Roger Federer, pictured here after the Australian Open final, is clearly not, but Rafael Nadal, talking with the last man to complete a Grand Slam, Rod Laver, is poised to win all four majors this year.  Nadal has already won in Melbourne, is a heavy favorite to win the French, proved last year that he can win Wimbledon, and showed by winning the Australian Open and Indian Wells this year that he can win on hardcourts, the New York surface where the Grand Slam season ends in September.

Only one man other than Laver has won the true Grand Slam, meaning the four majors in order, and that was American Don Budge in 1938. (Three other players hold “career slams,” meaning they have won all four but not in order — Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, and Andre Agassi.)  The term Grand Slam originated, according to Bud Collins’ indispensable and encyclopedic History of Tennis, in 1933 when Australian Jack Crawford won the first three legs and sought the U.S. championship.  Collins wrote: “The prospect of his winning that one, too, intrigued a New York Times columnist, John Kieran. If he did, wrote Kieran, it would be something like a ’grand slam’ in bridge.” Crawford lost in a grueling five-setter in the final to Perry, including a second set by the pre-tiebreaker days score of 11-13, but the Grand Slam was born.

 Laver in his 1973 memoir The Education of a Tennis Player (the prose of which bears the hyperbolic stamp of Collins, his collaborator) wrote: “I like to think the tennis Slam is the hardest of all because you have to get your game up to the top level four times over an eight-month stretch, and of course your’e playing other tournaments in between, too. Much travel and changing conditions are involved. In 1969, I started in the tropical summer heat of Brisbane and wound up in the autumn rain of New York.”

And those varying conditions are even more varied now.  When Laver won his Grand Slams — as an amateur in 1962 and in the Open professional era of 1969 — only the French was not played on grass. Today, there are two on hard courts, the fast courts of Flushing Meadows and the slower blue hard courts of Melbourne, as well as the red clay of Paris and the grass of Wimbledon.  The modern Grand Slam is as difficult as it has ever been. 

Nadal has a long way to go, with the two most difficult for him coming last, but if he pulls it off, he’ll have to rank atop the list in the perpetual argument of who is tennis GOAT — the greatest of all time.

Sorry, Roger.

Related posts:

1. Isner IS America’s Next Best Chance to Win a Grand Slam This year thus far has been the breakout year for...
2. Rod Laver Biography Back in Print from New Chapter Press I wrote in May before the French Open that the...
3. Gambling and Pro Tennis — The Human Dog Track of the Future I doubt most readers of this blog have been to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

While the Williams sisters are notable as same-sex siblings to each win Grand Slams (as well as together in doubles), I can find no evidence that there has ever been a brother-sister pair to each hold one of the major four championships, and Tennis Magazine’s Peter Bodo told me in an e-mail there hasn’t been one to the best of his knowledge. (If you know of one, please e-mail or add a comment .)

Marat, 28, and Dinara, 22, have never played mixed doubles together, according to an article about siblings on the Australian Open site. You’ve got to think a pairing of the feisty-but-lovable brother and sister would be fun to watch, and a great addition for the upcoming World Team Tennis league.

Related posts:

1. American Siblings Dominate Doubles Lost in much of the coverage of Federer the Great and...
2. Isner IS America’s Next Best Chance to Win a Grand Slam This year thus far has been the breakout year for...
3. Patrick McEnroe’s Hardcourt Confidential: Pat Mac’s Inside Look at Davis Cup, American Tennis and the Grand Slams After Andy Roddick’s heartbreaking loss last year to Roger Federer...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.