Pro Tennis Grand Slam winners

The Grand Slam tournaments, also called Majors, are the four most important annual tennis events. They offer the most ranking points, prize money, and public and media attention; the greatest strength and size of field; and greater number of "best of" sets for men. The Grand Slam itinerary consists of the Australian Open in mid January, the French Open in May/June, Wimbledon in June/July, and the US Open in August/September. Each tournament is played over a period of two weeks. The Australian and US tournaments are played on hard courts, the French on clay, and Wimbledon on grass. Wimbledon is the oldest, founded in 1877, followed by the US in 1881, the French in 1891, and the Australian in 1905. However, of these four, only Wimbledon was a major before 1924/25, the time when all four became designated Grand Slam tournaments.

The term Grand Slam also, and originally, refers to the achievement of winning all four major championships in a single calendar year within one of the five events: men's and women's singles; men's, women's, and mixed doubles. In doubles, one team may accomplish a Grand Slam playing together or one player may achieve it with different partners. The term "Grand Slam" without qualification refers to winning the four majors in a single calendar year.

Winning the four majors in consecutive tournaments but not in the same year is known as a Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam, while winning all four majors at any point during the course of a career is known as a Career Grand Slam. Winning the gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in addition to the four majors in a one calendar year is known as a "Golden Grand Slam" or more commonly the "Golden Slam". Also, winning the Year-End Championship in the same period is known as a "Super Slam". Together, all four Majors in all three disciplines (singles, doubles, and mixed doubles) are called a "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles. No male or female player has won all twelve events in one calendar year however a "career boxed set" has been done by three female players during their careers.

Origin of the term "Grand Slam"

The term slam for winning all of the tricks in the whist family card games (see also whist terms) is attested from early in the 17th century. Grand slam for all of the tricks, in contrast to small slam or little slam for all but one, dates from early in the 19th century. This use was inherited by contract bridge, a modern development of whist defined in 1925 that became very popular in Britain and America by 1930.

Grand slam has been used in golf since 1930, when Bobby Jones won the four major championships, two British and two American. Although John F. Kieran is widely credited with first applying the term "grand slam" to tennis, to describe the winning of all four major tennis tournaments in a calendar year, sports columnist Alan Gould had used the term in that connection almost two months before Kieran.