Tennis’ Elusive Grand Slam - History in the Headlines Tennis’ Elusive Grand Slam July 2, 2015 By Sarah Pruitt Share this: Google The record-setting heat wave in London this week isn’t the only sizzling story at the All-England Club this year. All eyes are on Serena Williams, the top-ranked female tennis player in the world, as she goes for her sixth straight Wimbledon title, her third straight major title of the year—and the 21st major championship of her career. If Williams wins Wimbledon, she will also be three-quarters of the way to one of the most elusive tennis achievements: winning all four of the major tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open) in one calendar year, an achievement only five singles tennis players in history can claim. Take a look back at the men and women who have made Grand Slam history. Don Budge – 1938 Growing up in Oakland, California, the young Budge loved football and soccer before focusing on tennis. He played for the U.S.

Davis Cup team from 1935-38, winning 25 of 29 matches, and in 1937 led the team to its first title since 1926. After Fred Perry, the reigning king of amateur tennis, turned pro in 1937, Budge began his domination of the all-important Grand Slam tournaments, which at the time were open only to amateur players. (Journalists began using the card-playing term “Grand Slam” to describe winning all four major tennis titles in one year in the early 1930s.) Taller (at 6’ 2”) and stronger than many of his opponents, Budge was the “big man” of tennis at the time, and became the first player to use his backhand as an offensive weapon. In 1937, he won Wimbledon and the U.S. championships; he repeated the same feat in 1938, adding the Australian and French titles to clinch the first-ever Grand Slam. After a total of 14 Grand Slam titles (six in singles, four in doubles and four in mixed doubles), Budge turned pro in 1938.

He amassed a winning record before enlisting in the Army Air Force in 1942, when an injury to his right shoulder during training hurt his future play. Maureen Connolly – 1953 A native of San Diego, Connolly began playing tennis at the age of 10, and by 15 had won more than 50 tournaments. In 1951, she won her first U.S. Open championship, at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, just before her 17th birthday. The press dubbed Connolly “Little Mo,” a reference to the World War II battleship USS Missouri, which was known as “Big Mo.” After winning Wimbledon and a second U.S. title in 1952, she hired Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman as a coach, and benefited from his emphasis on physical fitness.

In 1953, Connolly made her only trip to the Australian Open, which at the time (when amateur players didn’t earn any money) attracted fewer players; she defeated Julie Sampson Haywood, a fellow Californian, in the final, then went on to beat Doris Hart of Missouri in the finals of the French, Wimbledon and U.S. championships, becoming the first woman to win a Grand Slam. In 1954, the 19-year-old Connolly was riding her horse back in San Diego when they crashed into a cement-mixing truck, crushing her right leg. From 1951 until her accident, Connolly had played in nine Grand Slam singles tournaments and won all nine, with a 50-0 record. Though she hoped to resume her tennis career after her recovery, the injury was more serious than originally thought and she announced her retirement in 1955. After marrying Norman Brinker, she had two children and worked as a tennis instructor; she died of cancer in 1969, at the age of 34.

Rod Laver – 1962 and 1969 Laver, the son of two lawn tennis players, grew up playing in the Australian outback before attracting the attention of Harry Hopman, captain of Australia’s Davis Cup team. He scored his first Grand Slam tournament wins in doubles (Australia) and mixed doubles (Wimbledon) in 1959, and triumphed in singles for the first time in Australia the following year. In addition to winning his first Grand Slam in 1962, he racked up a string of additional titles, including the German and Italian championships, earning a rare “clay court triple” with victories in France, Germany and Italy in a single season. Laver turned professional at the end of 1962, after leading Australia to a win in the Davis Cup. In 1968, the major tournaments began allowing professionals to compete with amateurs, launching what is known as the Open era. Laver won the first open Wimbledon championship that year, and the following year became the only player in singles history to win a second Grand Slam.

He is the only player to sweep the majors in a single year in both the amateur and Open eras, an extraordinary achievement that will never be matched. Laver was a force on the professional men’s tennis tour into the 1970s, and remained tennis’ all-time leading money winner until 1978. Margaret Court – 1970 Laver’s fellow Aussie Margaret Court also spanned the pre-Open and Open eras, winning her first Australian singles title in 1960, at the age of 18. Like Maureen Connolly, Court was a natural leftie, but was trained to play right-handed according to common tennis wisdom of the time. (Only later would the emergence of left-handed champs like Martina Navratilova change this practice.) The tall, gangly champion known for her powerful serve and volley game would go on to win six more consecutive titles in her native country, and a record 11 altogether. To those Australian titles Court added three Wimbledon, five French and seven U.S. singles’ titles, and in 1970 became the first woman of the Open era to win the Grand Slam.

In that year’s Wimbledon final, Court played through the pain of a sprained ankle to beat Billie Jean King 14-12, 11-9 (there were no tie-breakers at the time) in one of the greatest women’s final matches ever played at the All-England Club. Court’s Grand Slam year is particularly impressive in its intensity: She played 27 tournaments in 1970, winning 21 of them and compiling a 104-6 match record. In comparison, Connolly played 12 events in 1953, and Steffi Graf played 14 in 1988, the year she won her Grand Slam. (In a measure of how tennis changed over the years, Graf won $877,724 in prize money for her four Grand Slam titles, while Court took home $14,800.) Court is also the only player—man or woman—in history to win the Grand Slam in doubles as well as singles: She won all four major mixed doubles’ events in 1963 alongside her countryman Kenneth Fletcher and then completed the feat again in 1965 with three different partners.

Court went on to win tournaments (including the U.S. Open in 1973) after the birth of the first of her three children. Steffi Graf – 1988 German legend Graf, the last player to win the Grand Slam, earned her first international ranking at the tender age of 13. She won her first major title in 1987, beating the Czech-born American Martina Navratilova on the red clay of the French Open. (Though she never won all four major titles in a single calendar year, Navratilova made her own claim to Grand Slam immortality earlier in the ‘80s, winning six consecutive major titles from 1983’s Wimbledon to 1984’s U.S. Open.) The following year, at the age of 19, Graf defeated four very different opponents–Chris Evert in Australia, Natalia Zvereva in France, Navratilova at Wimbledon and Gabriela Sabatini in the U.S. Open—to become the third woman to capture the Grand Slam.

Just weeks after clinching her historic victory in New York, Graf also won the gold medal in the Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea—an unmatched achievement that was dubbed a “Golden Slam.” Graf continued to dominate at Grand Slam tournaments into the late 1990s, racking up a total of 22 major titles over the course of her career. Battling injuries, Graf retired from tennis in 1999; she married fellow tennis legend Andre Agassi in 2001. What Else is at Stake for Serena Steffi Graf won Wimbledon seven times, second only to Navratilova’s nine titles there. Williams now has five Wimbledon singles titles, as does her sister Venus. By winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, Serena would not only capture the Grand Slam, but also match Graf’s record of 22 titles—not to add any extra pressure. With a win at Wimbledon, she would also surpass Navratilova as the oldest woman ever to win a major singles’ title. Navratilova won Wimbledon in 1990 at 33 years and 263 days, just 12 days older than Serena was when she captured the French Open title last month.

