The Grand Slam in
tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a
calendar year
Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. A year can also be measured by starting on any o ...
, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam playing together or a player may achieve it with different partners. Winning all four major championships consecutively but not within the same calendar year is referred to as a "non-calendar-year Grand Slam", while winning the four majors at any point during the course of a career is known as a "Career Grand Slam".
The Grand Slam tournaments, also referred to as majors, are the world's four most important annual professional tennis tournaments. They offer the most ranking points, prize money, public and media attention, the greatest strength and size of field, and the longest matches for men (best of five sets, best of three for the women). The tournaments are overseen by the
International Tennis Federation (ITF), rather than the separate men and women's tour organizing bodies, the
Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and
Women's Tennis Association (WTA), but both the ATP and WTA award ranking points based on players' performances in them.
The four Grand Slam tournaments are the
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...
in January, the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
from late May to early June,
Wimbledon in late June to early July, and the
US Open in August–September, with each played over two weeks. The Australian and the United States tournaments are played on
hard courts, the French on
clay, and Wimbledon on
grass. Wimbledon is the oldest tournament, founded in 1877, followed by the US in 1881, the French in 1891, and the Australian in 1905, but it was not until 1925 that all four were held as officially sanctioned majors.
History
With the growing popularity of tennis, and with the hopes of unifying the sport's rules internationally,
the
British and French tennis associations started discussions at their
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
tie, and in October 1912 organized a meeting in Paris, joined by the
Australasian
Australasian is the adjectival form of Australasia, a geographical region including Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continen ...
, Austrian,
Belgian,
Spanish, and Swiss associations. They subsequently formed the
International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF), holding their first meeting in 1913, joined by the Danish,
German,
Dutch,
Russian, South African, and Swedish organizations. Voting rights were divided based on the perceived importance of the individual countries, with Great Britain's
Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) receiving the maximum six votes. Three tournaments were established, being designated as "World Championships":
*
World Grass Court Championships, played on grass courts.
*
World Hard Court Championships, played on clay courts.
*
World Covered Court Championships, played on an indoor wood surface.
The LTA was given the perpetual right to organize the World Grass Court Championships, to be held at Wimbledon, and France received permission to stage the World Hard Court Championships until 1916.
Anthony Wilding of New Zealand won all three of these World Championships in 1913.
The
United States National Lawn Tennis Association
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...
(USNLTA) expressed disagreement over the power distribution within the ILTF and the designation of "World Championship" status to the British and French tournaments, and thus initially refused to join the Federation, choosing instead to be bystanders to their meetings. By the 1920s, with the World Covered Court Championships failing to attract top players and the growing success of American and Australian tennis, the ILTF worked to convince the USNLTA to join them, meeting their demand to drop the designation of "World Championships" from all three tournaments in March 1923, which led to the demise of both the World Covered Court Championships and the World Hard Court Championships.
A new category of "Official Championships" was created for the national championships of Britain, France, Australia, and the US. By the 1930s, these four tournaments had become well defined as the most prestigious in the sport.
In 1933,
Jack Crawford won the
Australian,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, and
Wimbledon Championships, leaving him just needing to win the last major event of the year, the
U.S. Championships, to become the reigning champion of all four major tournaments, a feat described as a "Grand Slam" by sports columnist Alan Gould of ''
The Reading Eagle
The ''Reading Eagle'' is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania. A family-owned newspaper until the spring of 2019, its reported circulation is 37,000 (daily) and 50,000 (Sundays). It serves the Reading and Berks County, Pennsylvani ...
'', and later that year by
John Kieran of ''
The New York Times''.
The term 'Grand Slam' originates from the card game
contract bridge, where it is used for winning all possible
tricks, and entered tennis via
golf, where it was used for the first time to specifically describe a total of 4 wins, specifically
Bobby Jones' achievement of winning the four major golf tournaments three years earlier in 1930.
"Grand Slam" or "Slam" has since also become used to refer to the tournaments individually.
At the time, only
amateur
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
players were allowed to participate in the Grand Slam and other ILTF-sanctioned tournaments.
