Okay, so I was messing around trying to figure out something kinda random yesterday. The title pretty much says it all: “how old was Vicario when she played Venus?” I know, super specific. Here’s how I went about it.
First thing I did, I just googled “Arantxa Sánchez Vicario age”. Quick and dirty, right? Google usually gives you a birthdate right there. Boom, it said she was born December 18, 1971. Got it.
Next up, gotta figure out when she played Venus Williams. Another Google search: “Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Venus Williams matches”. Found a few different sources, but they all pointed to the same thing: they played each other a few times, but the most significant one was probably the 1998 Australian Open.
So, now I have a year. I needed to get a bit more specific though. I searched about when the Australian Open takes place, and saw that it’s in January.
Here comes the slightly tricky part. Arantxa was born in December of ’71. The Australian Open in question was in January of ’98. That means she’d already had her birthday in December of 1997. So, all that was left to do was subtract 1971 from 1998.
Math time! 1998 – 1971 = 27.
Therefore, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario was likely 26 years old when she played Venus Williams at the 1998 Australian Open. She would have turned 27 in December of that year.
I know, it’s not rocket science. But it was a fun little internet rabbit hole to dive into. Learned a bit more about tennis history too!
Lessons Learned:
- Google is your friend (obviously).
- Pay attention to dates and months, not just years.
- Sometimes the simplest questions take a bit of digging.
That’s all folks, see you next time.