A Wimbledon win would also mark the second time Williams has won four consecutive major titles (albeit not in the same calendar year). She last completed the so-called “Serena Slam” in 2002-03 at the age of 21. Tags Ten women tennis players who achieved a career Grand Slam | Zee News Ten women tennis players who achieved a career Grand Slam Last Updated: Sunday, June 10, 2012 - 14:20 0 Follow @ZeeNewsSports Zeenews Sports Bureau New Delhi: After winning Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008, the new World No 1 Maria Sharapova completed her Grand Slam and became only the 10th women in the history to do so. The 25-year-old Russian underwent a shoulder surgery four years back after which she was uncertain about her future, she overcame all the hurdles to achieve the historic feat. Here is a list of all the ten women tennis players who have completed a career Grand Slam.

1) Maureen Connolly Brinker (USA): Fondly known as the Little Mo, Maureen was the first female tennis player to complete a career Grand Slam in the same year. Australian Open: (1953) Wimbledon: (1952, 1953, 1954) US Open: (1951, 1952, 1953) 2) Doris Hart (USA): During her childhood, the American suffered from osteomyelitis, which resulted in a permanently impaired right leg. In spite of that, she has won 14 singles titles at major tournaments.

Australian Open: (1950) French Open: (1948, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953) Wimbledon: (1947, 1951, 1952, 1953) US Open: (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954) 3) Shirley Fry Irvin (USA): Just like Maria Sharapova, the American has also won just four grand slams at the major tournaments. Australian Open: (1957) Wimbledon: (1956) US Open: (1956) 4) Margaret Court (Australia): She has the record of winning the Australian Open for seven consecutive times.

Australian Open: (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973) French Open: (1962, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1973) Wimbledon: (1963, 1965, 1970) US Open: (1962, 1965, 1969, 1970, 1973) 5) Billie Jean King (USA): She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women`s doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.

Australian Open: (1968) Wimbledon: (1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1975) US Open: (1967, 1971, 1972, 1974) 6) Chris Evert (USA): The former World No. 1 won 18 Grand Slam singles championships, including a record seven championships at the French Open and a record six championships at the U.S. Open.

Australian Open: (1982, 1984) French Open: (1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986) Wimbledon: (1974, 1976, 1981) US Open: (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982) 7) Martina Navratilova (Czech): Along with Margaret Court and Doris Hart, the 56-year-old has a unique record of winning a career Grand Slam in singles, women`s doubles, and mixed doubles (called the Grand Slam "boxed set"). She has also won the women’s singles title at the Wimbledon for a record nine times.

Australian Open: (1981, 1983, 1985) French Open: (1982, 1984) Wimbledon: (1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990) US Open: (1983, 1984, 1986, 1987) 8) Steffi Graf (Germany): The German is the only singles player to have achieved a Calendar Year Grand Slam while playing on all three major types of tennis courts (grass courts, clay courts and hard courts).

Australian Open (1988, 1989, 1990, 1994) French Open: (1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999) Wimbledon: (1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996) US Open: (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996) 9) Serena Williams (USA): The former World No 1 who dominated women tennis for quite some time with her powerful strokes is the recent women tennis player to hold a career slam simultaneously.

Australian Open: (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010) French Open: (2002) Wimbledon: (2002, 2003, 2009, 2010) US Open: (1999, 2002, 2008) 10) Maria Sharapova (Russia): The Women`s Tennis Association has ranked Sharapova World No. 1 in singles on five separate occasions, the first time being on August 22, 2005. The Russian has been has been in seven Grand Slam finals with a record of 4–3.

Australian Open: (2008) Tennis – popular and international 1900s–1950s | australia.gov.au Tennis – popular and international 1900s–1950s Tennis – popular and international 1900s–1950s Women's tennis, advertisement for Barnet Glass tennis balls, 1924 in Australasian Lawn Tennis Tennis became popular as a social game from its arrival in Australia in the late 1870s, and courts sprang up everywhere in community and private grounds. It was a game that was taken up enthusiastically by both men and women, both for fun and as an elite sport. Since 1900, Australian men and women tennis players have been ranked as some of the world's best. Australia's first international champion was Norm Brookes who was the first Australian to win the Wimbledon Singles titles in 1907. In the same year Brookes was the first outsider to break the dominance of the UK and USA with his win in the Doubles of the Davis Cup, the international men's championship.

Australia then hosted international championship events in 1908 and Brookes went on to dominate tennis administration in Australia for the next 50 years. Across the four major Open titles, known as Grand Slam tournaments – the Australian, French and United States Open and Wimbledon, UK – there have been five Australian Grand Slam winners. The first Grand Slam winners were Ken McGregor, and Frank Sedgman for the Doubles in 1951. Rod Laver who won it twice, in 1962 and 1969, is arguably the greatest tennis player in the world. Margaret Court also won all four tournaments in one year when she completed the Grand Slam in 1970, one of only three women in the world to achieve this. Norman Brookes, Wimbledon Singles Champion 1907 From its early days, tennis was highly popular with women in Australia although there was no financial support for them to travel to overseas tournaments. Never-the-less, with fund raising, Daphne Akhurst made the finals of Wimbledon in 1928. In 1938, Nancy Bolton became the first Australian woman to play in a US Championship final when she was 22.

Lesley Bowrey was the first Australian women to win two French Open singles titles in 1963 and 1964, and the Mixed Doubles at Wimbledon in 1961 and 1967. From the 1920s onwards, there was such an increased demand for tennis racquets, balls and equipment that an Australian industry began exporting to both the UK and USA in the 1930s. The images of well-known players were featured on Australian made racquets which made their way into overseas markets. This arrangement of sporting companies endorsing players helped support the amateur status of Australian players competing in the Davis Cup and Grand Slam tournaments until 1969. Australian players dominated the world amateur tournaments until the 1960s. In 1969 a wider group of players could compete when the Grand Slam tournaments agreed to permit professionals and amateur players. However, even after Australia's domination of world tennis was broken in the 1960s, tennis remained popular as a sport for both participants and spectators. Australian tennis crowds hold their own world records for watching single live tennis games.

