Grand Slam (tennis)

They offer the most ranking points, prize money, public and media attention, the greatest strength and size of the field and, in recent years, the longest matches for men (best of five sets, best of three for the women).

[6] 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.

[11] The United States National Lawn Tennis Association (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.

[16] In 1933, Jack Crawford won the Australian, French, 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,[17] a feat described as "a grand slam" by sports columnist Alan J. Gould of The Reading Eagle,[18] and later that year by John Kieran of The New York Times, who stated that if Crawford won at Forest Hills it "would be something like scoring a grand slam on the courts, doubled and vulnerable.

[22] 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.

The first major professional tour was established in 1926 by promoter C. C. Pyle with a troupe of American and French players, most notably Suzanne Lenglen, playing exhibition matches to paying audiences.

[25] By the 1950s, largely due to efforts of player/promoter Jack Kramer, 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.

[26] It was an open secret that the top players who remained as amateurs were receiving undeclared under-the-table payments from tournament promoters, an arrangement tolerated by their national tennis associations to dissuade them from joining the pro ranks and secure their availability for the majors and Davis Cup.

[28] Ramanathan Krishnan and Roy Emerson, for example declined large contract offers from the professional promoters, with the latter stating that he was better paid in the amateur circuit.

[31] 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.

[50] 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,[51][52] 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 1,020,000 people attending the 2024 edition.

[60] The French Open, also known as Roland Garros,[61][62] is the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, played annually in late May and early June.

[87] 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 monarch are present.

[94] The tournament has some of the longest running sponsorships in sports history, having been associated with Slazenger since 1902,[95] and with the Robinsons fruit drink brand since 1935.

[96] The US Open is the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year, played annually in late August and early September.

[98] 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.

The ITF's only initiative in this matter has been the organisation of the offer of a bonus of $1 million to any player who holds all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously ...

Despite all that we have read on this matter, it has never been my Committee of Management's intention to alter the basis of the classic Grand Slam i.e., the capture of all four titles in a year.When Martina Navratilova 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.

[143][144] 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.

"[1] 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, Novak Djokovic)[147] and five women (Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Serena Williams).

[149] In singles, eight men (Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic) and ten women (Maureen Connolly, Doris Hart, Shirley Fry Irvin, Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova) have completed a Career Grand Slam.

[2] 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.

[150][151][152] 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).

Many male top players "went pro" in order to win prize money legally, competing on a professional world tour comprising completely separate events.

The feat was accomplished by Ken Rosewall in 1963[191] and Rod Laver in 1967,[192] while Ellsworth Vines, Hans Nüsslein and Don Budge have won the three major trophies during their careers.