Amateur standing, regulated by the ILTF alongside its associated national federations, forbade players from receiving prize money, earning pay by teaching tennis, being contracted by promoters and playing paid exhibition matches, though expense payments were allowed along with certain monies from sporting goods companies or other benefactors.
Amateurs who "defected" to become
professional were banned from competing in amateur tournaments and dropped from their national associations. The first
professional tour was established in 1926 by promoter
C. C. Pyle with a troupe of American and French players, most notably
Suzanne Lenglen
Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen (; 24 May 1899 – 4 July 1938) was a French tennis player. She was the inaugural world No. 1 from 1921 to 1926, winning eight Grand Slam titles in singles and twenty-one in total. She was also a four-time World ...
, playing exhibition matches to paying audiences.
Over the next decades many other head-to-head tours were run and professional tournaments established, with three, the
U.S. Pro Tennis Championships
The U.S. Pro Tennis Championships (for a period from 1951 to 1962 billed as the Cleveland International Pro or Cleveland World Pro Tennis Championships) was the oldest professional tennis tournament played until its final year of 1999 and is consi ...
,
French Pro Championship and
Wembley Championships, standing out, and now considered to have been the
professional majors and equivalents to the then-amateur Grand Slam tournaments. By the 1950s, largely due to efforts of player/promoter
Jack Kramer
John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s. He won three Grand Slam tournaments (the U.S. Championships in 1946 and 1947, Wimbledon in 1947). He led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis ...
, this lucrative parallel circuit was luring in most of the star amateurs on the men's side, much to the ire of the ILTF and organizers of the Grand Slam tournaments. It was an open secret that those that remained as amateurs were receiving under-the-table payments from their national associations to dissuade them from joining the pro ranks and secure their availability for the majors and Davis Cup, a practice derisively referred to as '
shamateurism' that was seen as undermining the integrity of the sport.
Tensions over this status quo, which had been building for decades, finally came to a head in 1967. In an experiment, the first tournament open to professional tennis players played on
Centre Court at Wimbledon, the
Wimbledon Pro, was staged by the
All England Lawn Tennis Club
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Sla ...
in August, offering a prize fund of US$45,000. The tournament was deemed very successful, with packed crowds and the play seen as being of higher quality than the amateur-only Wimbledon final held two weeks earlier. This success in combination with large signings of top players to two new professional tours—
World Championship Tennis and the
National Tennis League—convinced the LTA on the need for open tennis. After a British proposal for this at the annual ILTF meeting was voted down, the LTA revolted, and in its own annual meeting in December it voted overwhelmingly to admit players of all statuses to the
1968 Wimbledon Championships
The 1968 Wimbledon Championships was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament was held from Mo ...
and other future tournaments in Britain, "come hell or high water". The eventual backing of the USNLTA that came after a February 1968 vote forced the ILTF to yield and allow each nation to determine its own legislation regarding amateur and professional players, which it voted for in a special meeting in March 1968.
This marked the start of the
Open Era of tennis, with its first tournament, the
1968 British Hard Court Championships, beginning three weeks later on 22 April in
Bournemouth, England, while the first open Grand Slam tournament, the
1968 French Open
The 1968 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from Monday 27 May until Sunday 9 June 1968. It was the 72nd edition of the French Open, t ...
, was held in May.
Even after the advent of the Open Era, players including
John McEnroe and
Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...
have pointed out that skipping majors was not unusual before counting major titles became the norm, especially the Australian Open because of the travelling distance involved and the inconvenient dates close to Christmas and New Year.
There were also the contracted professional players who had to skip some major events like the French Open in the 1970s because they were committed to the more profitable pro circuits.
[ In one case, Australian players including ]Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
, Ken Rosewall and Roy Emerson who had contracts with George MacCall
George Russell MacCall (May 7, 1918 – December 24, 2008) was an American Tennis Player, Tennis promoter and a former US Davis Cup captain. He is the founder of the MacCall Youth Tennis Foundation and a three-time Wimbledon finalist.
Early life ...
's National Tennis League were prevented from participating in the 1970 Australian Open
The 1970 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on Grass courts at the White City Stadium in Sydney, Australia from 19 to 27 January. It was the 58th edition of the Australian Open, the 16th held in Sydney, and the first Grand Slam of th ...
because the financial guarantees were deemed insufficient.