‘Real’ or lawn tennis, lawn with new rubber balls Rippon Lea, Melbourne tennis court built in 1880s The first recorded tennis tournament played in Australia was held in January 1880 on the courts of the Melbourne Cricket Club. In Australia, tennis competitions were originally called 'lawn tennis' and the courts were surfaced with grass. Prior to this indoor or ‘real’ tennis was played indoors and used balls made from leather stuffed with cotton. Real tennis courts still operate in Melbourne, Ballarat and Tasmania. Bouncy rubber balls developed following the vulcanisation of rubber by Charles Goodyear in the USA in the 1830s and further inventions in the UK in the 1850s and 1860s. In 1874 cloth surfaces were applied to the rubber ball. In 1902, Slazenger became the ball of preference at Wimbledon. Both uncovered and covered balls were used according to different surfaces. On asphalt uncovered balls were used, while covered balls were best on grass.

In Burnie, Tasmania a Victorian club team from Grace Park in 1901 played on wooden courts with uncovered balls Development of Tennis Balls & Unusual Ball Cleaners, December 2008, Tennis History) An outdoor version of tennis was possible with the invention of the rotary lawn cutter, which enabled finely cut grass courts to be prepared and line marked. In the 1870s lightweight human-pushed mowers were a commercial success and in the 1880s a wheel-driven rotary blade was used. Historic Melbourne mansion Rippon Lea grass court has been a feature on the property since the mid-1880s. Thus, the Australasian Lawn Tennis Association was named. In 1905, the year in which the Australian Open was commenced, the tournament was contested on grass. The trend continued to remain in vogue till 1987. Ant bed courts However throughout the 1900s, sand, clay and concrete surfaces became more common. Clay courts were and remain popular in Europe.

In varying areas of Australia, clay courts are known by differing names; for example, in Queensland and New South Wales many are known as loam/granite or ant bed courts, whilst in Victoria the courts predominantly are en tout cas (French for ‘in any case’ or ‘in any weather’). 12 clay courts at George Alder Tennis Centre. Courtesy of Clay Courts Australia The Australian raw clay court is made from Australian natural materials ant bed, loam and crushed granite on an ash bed. Most of the courts in Australia until the 1960s were ant bed courts. Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Pat Rafter and many other champions trained on them. Today, there are a few remaining ant bed courts including Wauchope, Northern Territory. The rammed ant bed tennis court at Wauchope was constructed by the proprietor, Bob. He took a ute out bush to collect some anthills. He transported them back to Wauchope, dropped them off the back of the ute to allow them to break (at the site of proposed tennis court), hit them with a hammer and then drove over them.

After watering them to allow them to set like cement, the ute was driven over them again to flatten them. The entire process was very labour intensive Trish Morrow, Rammed Antbed Basketball and Tennis Courts - Construction and Maintenance, Centre for Appropriate Technology, c. 2002. It was only in 1988 that the championship came to be held on hard courts. Each of the four Grand Slam events is contested on a different surface, which challenges professional players to broaden their skill base. Today, rather than specialising in one surface, tennis players play on rebound ace at the Australian Open, clay at the French Open, grass at Wimbledon, and hard court at the US Open, an American green clay court. Community clubs – anyone for tennis? Ron, Neville, June, Beth, Maureen, Aub (Father), Betty (Mother), Peter and Alan Smith at Tathra Tennis Club, c.1953. Courtesy of Tathra Tennis Club and Australian Tennis History. From the arrival of tennis in the late 1870s, tennis became a popular social game and courts sprang up everywhere: at bowls clubs, churches, and stand-alone tennis clubs as well as in private gardens.

Many tennis clubs and associations were formed across Australia including: the Royal South Lawn Tennis Club in 1884; the Western Australian Lawn Tennis Association established in the 1890s; Hawthorn Tennis Club in 1905; Warrandyte, Victoria in 1907; Western Suburbs Lawn Tennis Association in 1912; the Ainslie Tennis Club in Canberra in 1928; as well as groupings like the NSW Country Tennis, and Southern Districts Tennis Association. The Tathra Tennis Club began in 1933 with three clay tennis courts between the Tathra Beach Bowling Club's bowling greens and the roadway. Matches were also played elsewhere in church yards, Tathra Primary School, in private backyards and farms. In addition to their weekly Saturday competitions and the Tathra Beach October Tournament there were weekly ladies social matches. Some members have seen 60 years of continuous play. South Australia Seniors tennis had over 500 members in 2013. Tennis fashion – a fashionable freedom Australian design tennis fashions shown at David Jones, 1947.

Still courtesy of David Jones The lack of a specified uniform in tennis has given players a fashionable freedom. In the 1800s, players generally wore white clothing as it reflected the heat. Men would wear long trousers and a shirt which was long sleeved but could be rolled up to the elbow, and a hat or cricket cap would accompany the outfit. Women wore an everyday dress (ankle length) complete with petticoat, stockings, a corset, and a wide-brimmed hat. Eventually fashions began to change and men wore short sleeved shirts and shorts, with women wearing lighter cotton dresses without the stockings and corset. These changes however were not always met with encouragement. At Wimbledon in 1905, the US player May Sutton swapped the popular tight sleeved blouses for her father's button-up shirt and shocked the crowd when she rolled her sleeves up. Sutton went on to win the women's Singles. During the 1920s, the French champion Suzanne Lenglen shortened her skirt to mid-calf and wore a head band instead of a hat.

In the 1930s all conventions were broken when Alice Marble from the USA wore shorts in 1932, a fashion followed by Nancy Wynne Bolton, who played in shorts from the 1930s to the 1950s. Ted Tinling who designed for Margaret Court through the 50s, 60s and 70s, took inspiration from Dior's New Look from the 1940s for his ‘waffle-piqued flare dresses’. Tinling also designed for Evonne Goolagong Cawley who wore white sleeveless shirt dresses that reflected the mod and pop art trends of the 1960s. (Annette Lin, Tennis style throughout the ages, Vogue Australia, 30 January, 2012) Australian tennis racquet manufacture – exporting and endorsing The first racquets were made of a wooden frame with animal gut strings. Wire strings were then introduced and lead to the dominance of wooden racquets for almost 100 years. Alexander racquet advertisement with Jack Crawford, 1933.

Courtesy of Australian Tennis History Up to the mid 1920s most tennis racquets in Australia were imported from England and the USA, but tennis' popularity reached levels which justified local production of racquets and balls. The first Australian made products started to appear in the 1920s. In the 1930s, the Australian tennis racquet industry was exporting to both the UK and USA, who were complaining about the inroads Australian makers were having on sales. In the 1930s and 40s racquets featured the images of Australian players such as James O. Anderson, Dinny Pails and Nancye Bolton. Many players endorsed and were endorsed by sporting goods companies. Jack Crawford won Wimbledon with an Alexander racquet in 1933 and this was their best year. Other brands like Slazenger, Dunlop and Spalding advertised their tennis racquets and their support for the Davis Cup team, Frank Sedgman endorsed Oliver Sports Goods, Ken Rosewall was pictured with Hardie Ace tennis shoes, and Barnett Glass tennis balls were advertised as appealing to women players.

