Beginning in 1905 and continuing to the present day, all four majors have been played yearly, with the exception of during the two World Wars, 1986 for the Australian Open, and 2020 for Wimbledon.
A player who wins all four majors, in singles or as part of a doubles team, in the same calendar year is said to have achieved a "Grand Slam".
Winning the four majors and a gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics in the same calendar year has been called a "Golden Slam" since 1988.
[5] Many top tennis players turned professional before the Open Era to play legally for prize money.
The Open Era of tennis began in 1968, when the Grand Slam tournaments agreed to allow professional players to compete with amateurs.
This meant that the division that had existed for many years between these two groups had finally come to an end, which made the tennis world into one unified competition.
The first tournament to go "Open" started on 22 April 1968 was the British Hard Court Championships at The West Hants Club in Bournemouth, England.
In the history of men's tennis, only two players have won the calendar Grand Slam, Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962 and 1969).
[13] When we reflect on the modern era of the sport, tennis has clear separations during its history, such as the first official majors sanctioned by the world governing body of tennis its separate tours (amateur and professional), the eligibility to compete at Grand Slam majors or the surface aspects of the tournaments.
In the history of those early majors, only one player won all three in the same year, Anthony Wilding, arguably the first world champion.
During a period of 40 years, only two players achieved the calendar Pro Grand Slam in the history of the professional tour, Ken Rosewall (1963) and Laver (1967).
There are also several other facets to take into consideration in defining great tennis players, such as winning all calendar year majors consecutively on offer at the time (World Champs and Pro Slams) on three different surfaces.
[13][16][17] To have accomplished any of these feats in a group of tournaments originating over 100 years ago underscores the degree of difficulty involved.
All statistics are based on data provided by the ATP Tour website,[18][19] the ITF[20] and other available sources, even if this isn't a complete list due to the time period involved.
^ Note: The draw of Pro majors was significantly smaller than the traditional Grand Slam tournaments; usually they only had 16 or even fewer professional players.