Although it has been possible to complete a Grand Slam in most years and most disciplines since 1925, it was not possible from 1940 to 1945 because of interruptions at Wimbledon, the Australian and French Championships due to World War II, the years from 1970 to 1985 when there was no Australian tournament in mixed doubles, 1986 when there was no Australian Open,[ and 2020 when Wimbledon was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
]
Tournaments
The Grand Slam of tennis comprises these four major tournaments:
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, played annually in late January and early February. The inaugural edition took place in November 1905
As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...
on the grass courts of the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. It was held as the Australasian Championships until 1927 and thereafter as the Australian Championships until the onset of the Open Era in 1969, passing through various venues in Australia and New Zealand before settling at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club
Kooyong Stadium, at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, is an Australian tennis venue, located in the Melbourne suburb of Kooyong. The stadium, was built in 1927, and has undergone several renovations.
It has a seating capacity of slightly more t ...
in Melbourne between 1972 and 1987. Since 1988, it has been played on the hard courts of the Melbourne Park sports complex, which currently uses GreenSet as its court manufacturer.
Managed by Tennis Australia, formerly the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia (LTAA), the tournament struggled until the mid-1980s to attract the top international players due to its distance from Europe and America and proximity to the Christmas and holiday season, but it has since grown to become one of the biggest sporting events in the Southern Hemisphere and the highest attended Grand Slam tournament, with more than 812,000 people attending the 2020 edition.
Nicknamed the "Happy Slam" and billed as "the Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific", it has become known for its modernity and innovation, being the first Grand Slam tournament to feature indoor play and install retractable roofs on its main courts, the first to schedule night-time men's singles finals, and the first to substitute electronic line calling for line judges, using an expanded version of the Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used in numerous sports such as cricket, tennis, Gaelic football, badminton, hurling, rugby union, association football and volleyball, to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a profile o ...
technology known as "Hawk-Eye Live".
The tournament was designated a major championship by the International Lawn Tennis Federation in 1923. Nowadays, its draws host 256 singles players, 128 doubles teams and 32 mixed doubles teams, with the total prize money for the 2021 tournament being A$71,500,000.
French Open
The French Open, also known as Roland Garros, is the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, played annually in late May and early June. It was first held in 1891 on the sand courts of the Societé de Sport de Île de Puteaux, in Puteaux
Puteaux () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the heart of the Hauts-de-Seine department, from the centre of Paris. In 2016, it had a population of 44,941.
La Défense, Paris's business district hosting the ...
, ÃŽle-de-France, and repeatedly changed venues over the years before settling on the clay courts at the Stade Roland-Garros
Stade Roland Garros (; "Roland Garros Stadium") is a complex of tennis courts, including stadiums, located in Paris that hosts the French Open. That tournament, also known as ''Roland Garros'', is a Grand Slam tennis championship played annual ...
in Paris, France, where it has been contested since 1928. Both the venue and the tournament are named "Roland Garros" after the pioneering French aviator.
Organized by the '' Fédération française de tennis'' (FFT), formerly known as the ''Fédération Française de Lawn Tennis'' until 1976, the French Open is the only Grand Slam tournament played on a red clay surface. It is generally considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world.
Until 1925, the tournament was known as the ''Championnats de France'' (French Championships), and only French players and foreign members of French clubs were eligible to compete in it. Before then, the World Hard Court Championships was considered the premier clay championship in France as it admitted international competitors, and it is therefore often seen as the true precursor to the modern French Open.[ From 1925 onward, the French Championships became open to all international amateurs and was rebranded as ''Internationaux de France'' (French Internationals),] and it was first held as an International Lawn Tennis Federation–sanctioned major championship in the same year.
Today, it has draws that host 256 singles players, 128 doubles teams and 32 mixed doubles teams, with the total prize money for the 2022 tournament being €43,600,000. The 2018 edition saw a record attendance of 480,575 spectators.
Wimbledon
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known as Wimbledon, is the third Grand Slam tournament of the year, played annually in late June and early July. It was first held on 1877 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, at the time located off Nursery Road in Wimbledon, London, England. The tournament has always been contested at this club, which moved to its present site off Church Road in 1922 in order to increase its attendance capacity.
