| TIAFOE | First American men's player to reach the US Open semifinals since 2006 |
| FRANCESTIAFOE | First Black American man to reach the US Open semifinals (2022) since 17-Across: 2 wds. |
| FRANCES | Tiafoe in the 2024 U.S. Open semifinals |
| NBA | Premier North American men's basketball competition, abbrev (3) |
| PLAYBOY | American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine (7) |
| KAMINDU | Who recently joined Sir Donald Bradman as the third-fastest player to reach 1000 Test runs and also became the first player to score a half-century or more in each of first eight Tests since debut? (7 |
| MESSI | Players to have won the FIFA Men's Player of the Year since 2008: Lewandowski, Modric, Ronaldo, and... (5) |
| TIMHENMAN | The first English tennis player to reach a Wimbledon semi-final after Roger Taylor in 1973 |
| TYCOBB | The first M.L.B. player to reach 3,000 career hits |
| CHRISTINAKIM | American professional golfer who became the youngest female player to reach $1 million in earnings in 2004 |
| BENAUD | In 1963, Richie ____ became the first player to reach 200 wickets and 2,000 runs in Test cricket |
| DONKEYKONG | In 2020, Guinness reinstated Billy Mitchell's record as the first player to reach 1,000,000 in this arcade game after claims of cheating proved unfounded |
| OTT | First National League player to reach 500 home runs |
| SMITH | First NRL player to reach 400 game milestone (5) |
| NICKY | First indigenous player to reach 200-game AFL milestone, -Winmar (5) |
| SIDDONS | First player to reach 10,000-runs in Sheffield Shield cricket (7) |
| TURNBULL | Last Aussie player to reach Australian Open tennis women's singles final (8) |
| JABEUR | First Arab tennis player to reach a Masters final. (6) |
| ROGERFEDERER | First men's tennis player to reach 10 consecutive Grand Slam singles finals |
| JAPAN | It beat the Indian hockey team in the semifinals of the Asian Champions Trophy recently. (5) |
