CDS (II) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 117 of 120

Correct — B, Simona Halep. The Romanian beat Serena Williams 6–2, 6–2 in the 2019 ladies' singles final at the All England Club. It was one of the most one-sided Wimbledon finals of the modern era: the match lasted only fifty-six minutes and Halep made just three unforced errors, a record low for a major final. The win gave her a first Wimbledon title and a second and, as it turned out, last major, after the 2018 French Open. Because of the pandemic the 2020 championships were cancelled outright, so Halep remained the reigning champion at the time this paper was set in November 2020 and held the title for three years until Ashleigh Barty won in 2021.

• (a)Karolina Pliskova — The Czech reached world number one in 2017 but has never won a major. She lost the 2016 US Open final and, two years after this paper, the 2021 Wimbledon final to Ashleigh Barty.
• (c)Serena Williams — The runner-up, and the trap the option set is built around. Williams has seven Wimbledon singles titles, the last of them in 2016, and reached the final in both 2018 and 2019 — but she lost both, the second of them to Halep.
• (d)Naomi Osaka — Osaka was a major champion by 2019, having won the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, but her titles are all on hard courts. She has never won Wimbledon.

Wimbledon is the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments and the only one still played on grass, held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. The other three are the Australian Open and the US Open on hard courts and the French Open on clay at Roland Garros. The ladies' singles champion at Wimbledon receives the Venus Rosewater Dish, a silver salver made in 1864 and first presented in 1886; the winner keeps a replica while the original stays at the club.

Sports current affairs in CDS is usually a single-fact recall, but the distractor set is normally built from players who were prominent in the same season, so the reliable defence is to attach each name to what that player actually won. Here the surrounding facts do most of the work: Osaka's majors are hard-court titles, Pliskova has none at all, and Williams was in the final but lost it. Anchoring to the exam date is worth doing on any sports item — as of November 2020, Halep was still the reigning champion because the 2020 tournament had been cancelled for the pandemic, the first cancellation since the Second World War. The position has since moved: Ashleigh Barty won in 2021 and later Wimbledon champions have followed, so Halep is not to be described as the current holder.

• Simona Halep of Romania beat Serena Williams 6–2, 6–2 in the 2019 Wimbledon ladies' singles final.
• The final lasted only fifty-six minutes and Halep committed a major-final record low of three unforced errors.
• It was Halep's second and last major title, after the 2018 French Open, and her only Wimbledon.
• The 2020 championships were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Halep held the title until 2021.
• The Wimbledon ladies' singles trophy is the Venus Rosewater Dish, a silver salver made in 1864 and first presented in 1886.

• Choosing the losing finalist, which is how most sports distractor sets are built.
• Assuming a well-known major champion has won every major; Osaka's titles are all on hard courts.
• Treating a 2019 champion as the current holder without checking what has happened since.

As a straight winner-identification item, as a venue or surface match, or as a trophy-name item.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Grand Slam tournament played on clay courts is the

  • (a)Australian Open
  • (b)French Open
  • (c)Wimbledon
  • (d)US Open

  Answer(b) French Open — played at Roland Garros in Paris on clay. Wimbledon is on grass and the Australian and US Opens are on hard courts.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The trophy presented to the ladies' singles champion at Wimbledon is called the

  • (a)Venus Rosewater Dish
  • (b)Norman Brookes Challenge Cup
  • (c)Coupe des Mousquetaires
  • (d)Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup

  Answer(a) Venus Rosewater Dish — a silver salver made in 1864 and first presented in 1886.