Wimbledon is organized by a committee of management consisting of nineteen members, with twelve being club members and the remaining seven nominated by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). As the world's oldest tennis event, it is widely regarded as the most prestigious tennis tournament, and it is known for its commitment to longstanding traditions and guidelines. It is one of few tournaments and the only Grand Slam event that is still played on grass courts, tennis's original surface, and where "lawn tennis" originated in the 1800s. Players are required to wear all-white attire during matches, and they are referred to as "Gentlemen" and "Ladies". There is also a tradition where the players are asked to bow or curtsy towards the Royal Box upon entering or leaving Centre Court when either the Prince of Wales or the Queen are present.
The tournament was given the title "World Grass Court Championships" by the International Lawn Tennis Federation between 1912 and 1923, and was designated a major championship following the abolition of the three ILTF World Championships.[ Since 1937, the BBC has broadcast the tournament on television in the United Kingdom, with the finals shown live and in full on television in the country each year. The BBC's broadcast of the 1967 edition was among the first colour television broadcasts in the UK.
Today, the event has draws that host 256 singles players, 128 doubles teams and 32 mixed doubles teams, with the total prize money for the 2021 tournament being £35,016,000,] and 500,397 people attending the 2019 edition. The tournament has some of the longest running sponsorships in sports history, having been associated with Slazenger since 1902, and with the Robinsons fruit drink brand since 1935.
US Open
The US Open is the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year, played annually in late August and early September. It was first held in August 1881 on grass courts at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The tournament constantly changed venues in its early years, with each discipline continuing to be held separately at various venues until 1923, when the tournament settled at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens
Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast, ...
, New York City. In 1978, it moved to the hardcourts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, where it has been contested ever since.[
Organized by the United States Tennis Association (USTA), previously known as the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) until 1920, and as United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) until 1975, it is the only Grand Slam tournament to have been played every year since its inception. In 1997, Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis stadium in the world with a capacity of 23,771 spectators, was opened. It is named after Arthur Ashe, the winner of the 1968 tournament—the first in which ]professionals
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...
were allowed to compete.
Over the years, the tournament has pioneered changes and promoted ideas that other tournaments later implemented for themselves, including the introduction of a tiebreak system to decide the outcome of sets tied at 6–6 in 1970, being the first Grand Slam tournament to award equal prize money to the men's and women's events in 1975, the installation of floodlights in 1975 in order to allow matches to be played at night, and the introduction of instant replay reviews of line calls using the Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used in numerous sports such as cricket, tennis, Gaelic football, badminton, hurling, rugby union, association football and volleyball, to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a profile o ...
computer system in 2006, the first Grand Slam tournament to do so.
The ILTF officially designated it as a major tournament in 1923. Today, the event has draws that host 256 singles players, 128 doubles teams and 32 mixed doubles teams, with the total prize money for the 2020 tournament being US$53,400,000, and a US television viewership of 700,000. Since 2004, the tournament has been preceded by the US Open Series, composed of North American hardcourt professional tournaments that lead up to and culminate with the US Open itself. The season is organized by the USTA as a way to focus more attention on American tennis tournaments by getting more of them on domestic television.
Grand Slam
The first player to win all four majors in a calendar year and thus complete the Grand Slam was Don Budge in 1938. To date, five singles players (two men, three women), nine doubles players (four men, five women) and one junior (boy) have completed the Grand Slam. In wheelchair disciplines, two singles players (one quad, one woman) and twelve doubles players (four men, eight women) have achieved it. Margaret Court is the only player to complete the Grand Slam in two disciplines, singles and mixed doubles (twice), while wheelchair players Diede de Groot and Dylan Alcott have completed one in both the singles and doubles disciplines of their respective classes.
Instances
File:Don Budge 1938.jpg, Don Budge, men's singles in 1938.
File:Maureen Connolly 1953.jpg, Maureen Connolly, women's singles in 1953.
File:Rodney George Laver.jpg, Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
, men's singles in 1962 and 1969.
File:Margaret Court July 1970a.jpg, Margaret Court, women's singles in 1970.