This endorsement of tennis players from racquet companies continued into the 1950s with Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Rod Laver. and John Newcombe featuring on Australian made racquets. (Australian Tennis Advertisements, Australian Tennis History) It wasn't just star power that sold racquets, it was also inventiveness. The Empire Racquet company in Sydney created an adjustable balance system inside the racquet handle which featured a wind up device. At around the same time Harry Webeck invented a mercury tube system inside the racquet which permitted the weight of the racquet to change during the motion of a shot. Australian Tennis Racquet Manufacture, Australian Tennis History Tony Wilding (NZ) and Norman Brookes (AUS), the winning Australasian doubles team in the Davis Cup 1907 The Davis Cup, 1907–09, 1911, 1914, and 1919 wins In 1900, US player Dwight Davis donated a trophy and gave his name to a tennis challenge, the Davis Cup, first contested between countries in 1899.

In 1904, Australia and New Zealand, as the Australasian Lawn Tennis Association, agreed that an Australasian team could compete for the Davis Cup with players Norman Brookes and Alf Dunlop (AUS) and Tony Wilding (NZ). Whilst they were defeated in the final round by USA in 1904, the Australasian team of Wilding and Brookes won the doubles title with Brookes winning the Wimbledon singles in 1907. From 1905 until 1919 Australia competed as an Australasian team and during this time, six Davis Cup titles were claimed: 1907; 1908; 1909; 1911; 1914; and 1919. While Australia's next title did not arrive until 1939, when it defeated the USA 3-2, it signalled the start of an incredible era of success. From 1950 to 1967, Harry Hopman guided Australia to 15 of 18 titles – the most dominant era of any country in Davis Cup history.

Women champions, 1920s 1925 Australian Ladies Team Tour: Miss Akhurst, Mrs Harper, Miss St George and Miss Boyd Initially tennis was played more by women than men. The 1920s saw the growth in interest in women's tennis largely due to Suzanne Lenglen, a French tennis player who won 31 Championship titles between 1914 and 1926. In 1925, a team of Australian women, Daphne Akhurst, Mrs Harper, Miss St George and Miss Boyd, left for the UK with approval but no financial support from the ALTA. A fundraising committee was formed in NSW and eventually they had enough funds to send three players to join a fourth who was already in Europe on a private tour. They succeeded against Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Holland but could not match the experience of England and the United States of America. The Australian Team played the dominant English team in June 1925. ‘Following the first day, a large crowd attended the doubles round and over both days Mrs Harper was praised, ahead of the English players as showing the best form’.

Akhurst, rated as an outsider, reached the quarter-finals of the ladies' singles at the All England Lawn Tennis Club championships at Wimbledon. (Women's Team Events 1920s–1930s, December 2011) Another Australian women's team was sent overseas in 1928; this time they won all 13 matches. At Wimbledon, Akhurst outdid her previous success and reached the singles and doubles semi-finals and, partnered by Crawford, the mixed doubles final. She performed better than any of the Australian men and was ranked by Ayres' Almanac third in the world. Kerry Regan, Akhurst, Daphne Jessie (1903–1933), Australian Dictionary of Biography) Daphne Akhurst, Champion 1924-31 Daphne Akhurst, champion 1924–31 Daphne Akhurst (1903–1933) was part of the first women's team to travel overseas. Akhurst's consistency in match play was no doubt developed in practice with local players Norman Peach, Jack Crawford and J.O. Anderson at her home club.

She was the Australian Singles champion from 1925 until 1930, excluding 1927, and the Doubles champion from 1924 to 1931, excluding 1926–7, and the Mixed doubles champion in 1924, 1925, 1928, and 1929. Akhurst's achievement was five Australian singles and doubles titles and the mixed four times, and she was unsurpassed until 1951. Tragically, Akhust died from medical complications resulting from a pregnancy at the age of 30. The winner of the Australian Open women's singles final is presented with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. Nancy Wynne Bolton, champion 1937–51 Nancye Wynne Bolton, Champion from 1937-51 In 1938, Nancy Wynne Bolton, from Melbourne, became the first Australian woman to play in a US Open final when she was 22.

Despite her career being disrupted by the Second World War, Bolton was regarded as one of the greatest Australian women ever to play tennis, and played from the 1930s to the 1950s. Bolton won 20 Australian titles and was Australian Singles Champion six times between 1937 and 1951, and Doubles Champion 10 times between 1936 and 1952. Bolton attained her career-high ranking of No.4 in 1947 and stayed in that position until 1949. Bolton was renowned for her powerful forehand, the assertiveness of her playing style and overall solid groundstrokes. Thelma Long, champion 1936–58 Thelma Long was Nancy Bolton's doubles partner, holding the record for winning the most Australian doubles titles – ten (10), and she won another two Doubles, a total of twelve championships from 1936 to 1958. Long was Australian Singles Champion in 1952 and 1954 and won the Mixed Doubles in France in 1956.

In 1960, Long became a coach and was mentor to many junior players in her home state of New South Wales. The Federation Cup for women: mooted 1930s, inaugurated 1963 The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is called the Federation Cup. Unfortunately, women's tennis in Australia fared quite badly in terms of promotion and competition from 1930–1960 compared to men's tennis. The idea of an international women's tennis completion was first mooted in the late 1930s by Nell Hopman in discussion with the supporters of the Wightman Cup, played between the USA and the UK annually. Margaret Court in full flight, 1964 One of the key turning points in Australian woman's tennis was the 1952–53 tour involving the 8 year old Wimbledon Champion, Maureen Connolly. Such was the interest that crowds flocked to see her play and the media actively promoted her to national prominence. This was the first time tennis administrators had witnessed massive interest in woman's tennis.

A £5000 pound sponsorship from the Australian Wool Corporation enabled an Australian Woman's team to travel the 1961 Tour. During this trip, their manager, Nell Hopman realised that woman's tennis had significantly developed in France, South Africa, Japan and Italy and that administrators were now taking more notice of woman's tennis. Eventually; The Federation Cup, an International Event for Woman's Tennis was inaugurated in 1963 after considerable effort by Nell Hopman, wife of Harry Hopman. Individually Harry and Nell were elite tournament tennis players and even played mixed doubles together winning the Australian Open Mixed in 1930, 1936, 1937 and 1939. The Federation Cup, History Australia was represented at the inaugural Federation Cup event by Darlene Hard, Billie Jean King, Margaret Court and Lesley Turner, Men champions – Tennis Hall of Fame Norman Brookes, champion 1907–1919 Norman Brookes was the first Australian and the first player outside the UK and USA to win Wimbledon, in 1907.

