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Held at the All England Lawn Club, the Wimbledon Championships first took place in 1877. The tournament is the third major of the year, which runs during July on grass tennis courts in Wimbledon, London. A player claimed a Professional Slam when they won all three of these events in a calendar year, which Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver achieved in 1963 and 1967, respectively. Players who win these tournaments back to back have won a Channel Slam, arguably one of the most challenging accomplishments a player can achieve. The term comes from the English Channel, which geographically separates these two tournaments.

Interestingly, Fred Perry narrowly missed his opportunity at the feat the following year, only losing the French Open. IndyStar led Division B with 11 top-10 finishes, followed by The Tennessean with 7. In Division C, the Lincoln Journal Star led with 12, followed by The State with 10. The Tuscaloosa News had the most wins in Division D with 10, followed by the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader with 8.

Career Grand Slam

In addition to winning all four majors in a calendar year, the player who wins a Golden Slam must also win Olympic Gold that same year. Many argue the feat is equally as impressive, but it doesn’t hold quite as much weight. Here’s a list of players who have accomplished this feat in singles or doubles. Although arguably not as prestigious, a player achieves a non-calendar slam when they hold all four major titles simultaneously, but not in a single calendar year. Margaret Court is the only player to achieve the feat in two disciplines – singles and mixed doubles. As in golf, a player or doubles team must win all four Grand Slam titles (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open) in a calendar year.

In fact grand slam had also been used for some time prior to that in the sports of golf and baseball. In baseball, a grand slam is a home run hit with all the bases occupied. In golf it is the winning of all the season’s major championships – as in tennis. The first person to achieve a grand slam – in the ‘winning all major championships in one year’ sense, rather from the specialized baseball sense – in any sport was the golfer Bobby Jones.

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• Fred Perry also missed his chance to win a Grand Slam the following year during the French Open.

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• While there are only four Grand Slam tournaments throughout the year, some people refer to the Summer Olympics as Slam Number 5.

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• In baseball, a grand slam occurs when the batter hits a home runand all bases are loaded (occupied) resulting in the batter and allbase runners reaching Home resulting in 4 runs for the team.

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• Tennis players make varying amounts of money relative to how many rounds they win and the discipline they compete in, i.e., singles, doubles, etc.

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• In 1877, when Wimbledon first opened its doors, there was no such thing as a Grand Slam achievement.
• Here’s are the numbers that have achieved this feat across various disciplines.

The US Open offers the highest prize money out of the four Grand Slam tournaments. For the sake of parity, I’m using 2019 pre-pandemic prize money for comparison. Next, each tournament hosts qualifying rounds, and players who win three matches make it into the draw. Finally, each major selects eight players for automatic entry as wild cards. The Grand Slam tournaments are the oldest and most prestigious in tennis, each playing a vital role in developing the sport. Like the Australian Open, the US Open is a hard court tournament and the final major of the year, which begins at the end of August.

Wimbledon

Tournament organizers are the ones who hand these out, and so it is based on their discretion. However, there are only 8 wildcards available, including exchange wildcards. Furthermore, wildcard players do not have to do any preliminary rounds. They go straight to whichever Major tournament they got the ticket for. Fred Perry also missed his chance to win a Grand Slam the following year during the French Open.

Thankfully, air travel arrived in the 1950s, and more players started to take part. It wasn’t until the 1980s that player and fan attendance started to increase dramatically. Grand Slam tournaments in singles are best of five sets for men and best of three sets for women. Doubles and all other events, i.e., wheelchair tennis, juniors, etc., are all best of three sets. Of these athletes, 104 qualify through ranking, 16 qualify by winning three qualifying rounds ahead of the tournament, and eight through wildcards.

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Major Tournaments

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That is, a player who wins all four majors and Olympic gold independent of time frame. Across the ATP and WTA tours, Steffi Graf is the only player to click over here have achieved a Golden Slam in her career. However, it’s also worth noting that wheelchair tennis players Dylan Alcott and Diede de Groot also managed to accomplish the feat. Steffi Graff is the last singles player to achieve the feat in a calendar year, winning all four titles in 1988. The GOAT of tennis is a hotly contested topic and it’s not clear who will be crowned. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are all vying for the title with 20 titles each so far in their careers.

These four tournaments are significant for several reasons, including the attention given by the fans, ranking points, prize money, size of the event, and the history. As it might sound, Surface Slam is a term that describes any player who wins a major title on each of the three court surfaces, which include hard court, clay, and grass. Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka took the men’s and women’s singles championship titles at the Australian Open in January. Djokovic’s 22 major championship titles mean he’s now tied with Rafael Nadal for the most in the history of men’s tennis. A career grand slam is when a player has managed to win all four major grand slams in tennis, in his career timeframe. This means that they have won the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.

Billie Jean King, the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), however, has 39 wins by combining singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Considered the oldest and most prestigious of the Majors, Wimbledon is the biggest tennis events of the season. Since first taking place in 1877, The tournament has been held every year at the All England Lawn and Croquet Club. Fascinatingly, in the beginner, the tournament was open to amateurs. They were encouraged to bring a racket and pay an entrance fee of eleven shillings. Crawford was, unfortunately, unsuccessful in his bid for four wins, as he lost to Perry, but the term “grand slam” had stuck.