File:Steffi Graf backhand.jpg, Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
, women's singles in 1988.
Non-calendar-year Grand Slam
Terminology
In 1982, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) began offering a $1 million bonus to any singles player to win four consecutive major titles, even if they were won across two seasons. Although groups variously identified as the Men's International Professional Tennis Council The Men's International Professional Tennis Council (MIPTC), also called the Men's Tennis Council (MTC), was a governing body that administered the men's professional Grand Prix tennis circuit. It was founded in 1974 and was made up of representati ...
, "abetted primarily by some British tennis writers", and "European tennis journalists" had advocated for the ITF to change the definition of "Grand Slam", ITF General Secretary David Gray made it clear that this was not going to happen. In a 1983 letter to tennis journalist Paul Fein, Gray clarified:
The ITF planned to offer the cash bonus for three years, apparently to encourage players to compete in all four major tournaments as much as to reward success at them.
Writing in 1982, before the ITF had announced their bonus, Neil Amdur said, "Now the sport spins nervously under the influence of big dollars and even bigger egos and tradition has almost gone the way of white balls and long flannels ... If the four major tournaments want to offer a $1 million incentive for any player in the future who can sweep their titles—and such talks have been rumored—that bonus would be a welcome addition. But changing what the Grand Slam is all about is like a baseball player believing that he ' hit for the cycle' after slugging a single, double and triple in the first game of a doubleheader and a home run in his first-time at-bat in the second game."
When Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
won the 1984 French Open and became the reigning champion of all four women's singles discipline, she was the first player to receive the bonus prize in recognition of her achievement. Some media outlets did, indeed, say that she had won a Grand Slam. Curry Kirkpatrick of '' Sports Illustrated'' wrote "Whether the Slam was Grand or Bland or a commercial sham tainted with an asterisk the size of a tennis ball, Martina Navratilova finally did it."
When Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
completed the Grand Slam in 1988, George Vecsey wrote, "Even the International Tennis Federation, which should have more respect for history, ruled in 1982 that winning any four straight majors constituted a Grand Slam—and offered a $1 million bonus for it ... But many tennis people, and most writers, and probably most fans, too, did not accept the new rules, and the ITF has dropped the gimmick."
When Rafael Nadal was on the verge of completing a non-calendar-year Grand Slam at the 2011 Australian Open
The 2011 Australian Open was a tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior and wheelchair players wer ...
, one writer observed, "Most traditionalists insist that the 'Grand Slam' should refer only to winning all four titles in a calendar year, although the constitution of the International Tennis Federation, the sports governing body, spells out that 'players who hold all four of these titles at the same time achieve the Grand Slam'." As of 2012, however, the ambiguity was resolved, with the ITF's current constitution stating "The Grand Slam titles are the championships of Australia, France, the United States of America and Wimbledon. Players who hold all four of these titles in one calendar year achieve the 'Grand Slam'."
Combining the Grand Slam and the non-calendar-year Grand Slam, only eight singles players on 11 occasions achieved the feat of being the reigning champion of all four majors, three men ( Don Budge, Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
, Novak Djokovic) and five women ( Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
, Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
, Serena Williams).
Instances
The following list is for those players who achieved a non-calendar-year Grand Slam by holding the four major titles at the same time but not in the calendar year. Players who completed a Grand Slam within the same streak as a non-calendar-year Grand Slam are not included here.
File:Tennis Nederland tegen Verenigde Staten in Den Haag Navratilova in aktie, Bestanddeelnr 930-9118 (cropped).jpg, Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
completed the feat in singles in 1984.
File:Steffi Graf backhand.jpg, Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
completed the feat in singles in 1994.
File:Serena Williams July 2008.jpg, Serena Williams completed the feat in singles in 2003, 2015.
File:Djokovic EBN17 (26) (35046150944).jpg, Novak Djokovic completed the feat in singles in 2016.
Career Grand Slam
The career achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline is termed a "Career Grand Slam". In singles, eight men ( Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic) and ten women ( Maureen Connolly, Doris Hart
Doris Hart (June 20, 1925 – May 29, 2015) was an American tennis player from who was active in the 1940s and first half of the 1950s. She was ranked world No. 1 in 1951. She was the fourth player, and second woman, to win a Career Grand Slam in ...