Brookes was nicknamed ‘The Wizard’ for his all-court game, which was a mixture of solid ground strokes backed up by a well-varied serve. Brookes won his first Singles title in Australia in 1911 and three years later, returned to Wimbledon to capture the Singles and Doubles titles. Brookes won another Doubles title with the US Open in 1919. Davis Cup challenge first hosted in Melbourne, 1908 When Australasia won the Davis Cup in 1907, it meant that for the first time the challenge round would be played outside of the UK. Norman Brookes also won Wimbledon in 1907 and in honour of such a successful campaign, Melbourne was designated the town to host the Challenge round and in fact was just a few blocks away from his home. New dedicated grass courts were constructed for the 1908 contest … and many players practice on these courts pretournament.

Australian Tennis History, Tennis Heritage Australia Newsletter Jack Crawford, Champion 1929-35 Jack Crawford, champion 1929–35 Jack Crawford was Australia's Men's Singles champion for four consecutive years between 1931 and 1935, as well as winning the French Open and Wimbledon in 1933. A stylish and sporting player, ‘Gentleman Jack’ Crawford came within one set of completing the Grand Slam in 1933, but fell in five sets in the United States final. Apart from singles success, Crawford also captured six doubles titles and five mixed doubles titles. He won three-straight Australian mixed titles with his wife, Marjorie Cox Crawford between 1931 and 1933.

Harry Hopman, champion 1929–39 and Davis Cup captain, 1939–1967 Harry Hopman was a successful doubles and mixed doubles player, who amassed seven majors in a 10-year period, winning the Australian Doubles in 1929 and 1930, and four Australian Mixed Doubles titles between 1930 and 1939, as well as the US Title in 1939. Hopman is best known as Australia's most successful Davis Cup captain of all time. Hopman guided Australian teams to 16 cups between 1939 and 1967. Out of admiration for Harry Hopman, the Hopman Cup has been contested since 1989, and has been an official team competition of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) since 1996. It is staged at the start of each year in Perth as a prelude to the Australian Open in Melbourne.

1950s – Grand Slam doubles and more doubles Ken McGregor, Grand Slam (doubles) 1951 and champion 1951–52 Ken McGregor (1923–2007), from Adelaide, was the winner of eight Open Doubles titles between 1951 and 1952 – winning the Australian, French and Wimbledon titles as well as the US Mixed Doubles, a total of nine Open titles in two years. McGregor completed the Doubles Grand Slam in 1951 with compatriot Frank Sedgman. Between 1950 and 1952 McGregor made the final of the Australian Championships, winning it once in 1952 when he beat his doubles partner, Sedgman. McGregor and Sedgman won seven consecutive majors together from 1951 to 1952 – a feat that has never been equalled. McGregor's highest singles ranking was No. 3, which he achieved in 1952. McGregor retired from tennis at the age of 25 and returned to his other sporting passion in football.

Frank Sedgman, Wimbledon win, 1951 Frank Sedgman, Grand Slam (doubles) 1951 and champion 1951–52 At aged 14 years, Frank Sedgman rang Harry Hopman to explain, quite brazenly, that he could beat most of the kids in Harry's current clinic and wanted to join his coaching squad. Harry permitted Frank to join and so began a long training relationship. Sedgman dominated tennis from 1949 to 1953, amassing 22 major Grand Slam titles. Out of the 24 major trophies on offer in 1951 and 1952, Sedgman won 16 of them, including a doubles Grand Slam in 1951 with countryman Ken McGregor. Quick around the court, Sedgman was known for his impeccable net play. Lew Hoad, champion 1953–57 Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall with the 1953 Davis Cup at Kooyong, Melbourne Lew Hoad (1934–94) was born in Glebe, Sydney.

The son of a tramway man, he was introduced to Adrian Quist, a former champion, when Hoad was 12 years old. He often played with Ken Rosewall in his youth and worked for Dunlop sports goods company where Quist was general manager. He is often remembered for his match as a 19 year old amateur in the 1953 Davis Cup against the great United States champion Tony Trabert. In a titanic struggle, Hoad defeated Trabert by a score of 13–11, 6–3, 3–6, 2–6, 7–5 to help his country retain the Cup. Wikipedia, Lew Hoad Hoad reached the ranking of World Number 1 after winning the Australian, French and Wimbledon Singles champion titles in 1956, coming close to completing the Grand Slam. Hoad was defeated for the Grand Slam title in the United States final by countryman Ken Rosewall. He had one last crack at the Grand Slam in 1957 (winning only Wimbledon) before he turned professional. Hoad also had success in Doubles with nine Open Titles across all four major titles.

Hoad was a tennis icon in the 1950s. Ashley Cooper, champion 1957–58 Ashley Cooper, Champion 1957-58 Ashley Cooper from Melbourne won back-to-back Australian titles in 1957 and 1958 in Singles and Doubles, and featured in Australia's Davis Cup team in both years. In 1957 the Australian doubles pair of Cooper and Anderson, triumphed over the United States 3-2. Cooper was an attacking player with smooth ground strokes and poise at the net. In 1958 he came close to completing the Grand Slam, but fell in the semifinals at the French Open. He is one of only nine men to win three majors in a season. Cooper turned professional in 1959. Malcolm Anderson, champion 1957–58 In 1957, Malcolm Anderson, born near Rockhampton, Queensland, was the first unseeded player to win the US National Singles Championship. In the same year he made the final of the Australian Championships, but lost to Ashley Cooper.

In 1957, Anderson won the Doubles title at the French National Championships with Ashley Cooper. In 1958 he made the finals of the US National Singles Championship and the Australian Championships, but lost both to Cooper. Australia's tennis post-war–1950s – a series of seamless wins? The story of Australian tennis from the 1880s, and its champions from 1900s, to the 1950s, is a story of interactive engagement with both international tournaments and also a broad based community engagement. It was this community engagement which supported an industry able to support the amateur status of its players – the men at least. Australia was quite unique in having its champion players coming from a broad spectrum of the community. Winning Australian Davis Cup team 1934: Jack Crawford, Adrian Quist and Vivian McGrath After titles at the amateur grand slam tournaments and then, sometimes playing as professionals on the international circuit, Australian champions set up their own clinics and schools. Tennis coaches worked with tennis clubs and associations to promote participation in tennis and to support the development of junior players.

