While tennis is known to almost every sport-following individual across the world, its nitty-gritty may have often confused you and left you wanting more.
But let us assure you, although the sport and its surrounding paraphernalia seem to be extremely technical and challenging, they are, in fact, not so at all.
In this article, we will do our best to explain to you what the most basic concept in this sport, that of the GRAND SLAM, is.
What is a Grand Slam?
A Grand Slam is referred to as an achievement when a player or a pair (in doubles) wins all four major tournaments — the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open — in a calendar year.
Interestingly, the term Grand Slam is also used for the four majors that we mentioned earlier, and it is to that which we will refer to in this article. For example, the Australian Open is called a Grand Slam tournament.
It has to be noted that there are only four Grand Slams held in tennis in a year, and the other tournaments organised by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) or Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) are not considered to be majors, despite them being played by professionals.
Another point of distinction here is that the Grand Slams — the four major tournaments — are overseen by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), whereas the other tournaments across the world are taken care of by the ATP or WTA.
What are the four Grand Slam tournaments/majors?
After getting a basic idea of what a grand slam means, we need to elucidate what they are. As mentioned earlier, the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open constitute the four major tournaments in tennis and are hence referred to as the Grand Slams.
The Australian Open is held in Melbourne at the beginning of the year, usually in January when it is still summer down under. The French Open, or Roland Garros, comes next, being held in the months of May and June in Paris.
Wimbledon is held just a couple of weeks after the completion of the French Open, in the months of June-July in London. The US Open is the final major tennis tournament of the year, held in New York in the months of August-September.
Each tournament is played over two weeks, with the surfaces varying significantly. While the Australian and US Opens are played on a hard court, the French Open is played on clay and Wimbledon on grass courts.
Why are the Grand Slams important?
The Grand Slams are the most important tournaments in a tennis player’s career, as they accord the most number of points, prize money, as well as attention from the media and general public.
Players look forward to participating in these majors throughout the year and work extremely hard to ensure that they are in the best shape for it. Since there are over a million tennis players in the world, participation in these tournaments is usually decided via a ranking (seed) system as well as qualifying rounds.
The players who enjoy success in these Grand Slams are respected and rated very highly by the public and their peers in the tennis fraternity.
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