, Shirley Fry Irvin, Margaret Court, Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...
, Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...
, Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
, Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
, Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova) have completed a Career Grand Slam. Four men (Emerson, Laver, Djokovic, and Nadal) and five women (Court, Evert, Navratilova, Graf, Williams) have achieved the feat more than once over the course of their careers.
Only six players have completed a Career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles: one male (Roy Emerson) and five females (Margaret Court, Doris Hart, Shirley Fry Irvin, Martina Navratilova, and Serena Williams). Court, Hart, and Navratilova are the only players to have completed a "Boxed Set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
", that is, winning all four major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
Other related concepts
Boxed Set
A "Boxed Set" refers to winning one of every possible major title in the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles disciplines throughout a player's career. Only three players have completed a Boxed Set: Doris Hart
Doris Hart (June 20, 1925 – May 29, 2015) was an American tennis player from who was active in the 1940s and first half of the 1950s. She was ranked world No. 1 in 1951. She was the fourth player, and second woman, to win a Career Grand Slam in ...
, Margaret Court, and Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
. Court's second Boxed Set, completed in 1969, spans the pre-Open and Open Eras, but she later completed a set entirely within the Open Era in 1973. The Boxed Set has never been completed by a male player.
* The event at which the Boxed Set was completed indicated in bold.
Golden Slam
The term "Golden Slam" (initially "Golden Grand Slam") refers to the achievement of winning all four majors and the Olympic, Paralympic, or Youth Olympic gold medal in a calendar year. The phrase was coined in 1988, when Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
won that year's Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...
, French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
, Wimbledon Championships, and US Open, and Olympic gold medal in singles.
Graf is the only singles player to have won all five tournaments in a calendar year.
Diede de Groot and Dylan Alcott also accomplished the feat, for wheelchair singles and wheelchair quad singles respectively.
Similarly, the term "non-calendar-year Golden Slam" has been used since 2013, when Bob and Mike Bryan
The Bryan brothers, identical twin brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, are retired American professional doubles tennis players and the most successful duo of all time. They were born on April 29, 1978, with Mike being the elder by two minutes. ...
won the 2012 Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, 2012 US Open, 2013 Australian Open
The 2013 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 to 27 January 2013. It was the 101st edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournament ...
, 2013 French Open
The 2013 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 117th edition of the French Open and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 26 May to 9 June. It consisted of e ...
and 2013 Wimbledon Championships
The 2013 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 127th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...
doubles titles consecutively. Their achievement was also dubbed the "Golden Bryan Slam".
Career Golden Slam
A player who wins all four majors and the Olympic or Paralympic gold medal during their professional career (or the Youth Olympic gold medal during their junior career) is said to have achieved a "Career Golden Slam".
Serena Williams became the first player to achieve the career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles with her singles gold at the 2012 London Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
. Williams is the only singles player to have a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. Dylan Alcott, Diede de Groot, and Shingo Kunieda have since also accomplished it in the wheelchair discipline.
Super Slam
Soon after the Open Era began in 1968, the new professional tours each held a year-end championship (YEC), elite tournaments featuring only the top performers of the season. The return of tennis to the Olympics in 1988 gave rise to the notion of a "Super Slam" as a combination of the Golden Slam and YEC title. The YECs are currently the ATP Finals
The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results th ...
for the men's tour, WTA Finals for the women's tour, and the Wheelchair Tennis Masters for the wheelchair tennis tour.
In 2021, Diede de Groot became the first player to win all six titles in a calendar year, doing so in women's wheelchair singles. Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
achieved a "non-calendar-year Super Slam" in 1988 by the aforementioned titles consecutively, with her Golden Slam in 1988 following her victory at the 1987 Virginia Slims Championships
The 1987 Virginia Slims Championships were the seventeenth WTA Tour Championships, the annual tennis tournament for the best female tennis players in singles on the 1987 WTA Tour. It was held from November 16 through November 23, 1987, in Madis ...
, the women's year-end championship at the time.
Career Super Slam
A player who wins all four majors, the Olympic or Paralympic gold medal, and the year-end championship throughout their career is said to have achieved a "Career Super Slam".