In the 1940s, women's tennis came into its own when Nancy Wynne Bolton and Thelma Long won a string of Grand Slam titles. At the same time, the champions were supported by a network of women tennis players and tennis club and association office-bearers who had stepped into the role whilst many of the men were at war. From 1951 until 1959, there was a string of Grand Slam titles by the men players: Frank Sedgmanm, Lew Hoad and Ashley Cooper, and Malcolm Anderson. When Sedgman wanted to turn professional in 1952, Harry Hopman, led a fund-raising drive via his newspaper column in the Melbourne Herald to keep Sedgman an amateur for another year. Hoad and Cooper ranked as the World's Number 1 players in 1956 and 1957 respectively. Whilst Hoad lived overseas, Cooper served as a tennis player development administrator with Tennis Queensland, where he was based for 50 years. Anderson continued to play and appeared at another Grand Slam tournament at age 36, when he was a finalist at the Australian Open, losing to Ken Rosewall.

In 1973, he captured the Australian Open doubles title along with John Newcombe. Since 1905, the Australian Open has been held in five Australian and two New Zealand cities. The tournament has mostly been staged in Melbourne and also in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, as well as Christchurch and Hastings in New Zealand. 1911 Davis Cup with Australasia playing USA at Hagley Park, Christchurch, New Zealand on 1–3 January 1912 Since 1908, when Australians flocked to Albert Reserve in Melbourne to see the first David Cup challenge in Australia, Australians have continued to be keen tennis spectators. In the 1950s, the game seemed to hit its peak as a community based sport supporting a handful of Grand Slam winners every year of the decade. The world record crowd for a live single tennis game is the 25,578 people who watched Australia play the USA in the Davis Cup challenge round in Sydney in December 1954.

This series of apparently seamless amateur titles wins in the 1940s and 1950s, made possible by extensive community and industry support, and investment in development and administration, set the stage for ‘the golden age of tennis’ for Australian players in the 1960s. Useful links Forget Calendar Slam, 'Surface Slam' Almost as Rare | Bleacher Report Forget Calendar Slam, 'Surface Slam' Almost as Rare Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Steffi Graf is the only winner of the Calendar since a third surface was introduced at the Slams. 9.1K Comments The holy grail of professional tennis is, without question, the calendar Grand Slam. In this sport, a calendar Grand Slam is achieved when a player wins four consecutive Grand Slam events in the same calendar year. Although they have, at times, gone by different names, these four tournaments are now best known as the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Winning even one of these tournaments in a year is a coveted achievement, but winning all four in a row instantly transforms a player into a living legend.

In the history of tennis, only five players have won the calendar Grand Slam. On the men's side of the game, there are two who can claim this achievement: Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962 and 1969). For the women, there are three players who have achieved this great milestone: Maureen Connolly Brinker (1953), Margaret Court (1970) and Steffi Graf (1988). The fact that only five players have achieved this feat in a set of tournaments originating over 100 years ago speaks volumes to the degree of difficulty involved. When looking at the modern era of the sport, the list of calendar Grand Slam champions becomes even more exclusive. Tennis has several clear demarcations in its history, attributable to differences in the nature of the professional tour and eligibility/surface aspects of the tournaments we now refer to as Grand Slams. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Rafael Nadal is the only male player to win a Slam on three different surfaces in the same year. Notably, prior to 1968 only amateurs could enter the Grand Slam tournaments.

This was changed in 1968, after which both professionals and amateurs could compete for the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. While this was an important change, there were still several important aspects of even this so-called "Open Era" that differ from today's modern era. Most importantly, from the start of the Open Era through 1977, there were still only two unique surfaces on which the four Grand Slams were contested: grass and clay. Of the four, the only tournament not using grass at the start of the Open Era was the French Open. The introduction of a third unique playing surface didn't occur in Grand Slam tennis until 1978, when the US Open changed to hard court. It wasn't until 1988 that the Australian Open surface also changed from grass to hard court (albeit a slightly different type than the US Open). It could be said that 1978 might be the best designation for the start of the modern era in tennis, because having at least three fundamentally different Grand Slam surfaces most closely resembles today's game. These nuances, when applied to the calendar Grand Slam winners, create some interesting revelations.

Using the surface change at the US Open as the cutoff, there has only been one winner of the calendar Grand Slam in the modern era: Steffi Graf. Ultimately, that makes one female winner and zero male winners of the calendar Grand Slam over that time. Given that the original number was five, and included both sexes, the introduction of a third unique surface to Grand Slam tennis is arguably a critical development in the sport's history. How many years will it be until the next Calendar Slam is completed? 5 8.5% Total votes: 446 The remote chance of winning the calendar Grand Slam during this new era is put in starker perspective when one considers that even winning three consecutive Slams has been extremely rare. In the modern era, there have been three women and one man to win three consecutive Grand Slam events in a single calendar year. These players include Martina Navratilova (1984), Steffi Graf (1993, 1995, 1996), Serena Williams (2002) and Rafael Nadal (2010). Interestingly, in each of those instances the player did so by winning the three consecutive Slams on three different surfaces.

And since 1988, because of the configuration of the tournaments and their surfaces, winning three straight Slams in a calendar year must be done on three different surfaces. Best described as the "Surface Slam," the notion of adapting and mastering grass, clay and hard courts in the same calendar year is mind boggling. To think only a single male player has achieved this result in the entire history of tennis is a tribute to the difficulty involved. The difficulty factor of the mark is further supported by other facts in tennis history. From 1978-87, a player could win three Slams on three different surfaces through two different combinations: in non-consecutive order (Australian, grass; French, clay; US Open, hard court) and in consecutive order (French, clay; Wimbledon, grass; US Open, hard court). This was due to the fact that the Australian and Wimbledon were both played on grass for those years. However, not one player did so non-consecutively during this period. Suggesting that even with the help of a longer preparation period, players during this window still could not adapt and find a way to complete the trifecta in this manner.

Steve Powell/Getty Images Martina Navratilova was the first player to win the 'Surface Slam.' The sole player to achieve the mark between 1978-87, Martina Navratilova, did it the hard way - winning the last three Slams of the '84 season in a row. Even expanding the criteria doesn't increase the number of players that have been able to conquer three different surfaces in immediate succession. If you include consecutive tournaments falling across two calendar years from 1978-87 there is still not a single instance of a player winning on all three surfaces consecutively. Since 1988, the Surface Slam can only be achieved by consecutive combinations: by starting with the Australian Open and ending with Wimbledon, or by starting with the French Open and ending with the US Open. Notably, each of the three players to achieve this since that time (Graf, Williams and Nadal) ran the same gauntlet as Navratilova, winning the last three Slams of the calendar year. The fact that both hard court tournaments now bookend the Slam season also makes it impossible for a player to win on three consecutive surfaces over adjacent calendar years, making that analysis moot.

