Grand Slam

In tennis, a singles player or doubles team is said to have achieved the Grand Slam if they succeed in winning all four of the following championship titles in the same year:

* Australian Open
* French Open
* Wimbledon
* US Open

These tournaments are therefore also known as the Grand Slam tournaments, and rank as the most important tennis tournaments of the year in the public mind as well as in terms of world ranking points and prize-money awarded for performances in them. The titles are known as Grand Slam titles.

The term Grand Slam was first used in 1933, by the American journalist John Kieran. In describing the attempt that year by Jack Crawford to win all four titles, he compared it with "a countered and vulnerable grand slam in bridge". Kieran singled out these four titles as being the biggest in tennis because, at the time, they were the main international championships held in the only four countries who had won the Davis Cup. Crawford failed at the last hurdle in his attempt to achieve the Grand Slam in 1933 when he lost in the US Championships final to Fred Perry. It wasn't until 1938 that Donald Budge became the first person to achieve the Grand Slam.

The expression Grand Slam, initially used to describe the winning of the tennis major events, was later incorporated by other sports, notably golf, to describe a similar accomplishment.

True Grand Slam

The winners of the Grand Slam (all four tournaments in the same calendar year) in singles are:

  • Don Budge(1938)
  • Maureen Connolly (1953)
  • Rod Lave (1962)
  • Rod Laver(1969)
  • Margaret Smith Court (1970)
  • Steffi Graf (1988) (also the Olympic Gold medal, thus winning a Golden Slam)

The doubles teams that won the Grand Slam are:

  • Frank Sedgman & Ken McGregor (1951)
  • Margaret Smith & Ken Fletcher (1963)
  • Martina Navratilova & Pam Shriver (1984)

Additionally, three players won all four Doubles Grand Slam titles, but switched partners after the Australian Open:

  • Maria Bueno (1960), with Christine Truman then Darlene Hard.
  • Owen Davidson (1967), with Lesley Turner then Billie Jean King.
  • Martina Hingis (1998), with Mirjana Lucic then Jana Novotna.