Many people equate grand slams with a big-time home run hitter smashing a ball out of the baseball park with the bases loaded. But there is another grand slam in the world of tennis that is arguably more important – the Grand Slam of Tennis.
The Grand Slam is a collection of the 4 most important Tennis tournaments in the tennis world – the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. To win a grand slam is to win all four tournaments in one calendar year. This feat is rarely achieved. More often achieved is the career grand slam, which is when a tennis player wins each one at one point in their career.
So which tournaments are considered tennis grand slam tournaments?
1) Australian Open – Melbourne, Australia
The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments in Tennis every year. This tournament started in 1905 and has since been a major event in Melbourne each year.
Each year the event is hosted in Melbourne Park, a sporting complex located in the Southbank area of the great Southern Australian city. Up until 1988 the Australian Open was played on grass surfaces until they switched to green and blue colored hardcourt surfaces. Margaret Court & Serena Williams are tied for the the female record holders for most Australian open titles with 7, where Novak Djokovic holds the record with 9 Australian Open titles.
2) French Open – Paris, France
The French Open, or known as the Roland-Garros, is held each year at the end of Spring in Paris. Officially called the les Internationaux de France de Tennis in French, the French Open started as the French Championships of tennis in 1891.
You’ll know when the when the French Open is on the TV due to the dark orange clay surfaces that the court surfaces consist of. The clay surfaces of the French Open are much more physically demanding. Clay creates much more resistance for the tennis ball. This means that a laser serve will be easier to return, as will volleys. This draws out each point, and thus makes games much longer and more grueling for the players. This is what makes Rafael Nadal’s record 14 French Open wins so impressive. Chris Evert’s 7 record French Open wins on the female side is nothing to scoff at either.
3) Wimbledon – Wimbledon, UK
Out of the 4 grand slam tournaments, the Wimbledon is the most prestigious. It i
s the world’s oldest Tennis tournament and synonymous with class. Named after the location it takes place Wimbledon, London, the tournament is held every year in early July. Wimbledon is played on a grass surface mostly in Centre Court, the world’s most famous tennis court. Over the last few decades, Roger Federer has dominated the Wimbledon male tournament with a record 8 Titles. Martina Navratilova, a prominent Czech tennis player from the 70s and 80s holds the women’s record, also with 8 titles.
4) US Open – Queens, NY, USA
And finally we make it back to the USA where every Labor Day weekend in September, the New York City sports news is dominated by play of the US Open. The US Open takes place in Flushing Meadows, right in the heart of the Queens borough of NY. This is the most famous tennis court in the US and sits very close to the NY Mets stadium. The court is a hard court that consists of acrylic. The US Open has been played since 1881. The tournament was hosted in Rhode Island and hopped between Queens and Philadelphia throughout the first half of the 20th century. The Open officially landed in Flushing Meadows Queens in 1960’s and has been held there since. in The record for US Open titles dates back all the way to the 1920’s and 30’s when BIll Tilden won a whopping 16 US Open titles! Martina Navratilova also holds 16 US Open titles achieved in an astoundingly from 1977 with her first all the way to 2006 as her last US Open title.
How do you win a Grand Slam?
There are a couple of recognized ways to win a grand slam, but for the sake of simplicity let’s focus on Career Grand Slams and Calendar Year Grand Slams. The calendar year grand slam is simply winning all four titles in a calendar year. A calendar year grand slam is extremely difficult. The last person to do this for each gender to win a grand slam singles in one calendar year was Steffi Graf on the women’s side in 1988 and Rod Laver in 1969 for men’s.
Career grand slams are more common. A career grand slam is simply if a tennis player has won each grand slam tournament at some point in his or her career. Career grand slam winners include Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King, Margaret Court and others who are considered the cream of the crop in tennis history.
Conclusion
For professional tennis players winning a career grand slam is an amazing achievement that puts you on par with the greatest tennis players to ever live. The feat is not impossible, but incredibly strenuous and challenging as players have to win 4 tournaments consecutively: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.