Wheelchair tennis players Diede de Groot and Shingo Kunieda are the only players in history to have completed a career Super Slam in both singles and doubles.
Three-Quarter Slam
Several players have won three of the four majors in the same year, missing out on the Grand Slam by only one title, an achievement sometimes referred to as a "Three-Quarter Slam". In five notable instances, singles players won the first three events of the year and went to the final major tournament with the opportunity to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam but lost. These were Jack Crawford in 1933, Lew Hoad in 1956, and Novak Djokovic in 2021 in men's tennis, and Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
in 1984 and Serena Williams in 2015 in women's tennis.
Surface Slam
Since 1978, when the US Open changed its playing surface from clay to hard courts, the four majors have been contested on three surfaces: clay, hard and grass. A player who wins a major title on each of those three current surfaces in a calendar year is said to have achieved a "Surface Slam". From 1978 to 1987, the Australian Open and Wimbledon were played on grass, the French Open on clay and the US Open on hard, but since 1988 the Australian Open has also been played on hard courts. In singles, the feat has been accomplished by two men: Rafael Nadal in 2010 and Novak Djokovic in 2021; and three women: Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
in 1984, Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
in 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, and Serena Williams in 2002 and 2015.
Channel Slam
Since their inceptions, the French Open has been contested on clay or sand courts and Wimbledon on grass courts, surfaces that favor very distinct play styles from each other. Wimbledon usually starts a few weeks after the end of the French Open, meaning that the players who have deep runs in the French Open have little time to recover mentally and physically and to adapt to the different surface conditions found at Wimbledon. This has thus made winning both tournaments consecutively in the same year considered to be one of the challenging feats in a tennis season. Players who do so are said to have achieved a "Channel Slam", in reference to the English Channel, the body of water separating France from the United Kingdom, the host countries of the French Open and Wimbledon. In singles tennis, this feat has been achieved by 12 men and 10 women. In the Open Era, Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
, Björn Borg
Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimb ...
, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are the only players to accomplish the feat in men's singles, and Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...
, Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...
, Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
, Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
and Serena Williams in women's singles.
Pro Slam
Before the start of the Open Era in 1968, only amateur players were allowed to compete in the four Grand Slam tournaments. Many male top players "went pro" in order to win prize money legally, competing on a professional world tour comprising completely separate events. From 1927 to 1967, the three tournaments later considered by some tennis journalists to have been the "majors" of the professional tour were:
* U.S. Pro Tennis Championships
The U.S. Pro Tennis Championships (for a period from 1951 to 1962 billed as the Cleveland International Pro or Cleveland World Pro Tennis Championships) was the oldest professional tennis tournament played until its final year of 1999 and is consi ...
,
* French Pro Championship,
* Wembley Championships.
A player who won all three in a calendar year was considered retrospectively to have achieved a "Professional Grand Slam", or "Pro Slam". The feat was accomplished by Ken Rosewall in 1963 and Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
in 1967, while Ellsworth Vines
Henry Ellsworth Vines Jr. (September 28, 1911 – March 17, 1994) was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 in 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1937, able to win Pro Slam titles on three different surfaces. ...
, Hans Nüsslein and Don Budge have won the three major trophies during their careers. The professional majors did not have a women's draw.
Grand Slam tournaments champions
Current champions
Each entry has an asterisk (*) linking to the tournament of that year.
Former champions
;Per discipline
* Men's singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
* Women's singles
* Men's doubles
Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including;
* Beach volleyball
* Doubles badminton
* Doubles curling
* Footvolley
* Doubles pickleball
* Doubles squash
* Doubles table tennis
* Doubles ...
* Women's doubles
* Mixed doubles
* Boys' singles
* Girls' singles
* Boys' doubles
* Girls' doubles
* Men's wheelchair
* Women's wheelchair
* Quad wheelchair
;Singles finals
* Men
* Women
See also
* List of Grand Slam–related tennis records
* Lists of tennis records and statistics
* Grand Slam (golf)
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Official website of the Australian Open
Official website of the French Open
Official website of Wimbledon
Official website of the US Open
All-time Grand Slam tournament winners – Reference book
{{tennis box
Tennis tours and series
Tennis terminology