The result is that five individuals have won the Calendar Grand Slam, while four have won the Surface Slam. Curiously, however, there have been six instances of each accomplishment. Making the Surface Slam nearly as rare as the Calendar Slam, albeit in a somewhat shorter period of time. What can be gleaned from this analysis is that winning the Surface Slam in today's game is an extremely tall order. And tacking on a fourth Slam during the same calendar year must be considered a near heroic effort. The great Rod Laver, the only person to win two calendar Slams, seems to support this theory, telling Greg Garber at ESPN.com : "Look at the depth, the talent and the surfaces. In the 60s, they were playing three of the majors on grass and one on clay. It wasn't as tough for me." Going forward, The Australian Open and the French Open should therefore have an added gravity for players and fans alike. Winning the title at the former and/or latter punches a bonus ticket. That ticket allows for the ability to compete for a special place in history, with possible admission into an ultra-exclusive club hanging in the balance.

It's clear that when another player does win two consecutive Slams toward the front-end of the calendar year, it would be highly advisable to monitor the next stage of their progress with meticulous care. You never know when you might see it again. Tennis Grand Slam and Serena Williams: Calendar Grand Slam winners | SI.com Serena Williams can join elite group of only five calendar Grand Slam winners Share Jamie Lisanti Thursday July 23rd, 2015 The start of the 2015 U.S. Open is more than a month away but the stakes are already set: World No. 1 Serena Williams will look to win her fourth consecutive major title of the year and 22nd major title of her career, tying Steffi Graf’s record. Most notably, if Serena captures the title in New York she would also complete the calendar year Grand Slam—winning all four of the major tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open) in one calendar year—and join an elite group of only five singles players who have accomplished the feat. Here’s a look at the men and women that have made history and completed the calendar year Grand Slam, featuring exclusive clips from stories in the SI Vault.

Don Budge Hulton Archive/Getty Images In 1938, Don Budge was the first to complete the Grand Slam, an accomplishment thought to be unattainable at the time. He turned pro after winning the Grand Slam and beat esteemed players Ellsworth Vines and Fred Perry. He also played for the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1935–38, winning 25 of 29 matches, but gained the most fame for one particular match. In Budge’s obituary in the Feb. 7, 2000 issue of Sports Illustrated, Frank Deford wrote of the storied moment in tennis: "In 1937, just before he and Gottfried von Cramm stepped onto the court in the Davis Cup semifinal at Wimbledon (the tie was held at a neutral site), Hitler telephoned Cramm. 'Ja, mein Fuhrer,' Cramm said repeatedly into the phone. His victory would most likely have handed the Cup to Nazi Germany and kept it there throughout the war, possibly to be lost forever.

But with the magnificent match in Cramm's grasp, 4–1 in the fifth set, Budge changed tactics, started taking the ball on the rise and won 6-8, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 8-6. “Budge would have turned pro after that year, but he dreamed up the concept of winning the championships of the four nations that had won the Davis Cup—Australia, England, France and the U.S. Thus did Budge create the Grand Slam. And he positively breezed. I asked him once to describe the highlights. ‘You know, not a whole lot happened that year,’ he said. Budge was just too good. In fact, what he remembered most about his Grand Slam was earning a private concert from the great cellist Pablo Casals after winning the French.” With the termination of the pro tour in 1942, Budge enlisted in the Army Air Force and at the beginning of 1943, he tore a muscle in his right shoulder, which ultimately hurt his playing career. He retired in 1955 with 10 major titles, six of which were Grand Slams.

Maureen Connolly AP Photo Known as “Little Mo,” Maureen Connolly’s success on the tennis court began in 1951 when she won her first U.S. Open title at the age of 16. In 1953, Connolly became the first woman to win a Grand Slam, earning a win over Julie Sampson Haywood at the Australian Open and then Doris Hart in the finals of the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Her career tragically ended a year later when she crashed into a cement-mixing truck while riding on horseback in San Diego. Before retiring in 1955, Connolly won the last nine Grand Slam tournaments she played including 50 consecutive singles matches. In the Aug. 29, 1988 issue of Sports Illustrated, Deford wrote about Connolly and her place in tennis’ most elite group of Grand Slam winners: “Connolly is perhaps the least well known of this select group. But had her career not ended less than a year after she won the Slam, she might well be the standard against which all female players are measured.

[Steffi] Graf so reminds many of Connolly—in her style and dispatch as well as her precocity—that whatever Graf accomplishes will reflect glory upon Connolly. “Little Mo won her first Grand Slam title, the '51 U.S. Nationals, at 16, and was still a teenager when she won her last major, Wimbledon, in '54. All told she won nine Grand Slam tournaments, including six in a row. Connolly could be absolutely merciless with opponents—she gave up only 11 games in the entire Australian championship of '53—forcing herself to despise the poor woman across the net. "This was no passing dislike," Connolly wrote, "but a blazing, virulent, powerful and consuming hate." Rod Laver Popperfoto/Getty Images “Rocket” Rod Laver won his first Grand Slam titles in doubles in his home country of Australia and in mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1959. A year later, he claimed his first singles Grand Slam title in Australia. Those titles were just the beginning of a 13-year pro career that would see him rack up 200 career singles titles, including 11 Grand Slams.

He still holds the all time male singles record of 22 titles in a single season (1962). In the Sept. 7, 1962 issue of Sports Illustrated, Rex Lardner wrote about Laver’s first Grand Slam achievement: “Laver uses his wrist more than any other player in history except Frank Kovacs and he is the first player to combine a whipping wrist action with near-perfect control. Laver can hit a ball fiat, with topspin or with underspin, equally well from both sides. Like a squash player, he adds power to a shot and disguises its direction by putting wrist into his shot at the moment of impact. Few players have his repertory of strokes, and no player has been able to mask his shots better. He has tremendous kick on his serve, and his second serve finds its twisting way so deep in the service court that it often hits the chalk. But perhaps his greatest ability is to make forcing shots of returns that most players would be happy to get back at all. He is cool, too. Last July the jet that was carrying him to matches in Hilversum, in The Netherlands, suddenly dived sharply to avoid colliding with another plane.

Thirteen passengers had to be carried off the plane by stretcher-bearers, while the remainder left considerably shaken by the experience. Laver changed clothes, marched out onto the court and easily defeated his opponent. A Dutch official commented, ‘He nearly gets killed and then he comes out here and plays as if nothing had happened.’ Add to all this the most effective smash in amateur tennis today, the most lethal serve any man under 5 feet 10 has yet uncorked, an uncanny ability to hit finishing volleys from almost anywhere in midcourt (Laver never just puts the ball in play) and the fact that his left-handed shots curve and spin exactly opposite to what his opponents are accustomed to—and Rod Laver becomes a formidable opponent indeed.” After the start of the Open Era in 1968, Laver won the first Wimbledon championship of that year and the following year he became the only player in singles history to win a second Grand Slam—a feat that has yet to be matched by any player today. Margaret Court Ed Lacey/Popperfoto/Getty Images Like Laver, Margaret Court’s career also spanned the pre-Open and Open eras.

