities in the Philippines, the Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University. Both are private, Catholic academic institutions within the Metropolitan Manila area. The Ateneo men's varsity team is known as the Ateneo Blue Eagles, women's varsity team as the Ateneo Lady Eagles, and high school team as the Ateneo Blue Eaglets. The De La Salle men's varsity team is known as the De La Salle Green Archers, women's varsity team as the DLSU Lady Archers/Spikers, and high school team as the DLSZ Junior Archers.
2012 in sports various events were held, notably the Summer Olympics were held in London, United Kingdom.