Court won her first singles title in Australia in 1960 and her dominance at her home Slam continued for 12 years, as she won a record 11 titles there in her career. In 1970, Court became the first woman of the Open Era to win the Grand Slam. As she attempted to complete the Slam, Gwilym S. Brown wrote about her unrivaled determination and style of play in the Sept. 14, 1970 issue of Sports Illustrated: “Mrs. Court, now 28 years old, is a sweet, simple country lass from New South Wales. Her tennis game, of course, is neither of these things. It is powerful, destructive, relentless and seemingly without a flaw. Definitely not on the sweet side. She is a superbly athletic animal, the physical equal of a great many men, but determination is really Margaret Court's chief trademark.

For almost 10 years—outstanding even among the Hards, the Buenos and the Moffitt-Kings—this passion to excel has made her the dominating figure in women's tennis.” Before retiring in 1977, Court achieved a 1,180-107 overall record and won 24 of 29 opportunities for major titles. Steffi Graf PL Gould/IMAGES/Getty Images The last player to accomplish the Grand Slam, Steffi Graf won her first major title in 1987, defeating Martina Navratilova at the French Open at the age of 17. Just a year later, the German beat Chris Evert at the Australian Open, Natalia Zvereva at the French Open, Navratilova at Wimbledon and Gabriela Sabatini at the U.S. Open to become the third woman to capture the Grand Slam. Just weeks later, Graf became the only player to win the Golden Grand Slam, or titles at all four majors and an Olympic Gold Medal in the same year. Following her win at the U.S. Open, Curry Kirkpatrick wrote about her historic tennis moment in the Sept.

19, 1988 issue of Sports Illustrated: “Perhaps Graf herself—so stern, so relentless, so impassive (just another day at the guillotine), so downright terrific—is to blame. Her emotions seem to run the gamut from A to B: from apathy to boredom. Surely she knew what she was accomplishing. Certainly she realized her place in history. "To achieve this at such an early age would be great," said Graf earlier in the tournament. “But after she had done so, she was asked if this was the greatest day of her life. ‘It's hard to say,’ said Graf. ‘It needs some time. The next couple of days will be good.’ Then she was gone, flying home to Bruhl, West Germany, almost before night had fallen on an achievement that even the normally phlegmatic [Ivan] Lendl called "amazing, unbelievable. I don't care if it was against old ladies or everybody was sick." Graf went on to win a record 22 Slam titles in her career—something that Serena is still chasing today. She retired from tennis in 1999 and two years later married fellow tennis star Andre Agassi.

Tags W Debate: Is winning a calendar-year Grand Slam more magical than winning four events in a row? Jim Caple Cast Your Vote Billie Jean King wouldn't even touch the question. "You guys decide," she said. "The media, the public, you decide how you shape it." Is winning all four majors in a single year more magical than winning four majors in a row spread out over a couple of years, like Serena Williams will be trying to do starting next week at Wimbledon? The answer, of course, is obvious. It's not the calendar year that makes a difference. 'Tis the season. A baseball player doesn't get to be the batting champion if he has the highest average in games from, say, August to the following May. A running back doesn't get credit for a 1,000-yard season if the yards are accumulated over eight games in one season and eight in the next. Sports seasons, like good movies, have beginnings, middles and ends. The dates are arbitrary, but the seasons are designed to provide fans (and players and coaches) with a diversity of emotions: hope and fear, tension and relief, jubilation and sorrow. They start, they build, they reach a climax, they go to the offseason.

As such, there's something magical about an undefeated NCAA football team, a Triple Crown winner in baseball and a conventional Grand Slam in tennis. In the history of tennis, a calendar-year Grand Slam has been achieved in singles six times -- by Don Budge, Maureen Connolly, Rod Laver (twice), Margaret Court and Steffi Graf. Winning four majors in a row has been accomplished nine times -- by Budge, Connolly, Laver (twice), Court, Graf (twice), Martina Navratilova and Williams. Both feats are rare and amazing. And Williams' legend would grow larger still if she hoists the Venus Rosewater Dish at the end of this Wimbledon fortnight. Nobody in tennis has owned all four at once since Serena herself back in 2002-03. But nobody since Graf in 1988 has won all four in the same season. After winning her third straight major at the French, Williams alluded to the additional pressure and the brighter spotlight that going for the calendar-year sweep at the US Open would bring. "It's rare. No one has done it since Steffi.

I'm kind of hoping [Novak] Djokovic will win here so I'm not the only one [who could]. 'We're in this together, brother.' We'll see. I don't want to have people asking me all these questions." Serena didn't get her wish; Djokovic fell in the French Open final. But amazingly, she's not alone. In golf, Jordan Spieth is halfway to the Grand Slam, and the links have been buzzing since Dustin Johnson's three-putt at the U.S. Open. There's magic in the air this 2015 calendar year. Isn't it Grand? After winning this year's Australian Open and French Open, Serena Williams is now halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam. Not that she wants to discuss it. "I'm not going there," she said when asked about the calendar Slam after winning the French. "You guys, you go there. I didn't put that pressure on me. Because I lost every year at Roland Garros after winning the Australian Open. I told you then, I'm not going there. And I'm keeping my word." I get it.

The question, after all, is not whether Serena can win at Wimbledon and the US Open to complete the first calendar Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988. The question is why a calendar Slam is considered any more important than a Serena Slam. That is, winning all four Grand Slam tournaments in a row, as Serena did in 2002-03 and could do again by winning at Wimbledon. Why does it matter whether the four consecutive events happen to fall in the same calendar year instead of simply over a 10-month stretch? After all, NFL, NBA, NHL and many college teams win championships that are spread over two years. We don't consider them any lesser just because a season begins in September of one year and the championship is played in February of the next. Winning is winning! Besides, who really focuses on calendar years? Other than drinking too much on New Year's Eve and feeling hungover on New Year's Day, no one really pays much attention to when an actual year starts or ends -- other than the IRS.

Rather, from childhood through young adulthood and then through parenthood, we generally count years from the first day of class in September to the last day of class in June, which is roughly the same window for this possible Serena Slam. Consider this as well: For years, the Australian Open sometimes was held in December rather than January. So what if the 1969 Australian Open had been held in December of 1968? Would we not consider Rod Laver's a true calendar Grand Slam even though he would have won the exact same tournaments? It's not the last digits in the year of a Slam that matter, it's the accomplishment. And whether it was from January to September or June to January, the accomplishment is the same. Winning four consecutive Grand Slam events is a tremendous, incredibly rare and a meaningful achievement, no matter the year attached. It isn't the dates that are important; it's what happens within those dates. Although Serena still probably does not want to answer questions about it. SportsnationW Debate

Question: Who was the first woman tennis player to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year?
Answer: Maureen Connolly